On October 10^th 2014, Comedian Amy Poehler, who is known mostly for her work on the long-running-hit sketch show SNL and sit-com Parks and Recreations, released her memoir, Yes Please.

“Actually, ‘memoir’ is a bit of a misnomer for this Dey Street Books-published tome – as is “tell-all,” although the comedian does tell it all” said Zach Dionne, writer for Rolling Stone, in his article about the book. He’s quite right. Polehler holds nothing back in this New York Times Bestseller. She talks about her life before fame, her drug use, her sex life, embarrassing moments from her days on SNL, her divorce from actor Will Arnett, and honestly anything else you’ve ever wanted to know and didn’t really want to know about her. Nothing is held back.

“It takes years as a woman to unlearn what you have been taught to be sorry for”. Poehler writes in her book.

Sure, Poehler lets Late Night  host Seth Meyers write a chapter in her book, but there is no doubt that Poehler’s 329 page work is mostly geared towards women.

“While I find Amy Poehler to be funny and have heard great things about the book, it appeals more to a female demographic” said Art Roberts, when asked if he had any interests in reading the book.

Which does bring up the fact that this Number One Humor Book of 2014, does have its faults.

Poehler’s book is rather long. Sure, that’s not entirely a bad thing. Surely, it has to be with her going from her birth to present time in the span of a few pages. But, there are a lot of filler pages as well. Poehler includes two-page spreads to state quotes or to start you off on a new chapter, she has several pictures from her life, things she’s written, and things written to her scattered throughout the book. Which, in the end, does add more pages than absolutely necessary.

“This memoir had self-empowerment lessons to impart, too, and they’re mostly cobwebbed. Sometimes the attempted uplift is simply puzzling,” said Dwight Garner in his article in The New York Times. “Her heart isn’t in this book, which is O.K. – heart is overrated”.

Nevertheless, gender friendly or not, real feel connection with Amy Poehler or not, the book is getting a lot of good reviews.

“Poehler’s insights in Yes Please are honest, humorous, and full of common sense in a way that makes it perfectly clear why Poehler had been able to take over the world the way she has” said Kristen Scatton in her article on Bustle.com.

“It is, as Poehler fans might expect, funny, wise, earnest, honest, spiritually ambitious, occasionally self- indulgent and structurally messy” said Mary McNamara in her article in the La Times.

“There’s no shortage of advice, all delivered with wit and intelligence, like the wicked-cool girl in high school just bummed you a smoke, but to leave it at that would shortchange the hilarious and moving account of a remarkable game changer” said Megan Stielstra in her article in the Chicago Tribune.

All in all, if you like Amy Poehler, you want to learn more about the art of improvisation, and you like it when famous people give you life changing advice that makes you look at the world differently and helps you discover things you didn’t know before – Yes Please is the book for you.

FSA Connection Questions

1. It is a coincidence that all the positive reviews were mostly by woman writers?
2. What does ‘self-indulgent’ mean?
3. What does ‘shortchange’ mean?
4. Does the author show any bias in this article?
5. What does ‘misnomer’ mean?