Yes Please! by Amy Poehler Book Review

Good Afternoon Lovelies!

March is already here and I’m like…whhaat? How is this year flying by so fast?! I have a lot of things I need to get done this month school wise and a lot of things I want to do outside of school haha so this will definitely be a month of much needed time management skills. I’m so ready to take it on!

Anyway, I’ve been very much behind on my reviews, so I’m hoping to make up for that this month. Today’s review is of a recent memoir I finished in February. This book was a gift from a friend and I was very much excited to dig into it 🙂

If you’re sort on time, then check out my Need to Know section for a quick summary of my review!

In Amy Poehler’s highly anticipated first book, Yes Please, she offers up a big juicy stew of personal stories, funny bits on sex and love and friendship and parenthood and real life advice (some useful, some not so much), like when to be funny and when to be serious. Powered by Amy’s charming and hilarious, biting yet wise voice, Yes Please is a book full of words to live by.

Genre: Memoir; Humor
Publisher: Dey St. (William Morrow Publishers) also HarperCollins  
Published: 2014; this edition: 2015 
Pages: 329
Price: $16.99 (paperback)
Place: Amazon, B & N, Book Depository, GoodReads, IndieBound

My Rating:

What sums up my thoughts after reading Yes Please by Amy Poehler is the thought: Can Amy be my new best friend? This book was part advice, part memoir and a whole bunch of humor. I loved the candid way she wrote this book and you definitely can here a distinct voice in her writing. Amy, because let’s be real we’re definitely on a first name basis now, showed us a peak into all the hard work it took for her to get to where she is today. She wasn’t afraid to touch on any topic such as her experiences with weed, her divorce and her insecurities.

The timeline shifted throughout the book, but wasn’t distracting enough to have me confused. Much like other memoirs, flashbacks and time-jumping seems to be expected as storytelling devices for this genre. What I loved most about the timeline of her books was her ability to mesh her past experiences growing within comedy with her present-day life or life with her kids. Additionally, I loved the interjected chapters written by family members and close friends. Allowing other people to give a perspective on her as a person and share some of their memories of her allowed me to see Amy in various ways outside of just her point of view. I think this was a great way to not only break up the memoir’s main voice or writing style, but also to give a somewhat more rounded view of her character. It also allowed for more authority when her parents talked about her childhood, because it’s not really realistic that everyone knows a lot about their youngest years of life. Having her parents touch on that instead of her allowed those memories to be more solid in my mind.

Amy was bold. She said what she wanted.

Throughout her memoir, Amy wasn’t afraid to say what she wanted. I appreciated this so much. From talking about sex, her divorce and some of her insecurities and embarrassing moments, Amy was real throughout it. I not only walked away with some thoughts of wisdom, a lot of laughs and a deeper understanding of rising within comedy, but I walked away feeling like I knew Amy a little better. Like we sat down for coffee and shared our life stories with each other after just meeting. This was a wonderful feeling and being able to connect within a memoir isn’t always easy for me. I love reading about other people’s lives, but connecting with them isn’t always there. I connected with Amy.

My favorite part of this memoir outside of the writing style and, like, Amy herself was the glimpses into comedians career and struggle. Amy’s background is in improv which I didn’t know. To be honest, I wasn’t aware that improv could lead to success in comedy. Most of my experience with comedy (which is actually very little) is with stand-up comedy. I’ve heard it’s hard for women to compete within the stand-up comedy arena and make a name for themselves–it’s why we see so many few female comedians. I do think this is changing, but to be honest I’m not well-read on the subject so I don’t want to speculate too much outside of what I’ve just said. Anyway, Amy’s memoir definitely gave me a new appreciation for comedy. Like all dreams, it takes a lot of hard work, dedication and passion to make them come true. With Yes Please, I definitely got to see that in action for Amy. I also now want to try and read up on more female comedians and comedy as a whole. I found the whole topic fascinating and much like NYC for art and music in the 60s & 70s, I was drawn to the history and collective creativity of comedy in the 80s & 90s that Amy mentions in Boston, Chicago and NYC.
Overall, this memoir was an enjoyable read. It was filled with direct, funny and relatable  writing and sprinkled with photos of Amy and her life. I found a great woman between the pages and I’m so happy to have gotten a glimpse into her life and who she is as a person. She’s a strong woman and I definitely recommend that you spend some time getting to know her through her book 🙂

• Yes Please by Amy Poehler was part advice, part memoir and a whole bunch of humor.
• Amy covers everything from her time growing up in comedy, her experiences with weed to her divorce and insecurities. She isn’t afraid to touch on any topic and she does so boldly.
• What I loved most about the timeline of her books was her ability to mesh her past experiences growing within comedy with her present-day life or life with her kids. Additionally, I loved the interjected chapters written by family members and close friends.
• I not only walked away with some thoughts of wisdom, a lot of laughs and a deeper understanding of rising within comedy, but I walked away feeling like I knew Amy a little better.
• Amy’s memoir definitely gave me a new appreciation for comedy. Like all dreams, it takes a lot of hard work, dedication and passion to make them come true. With Yes Please, I definitely got to see that in action for Amy.
• 5 STARS! Overall, this memoir was an enjoyable read. I found a great woman between the pages and I’m so happy to have gotten a glimpse into her life and who she is as a person. Definitely a recommended read 🙂

Thanks for stopping by! Let me know if you’ve read this book and your thoughts on Amy’s writing style and her career/life/etc. Have a favorite part or quote? Let me know! 🙂 

As always, Happy Reading!

*Disclaimer: None of my links on this post or on this blog are affiliate links. If I ever begin to participate in affiliate links, I will let you know. 🙂

Follow Me: GoodReads | Twitter | Instagram | Bloglovin’ | Facebook