Book Review: Yes Please

Confession time. This is not the first time I’ve read Yes Please by Amy Poehler. It’s actually the third. I read it when it first came out back in 2014, and then I listened to the audiobook (which I recommend for everyone, it’s amazing).

I decided to pick this book up again because I had just finished watching 13 Reasons Why, and I needed something light and happy to lift my spirits up after that major downer. Also, I just finished my latest Parks and Recreation watch, and was having a serious case of PPD – Post Parks Depression. What better way to soften the blow of leaving Pawnee than by reading about the amazing woman who brought Leslie Knope to life.

The official synopsis of Yes Please:

“In a perfect world, we’d get to hang out with Amy Poehler, watching dumb movies, listening to music, and swapping tales about our coworkers and difficult childhoods. Because in a perfect world, we’d all be friends with Amy – someone who seems so fun, is full of interesting stories, tells great jokes, and offers plenty of advice and wisdom (the useful kind, not the annoying kind you didn’t ask for, anyway). Unfortunately, between her Golden Globe-winning role on Parks and Recreation, work as a producer and director, place as one of the most beloved SNL alumni and cofounder of the Upright Citizens’ Brigade, involvement with the website Smart Girls at the Party, frequent turns as acting double for Meryl Streep, and her other gig as the mom of to young sons, she’s not available for movie night.

Luckily we have the next best thing: Yes Please, Amy’s hilarious and candid book. A collection of stories, thoughts, ideas, lists, and haikus from the mind of one of our most beloved entertainers, Yes Please offers Amy’s thoughts on everything from her “too safe” childhood outside of Boston to her early days in New York City, her ideas about Hollywood and “the biz,” the demon that looks back at all of us in the mirror, and her joy at being told she has a “face for wigs.” Yes Please is chock-full of words and wisdom to live by.”

I love this book because I love Amy Poehler. She is so smart, and funny, and she is QUEEN. I love reading books about people I admire. Especially if they wrote the book themselves, it makes me admire them even more. I love learning about their lives and how they got to where they are.

I am addicted to smart, funny women, and Amy is no exception.

She talks about growing up in suburban Massachusetts, how she discovered her love of improv and sketch comedy, how she performed her way from Boston, to Chicago, to New York, to Saturday Night Live, and finally, to Parks and Recreation.

From acting, to her friendship with Tina Fey, to becoming a mother, to divorce, to her love of bossy women, to time traveling, to robots killing us all, and everything in between. From mistakes to lessons learned, this book has something for everyone.

I love the whole book, but these are my favorite chapters:

• Laughing to Crying to Laughing
• Humping Justin Timberlake
• Gimme That Pudding
• Treat Your Career Like a Bad Boyfriend
• Partner in Crime
• Let’s Build a Park
• Time Travel
• My Boys

If you are a fan of Amy, Parks and Recreation, Saturday Night Live, or funny women, then definitely pick this one up. After that, listen to the audiobook! There is something special and cool about listening to your favorite people read you the book they wrote. It is so interesting to hear the words read in the way the author wanted them to sound. If you love boss ladies, this won’t disappoint.

Rating: 5/5