Yes Please is a peek into Amy Poehler's brain. It's scatterbrained, messy, sometimes random and brutally honest. Anyone who identifies with Poehler will enjoy her crazy antics, the "back in the day" stories of her childhood (some hilarious, some sad), and inside scoop on SNL and Parks & Rec. She name-drops a lot too, fyi. Her refusal to be cynical is refreshing, and her love for her family and friends is endearing. I enjoyed the scrapbook feel of the book, with glossy pages of handwritten notes, funny pictures, and mementos. The section on her cast mates and friends from Parks & Rec is just the cutest.

Recommended if you're a secret optimist, if you binge-watched Parks & Rec on Netflix (I totally want to now that I've finished the book), and if you wanna treat yo'self to some humorous real talk.

Not recommended if you're not into the cute and upbeat vibe that Poehler gives off. Some of the sections seem a little moralizing (but not in any way false - Poehler's not a 26-year-old autobiographer, she's learned some things - and I heartily agree that the robots will kill us all).

Quotes:
Time passed and the world spun, but all that mattered was the thing in the room you were making together. (page 9)

I think we should stop asking people in their twenties what they "want to do" and start asking them what they don't want to do. (page 12)

Decide what your currency is early. Let go of what you will never have. People who do this are happier and sexier. (page 21)

Doing sketch comedy on live television while pregnant is like wearing a sombrero. You can pretend to be a serious person, but the giant hat gives you away. (page 29)

I suppose I am pre-peri-middle-aged. (page 97)

I want to have conversations about real things with people who have experienced real things. I'm tired of talking about movies and gossiping about friends. (page 101)

Let's not end of African baby rape (or start with it, for that matter.) Let's end by pointing out all the positive ways you can scare yourself and feel alive. You can tell someone you love them first. You can try to speak only the truth for a whole week. You can jump out of an airplane or spend Christmas Day all by your lonesome. You can help people who need help and fight real bad guys. You can dance fast or take an improv class or do one of those Ironman things. Adventure and danger can be good for your heart and soul. Violence and desperation are brutal things to search out. Why search out the horror? It's around us in real ways every day. I'm talking to you, the people who made that movie The Human Centipede. No more Human Centipede movies please. (page 130)

I swear, if I could eat my children, I would. (page 300)