Yes Please

I was really torn about whether this book belonged on my "humor" shelf, if that tells you anything. It's not that it isn't funny, because at times it did make me laugh out loud. But that just wasn't the point, and for someone who is quite famous for being hilarious, it was slightly surprising. Another surprise is that the large part of my adoration for Amy Poehler isn't just her brilliance in Parks & Recreation, but because of her role model qualities for young people across the internet via Smart Girls at the Party. But it wasn't really about that either (definitely not written for all ages, by the way). Sure, there were some tidbits of wisdom and advice in the pages, but that also wasn't the point.

The point is, it's a memoir of someone wise and hilarious that is neither incredibly insightful or all that humorous. It's mostly her talking about her life to date. Which I guess is the point of a memoir anyway. And it was engaging, I certainly read it rather quickly - consuming it in hours reading one-third at a time. But it wasn't that well written. As she repeats throughout, writing is hard (preach it, sister!) but you can really tell because the organization was hard to follow. Maybe I was disadvantaged by reading it in e-book format. The hardcover is supposedly quite colorful, and according to Orson Scott Card the audiobook version is required and delightful. So maybe I will go that route next time, because I guess ultimately that was the real problem- I don't have Amy Poehler's voice in my head. I heard it in my voice, and that context it just didn't make sense to me (unlike Mindy Kaling's Is Everyone Hanging out Without Me? which confirmed that she is in fact my soul sister.) And since maybe I don't have very much experience with memoirs, maybe I just didn't know what to expect.

To put it as precisely as I can - she still rocks, and it was still interesting for the most part. I would totally hang a poster of the cover in my office at work, and will keep watching Parks & Rec and my copy of Baby Mama, and laugh with joy at her work. But I don't know that I would read this again.