Celebrities Write Books

Welcome back to my "Reading Challenge" blog! A big thank you to all those who read it-special shout out to Vera, Ariel and my mom. My mom thinks I'm cool!

So this post is going to cover the second book I read, and I think I'll just go ahead and dive in:

Book #2: A book written by a celebrity
There are so many celebrities, and far too many of them attempt to write books. So where do I start? Who interests me enough, and convinces me they have the chops to write a decent book? Leslie Knope. To fulfill this challenge I went with the delightful Amy Poehler and her book, Yes Please. I  absolutely adore her and love the work she does with Amy Poehler's Smart Girls

I went into this with high hopes. Possibly the highest of high hopes. Maybe even the hardest highest of high hopes. Or, the hugely hardest highest of high hopes....and I'm going to stop there, because I could do this all night: Adding one more 'H' word that makes sense, until this blog has completely lost its focus and is overrun by a horribly, horrendous, hit of 'H's! Alright, alright...I'll hurry along and halt with the harassment.
(See the problems I have?)

Anyways, big expectations and I am happy to say...the first thing I read made me mad! What?! Yeah, it did! But don't get me wrong...the book is good! I really liked it: I smiled, then giggled, then laughed. And I don't really mean "mad"-mad, more miffed. You see, Amy begins her book talking about how hard it was to write. Which I don't doubt! Then she goes on to say how most people/writers lie and act as if it isn't difficult. This I do doubt. I do not know anyone who thinks it's easy to write a book. There are countless interviews with best sellers who admit to the amount of time, hard work, and endless editing/redrafting it takes. I am twitter friends with a number of published authors (#humblebrag #IHopeIUsedThatCorrectlyBecauseIfNotILookLikeAnAssholeAndDumb) all of whom stress how difficult it is, and without the bonus of knowing they have a large readership upon completion. I think this last bit is what got me. Who are these mythical people Amy thinks brag about how easy writing books are? And, yes it is hard, but at least you know people are going to flock to your work! (Myself included-no regrets!) Publishers approached you! Writing a book may be hard, but getting it seen and published (Traditionally) is much harder and that part was handed to you!

Basically this book and I, were off to a good start! I couldn't wait to read it, only to promptly become cross with it. Then more cross because it made me temporarily dislike something created by Ms. Poehler. That rocked my world more than anything. Luckily I was absolutely charmed by the next section of the book and ended up really enjoying it. I especially liked how collaborative she ended up making it; with a chapter from Seth Meyers, and notes by Mike Schur. She also teased when she'd talk about Tina Fey, letting us hang from a thread until she got there. Sadly her chapter on Tina was a bit of a let down...but I guess she didn't want to repeat what was mentioned in Tina's book.  Nonetheless, the love she has for Fey still shines through.

Leslie Knope, being Leslie Knope

Amy does a great job outlining her life and the years of work it took to get where she is now. She never really brags about her success, but rather looks fondly at the path that got her there. She's really down to earth. When discussing the book with my friend who read it (it was Stamata...it's almost always Stamata) I remarked how I was surprised by how some chapters made me like Poehler less than pre-book, then others made me like her more than pre-book (Big Feat!). I didn't think anything would make me question my love of she-who-was-Knope. I told her that after thinking about my mixed feelings, I realized the brilliance of the book: She's being completely human. No one is flawlessly likable, and neither is she.  I can only imagine how many people run into her expecting to meet Leslie Knope, and unable to separate character from actor. I think some of my disillusion with her, was a very deliberate thing. A big, I'm Amy Poehler! Not *insert what you like best of mine here* The other thing I realized was; she was honest, because she doesn't have to try to be funny or entertaining...She is funny and entertaining.

One of my favourite segments was her discussing the Golden Globes and they way she distracts herself by coming up with "bits" to do, instead of focusing on whether she wins or not. It not only showed her dedication to comedy, and collaboration, but showed that her contemporaries are also "down to clown". It was nice knowing that celebrities are as bored with award shows as I am! They really are JUST LIKE US! ...And this time they get the added downer of not being able to change the channel...because they're there live: Getting free swag, food, and liquor! JUST LIKE US!

One of my least favourite aspects of the book is her strange need to always specify someone's ethnicity if they aren't white. Regardless of whether it needs to be stated or not. For example, is it necessary to point out where your three nannies come from? Does knowing one's from Trinidad, add anything? Without context, and the ability to interpret tone, it's really hard to understand why Poehler does this.

In the end, I loved this book. I adored the way any mention of former husband, Will Arnett, is nothing but positive and full of respect and thankfulness of the time they had, and the children they share. She doesn't go into their divorce, and I admire her for that. It could have been juicy gossip, but she doesn't care.

The biggest thing I took from this book was, Amy joined SNL at 30. Do you know what this means? I am not quite 30, I can still join SNL. As usual Amy Poehler has given me hope.