Genre: Humor

Review: Bossypants

Posted February 17, 2016 / Book Reviews / 4 Comments

I love Amy Poehler a lot. Parks & Rec is one of my all-time favorite shows and her book, Yes Please, was so fantastic. I’ve always admired her friendship with Tina Fey and as a result, had a nice soft spot for Ms. Fey. But honestly, I haven’t seen a lot of her work (aside from when they host the Golden Globes together and Mean Girls of course). I bought Bossypants a few years ago in a little indie bookstore because I really wanted to make a purchase. Like most celebrity memoirs I read, though, I decided to go with the audiobook to hear her deliver the jokes. I’m happy I did, because she was awesome. It was like she was talking with you. She had so many smart and hilarious comments about EVERYTHING – motherhood, SNL, hollywood, Photoshop, her childhood, and more. It was awesome. I think it essentially reads like a series of funny essays that she put together in one book, which was nice. It was just a smattering of her thoughts on everything. I’ve always wanted to watch 30 Rock but my interest is even higher after reading this book. I couldn’t give it a full five stars for some reason, but it was so so good. I think I just have little to no interest in Saturday Night Live, which was a huge part of Fey’s book as well as Poehler’s. I appreciated some of the stories but just generally don’t like the show too much. I’ll leave […]

Tom Haverford Giffy Review: Modern Romance

Posted January 21, 2016 / Book Reviews / 6 Comments

I am a huge Aziz Ansari fan and knew I would happily read one of his books, regardless of the topic, if he ever wrote one. I loved Tom in Parks and Rec and his stand-up was always so funny and so real. It doesn’t hurt that he actively calls himself a feminist and makes fun of dudes for being so shitty. I mean, he’s perfect and that’s all there is to it. The topic of modern romance is an interesting one because clearly things have changed a lot, even within the past 5-10 years. I was intrigued to see what kind of conclusions he would come to. Sociology is one of my favorite subjects (and one of my minors in college!) so I knew that even if this book was more nonfiction-like than humor, I would be happy with it. That ended up being the case! I have to admit, I was warned by some early reviews that the book had a lot of numbers and wasn’t really traditionally funny. I was hoping for some humor throughout (which I got) but expected more of a research-oriented book. Somehow he managed to bring both of those aspects together in a perfect combination. “When you hear a Flo Rida song at first you’re like, ‘What is this, Flo Rida? It’s the same thing you’ve always done. I’m not listening to this song.’ And then you keep hearing it and you’re like, ‘Oh my God, Flo Rida. You’ve done it again! This […]

Review: Yes Please

Posted January 26, 2015 / Book Reviews / 7 Comments

God Amy Poehler is the coolest. I absolutely loved every second of this book. Luckily I had adjusted my expectations a little bit when I saw some reviews that this wasn’t completely a humor book. She mixed in some serious stuff and actual advice too, which I ended up loving just as much. (Well, maybe not just as much. It would be great to have a whole book on the hilarity that is Parks and Rec.) I loved how authentic this book felt. She doesn’t sugar coat anything – her advice or her stories. She gives sex advice and talks about doing drugs; she’s fearless. Even before starting the audiobook portion of my read, I was reading everything in her voice. It felt like she was talking directly with me as if we were friends (like the synopsis says). I really enjoyed the variety of the content, too. Nothing was stiff or formal. It felt more like a scrapbook than a memoir. She had random haikus, handwritten notes, personal photos, chapters from people like Seth Meyers, and lots of lists. I think that was a major reason that this held my attention better than other nonfiction books do; I was anxiously awaiting the next topic because I had NO idea what it could be about. She had a lovely chapter full of her friends and coworkers…followed by a chapter that’s subtitle was “things I learned on mushrooms.” It kept me on my feet and intrigued. I can’t emphasize enough how […]

ARC Review: We Should Hang Out Sometime

Posted December 24, 2014 / Book Reviews / 4 Comments

I definitely wanted to like this one more, but I could tell from 7% in that this wasn’t the book for me. Honestly I didn’t want to finish it even that early. I guess I’m kind of glad that I did, because I read the book in two sittings in probably a two hour combined timespan. It was a quick read and that was fine. I unfortunately also watched one of his videos before starting this book, which kind of ruined things for me. He’s the kind of YouTube person that bugs me. I couldn’t get the image out of my mind. What worked I like that this was told from an awkward guy’s perspective instead of a girl’s. It’s nice to know that, contrary to popular culture, guys get as weird and self-conscious about girls as girls do about guys. We’re programmed to think that they don’t. Contrary to many other people, I actually liked the ending of this book. The realizations he did make about himself made sense to me. I kind of saw it coming, but it works. I could see how that was true. I did laugh out loud three times, so that was cool. What didn’t work A lot of this felt like he was a guy who deserved a girlfriend or dates just because. He seemed to be a nice, good guy, so he was constantly questioning why he never had a real girlfriend. It’s a typical tale of a guy thinking that no […]