Yes Please

Title: Yes Please

Author: Amy Poehler
Release Date: October 28, 2014
Rating: 4


When I first saw that Amy Poehler had written a book I thought it would be amazing and funny, kind of a mix between SNL and Parks and Recreation that would be filled with laughs. Then remembering it was a memoir of sorts and reading the overview and a review that started with "This is not a comedy book" made me think differently. And that review was right, this is not a comedy book. That doesn't mean that there are not a lot of funny parts in the book but it was not written with the purpose of being all laughs all the time. 

“Saying “yes” doesn’t mean I don’t know how to say no, and saying “please” doesn’t mean I am waiting for permission.”

 Yes please is a combination of stories from Amy's life, life lessons that she has learned, advice, and some additions from people in her life. It is very hard to classify this as a specific genre because it has many different aspects. Once I let go of the expectation that this would be that all laughs book I enjoyed it. To me it almost read like a collection of short stories that were along the timeline of one person.

“However, if you do start crying in an argument and someone asks why, you can always say, "I'm just crying because of how wrong you are.”

Amy doesn't hold back on anything in this book, except her divorce. She is extremely frank on everything from sex to drugs. The reason that she does not talk about her divorce is because she says that it is too painful and that is ok we don't really need to know about it. She also does not go into too much detail into Parks and Rec because she was still filming at the time. Those were the two things that were not really discussed much but there were good reasons and the book did not suffer for it.

"A lot of people don’t know I am always thisfuckingclose to doing some crazy shit.”

One of the few issues I had with this book is that it seemed a little disjointed. Although the book covered a large range of Amy's life it was out of order. Maybe if there was a timeline somewhere to connect all the points of her life that are hit in the book it would make more sense for me. I haven't read a non-fiction biography type book in a while so I might just be not used to that style of book. However, the jumping around in time made me a little confused on the order. So I would be reading about SNL and then about something in Chicago and back to New York the Upright Citizens Brigade.

“Telling me to relax or smile when I’m angry is like bringing a birthday cake into an ape sanctuary. You’re just asking to get your nose and genitals bitten off.”

The only other issue I can think of is that the parts with SNL, Awards hosting, Parks and Rec, and other memorable parts of Amy's career were too short. That's not to say that what was in the book was bad, I just wanted more. Although there was a really good story that involves Amy sitting on George Clooney's lap. Her entire run on SNL was reduced to on chapter. The Parks and Rec stories were also reduced to one chapter with just a paragraph for each character.

Overall I think it was a really good book and if you like non-fiction/biography/advice/whatever else then this one is worth a read.

“People are their most beautiful when they are laughing, crying, dancing, playing, telling the truth, and being chased in a fun way.”

All quotes are from Amy's book, Yes Please, obviously :)