Review: Yes Please by Amy Poehler

the lowdown

Yes Please is a scattered collection of essays and Amy Poehler's musings on life. Divided into three sections: Say Whatever You Want, Do Whatever You Like, and Be Whoever You Are, which each have their own chapters, it wanders throughout her life without any particular order. She focuses a lot about her upbringing in Burlington, Massachusetts, and her experiences before SNL rocketed her to fame. Sprinkled in there are a few tidbits about SNL, which she confesses would be difficult to sum up into a single story. This book isn't all sunshine and roses, though. Like many comedians, Poehler has faced some tough times in her life, particularly her divorce from husband Will Arnett, which she also touches upon.

I waited for forever to get my hands on this book, y'all, and I was so excited to read it. I've read Bossypants and Is Everyone Else Hanging Out Without Me? by Tina Fey and Mindy Kaling respectively, and loved them (hopefully I'll get a chance to reread them and review them for you guys!). I had equally high, if not higher, expectations for this book, and ultimately don't feel disappointed. Basically, once every couple of months I get an itch to read a funny and smart book written by a funny and smart woman about her life, and this scratched that itch. 

the good 

• You're pretty much just hanging out with Amy Poehler for a few hundred pages, and that can't be a bad thing. I could hear her voice in my head as I was reading it, and it felt like a conversation with her. (Side note: I've heard that the audiobook version of this is fabulous) 
• Reading about Amy's path through improv to SNL and beyond was really interesting. If you haven't dreamed about dropping everything and moving to New York (in her case, Chicago first) and trying your hand at comedy/acting/modeling/acrobatics, you're lying to yourself. Hearing how it actually happened, and in a realistic way, was really cool. 
• Parks. And. Rec. There are a couple of sections about the show and I just finished watching it all so it hit me right in the feels. Man. What a great show. And reading about it and her relationship with all the cast members was just fantastic. It made me feel like I really knew everyone who worked on the show and that is phenomenal in and of itself. I would read an entire book about that show. If you're a Parks and Rec fan, this should probably be on your to-read list because of these sections. And also because I'm assuming you probably at least tolerate Amy Poehler enough to be interested in her life. 
• She's candid. She writes that she doesn't want to talk about her divorce because it was a sad time in her life and she doesn't like people knowing her shit, and while that's true, she does speak pretty candidly throughout the book about the emotions associated with that time in her life. She makes you feel for her, and that's a pretty powerful thing. She also writes quite a bit about her children, and you can feel the love that she has for them in a way that's not contrived or forced, but feels sweet and genuine.

the bad 

• She pretty much bemoans having to write a book for a lot of it. She does it in a blasé way, so it's supposed to be funny, and I'm sure I'd have the same response if I was writing a book, but it wore a little thin as the book went on. No one forced her to sign the book deal.
• She writes a lot about her drug use, and almost kind of brags about it? It's not that bad, but I was already feeling this way before I happened on the entire section dedicated to it and what she learned from it. She's not explicitly advocating for drug use, and certainly not harder drugs, but the frequency of stories that started off with how stoned she was kind of wore on me by the end. 

the quote
"If there's anything I have learned from hip-hop, it's that there's nothing sexy about a baby that ain't yours."

skip it/borrow it/buy it
This has got enough substance and re-readability that it falls into the buy it category. I absolutely adored a lot of this book, and could see myself rereading it for smiles in the future.

overall score: 8/10

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