Anyway where to start. Yes Please written by Amy Poehler is the first book that I officially started in 2015 and finished in 2015, so I'm going to count that as #1 to my new year's resolution on reading. Let me start by telling you why I decided I wanted to read this book/autobiography by Amy Poehler. It's pretty simple, it was a few months ago that I started to watch Parks and Recreation and I literally fell in love with all the characters but especially Leslie Knope played by Amy Poehler. Don't get my wrong, this isn't the first time I've seen her do something in entertainment, I know she's been on Saturday Night Live and I've watched her host the Golden Globes and I've always found her pretty comical. But it really was Parks and Recreation that made me decide that I wanted to read her first book. I was lucky enough to hear from other friends that they had started it before me and were enjoying it. I also knew of someone else who had read Tina Fey's book and said it was hysterical so was sure Yes Please would be just as good if not better. So before Christmas, I used one of my many coupons from Barnes and Noble along with my member card and bought Yes Please. I couldn't wait to read it but I was also a little apprehensive, I knew she had gotten a divorce and was worried that there would be some lows in the book that I wasn't ready for. Luckily I needed to finish the second Game of Thrones so I had time. Alrighty here we go!
As I said, Yes Please is written by Amy Poehler and is about her life. Mostly her life in improv and moving on up to where she is today. It talks about her childhood and some of her friendships. She tells you about her family and how they were different from other families. She talks about her time on SNL, nothing about her divorce (except that yes it happened, and here's a list of books she read), about Parks and Recreation and about other life events that have happened to her. This book was not as funny as I thought it would be, I guess maybe I assumed the whole book would about jokes and everything cool that she's done since she's become famous. But in fact, it was kind of the opposite, it should how real she is. She opened up about the 10 year struggle it was for her to achieve her dream but even though she has what she wants she reminds us that your career/job will never be as important as the people alongside you who support you and are there for you. She talks about the "evil voice" all of us females have and what she's done to work through those times but explaining that yes it still happens, it will always happen. She discussed how lucky she was to have the family she has and how important it is to remember how lucky we are. Let's put it this way, Amy Poehler's book was funny, it had it's moments but it was also inspirational. This is from a 40 year old comedian expressing her life to a late twenty year old reading her book and still trying to figure it out life. It had a lot of inspirational moments, things that I won't soon forget and paragraphs that I will probably go back and read every once in awhile. Yes it was a memoir but it was one that can help people with their life goals and struggles to overcome them. She reminds us that life is always changing and we have to accept that, she reminds us that technology is can be great but it's never going to be as good as the loved ones around us and that "you should treat your career like an exboyfriend". Don't let it run your life for you.
If you get a chance, I highly recommend this book. It's an easy read with a lot that you'll remember and it's done in a way that's light and meaningful.
