This week’s Five Star Friday recommendation is a little gem by the hilarious Amy Poehler, her memoir, Yes Please. Part scrap book, part confessional, part rules-to-live by, we need a little Poehler to balance the very unbalanced happenings in the world today.
Publisher’s Summary: Do you want to get to know the woman we first came to love on Comedy Central’s Upright Citizens Brigade? Do you want to spend some time with the lady who made you howl with laughter on Saturday Night Live, and in movies like Baby Mama, Blades of Glory, and They Came Together? Do you find yourself daydreaming about hanging out with the actor behind the brilliant Leslie Knope on Parks and Recreation? Did you wish you were in the audience at the last two Golden Globes ceremonies, so you could bask in the hilarity of Amy’s one-liners?
If your answer to these questions is Yes Please! then you are in luck. In her first book, one of our most beloved funny folk delivers a smart, pointed, and ultimately inspirational read. Full of the comedic skill that makes us all love Amy, Yes Please is a rich and varied collection of stories, lists, poetry (Plastic Surgery Haiku, to be specific), photographs, mantras and advice. With chapters like “Treat Your Career Like a Bad Boyfriend,” “Plain Girl Versus the Demon” and “The Robots Will Kill Us All” Yes Please will make you think as much as it will make you laugh. Honest, personal, real, and righteous, Yes Please is full of words to live by.
Be forewarned, this is not solely a make-’em-laugh book, but more of an invitation to see who the real person who has become quite a force in show business. As Mary McNamara wrote in her LA Times review, “…many things are funny, and as with most of her comedy, Poehler is attempting something that seems simple but is not: to chronicle not so much her success as her maturity. Poehler is no one’s doormat, but she clearly does not want to be a jerk. This is a worthy goal for anyone but particularly difficult to achieve here, given Poehler’s line of business. Entertainment rewards ego, ambition and a desire for attention, and the demands of success, particularly from an audience desiring ever-increasing intimacy with performers, are as constant and absurd as the benefits.”
As it turns out, the off camera Amy Poehler is genuine, smart, insightful, and as vulnerable as we might have imagined.
Happy reading, Susan C.
You might also enjoy:
Baby Mama DVD – Kate, a thirty-seven year old successful and single businesswoman who has long put her career ahead of a personal life, has finally determined to have a child on her own. Unable to get pregnant, a driven Kate allows South Philly working girl Angie Ostrowiski to become her unlikely surrogate. After learning that Angie is pregnant, Kate goes into precision nesting mode. She reads childcare books, baby-proofs the apartment and researches top pre-schools. But, Kate’s well-organized strategy is turned upside down when her Baby Mama shows up at her doorstep with no place to live. Structured Kate tries to turn vibrant Angie into the perfect expectant mom. In a battle of wills, they prepare for the baby’s arrival and soon discover that there are two kinds of family: the one you’re born to and the one you make.
Bossy Pants by Tina Fey – For the first time, one of the most powerful and beloved women in entertainment takes her writing talent to the pages of a book. From her disastrous honeymoon cruise to the oversold joys of breastfeeding, Fey puts her unique and endlessly funny mark on modern life, love, marriage, and motherhood.Tina Fey, one of the most powerful and beloved women in entertainment, brings sharp wit and uncanny observational skill to everything she does, from television to major motion pictures…
The O'Fallon Public Library News 