Yes Please

Amy Poehler wrote a book! But it’s really not what I was expecting and overall, I wasn’t impressed. I didn’t even want to write a review of it honestly, and I know it doesn’t really “matter” since the book has been out so long, but I noticed a lot of people on Goodreads saying how excited they were to read it because they love her acting/comedy and I felt the need to put this out there and air my thoughts and what not.  So, here’s a brief look at this book and why it just didn’t work for me.

This book is kind of all over the places and covers some aspects of Amy Poehler’s life in different forms, such as through essay and sketch-ish things and questionnaires and interviews with her comedian friends. It touches on her favorite people from Parks and Rec and her time as an improv artist and her thoughts on childbirth but it doesn’t really talk about HOW she got places, like SNL, she just kind of glazes over that and boom she’s there. She doesn’t talk about Mean Girls, which kind of bummed me out, because I’m sure that was an interesting time. Her essay on her “birth plan” was super funny, but other than that, a lot of this fell flat. I understand the title plays into her background in improv and taking on new challenges, but it wasn’t woven throughout the book very well. The book also isn’t really chronological and that made it hard to follow sometimes, but maybe I’m just obsessed with order.

A huge redeeming quality for this book was that I listened to it so having Amy Poehler’s narration was nice. It was probably the saving grace of this book, honestly. She’s funny. I KNOW she is, but it didn’t really come through in this book. I like getting kind of “background” details on celebrities and actors I like, but I need a little more. I want to be entertained, and it didn’t happen as often as I would have liked in this book.

What i’m saying is…just watch Mean Girls or something instead. It’s a better use of your time.