I should write reviews before I read reviews, because I inadvertently read a review that is exactly what I want to say only better, like this one: www.goodreads.com/review/show/950702217?book_show_action=true&from_review_page=1. So I will keep it short, because if you want to know what I think about this book in more detail, you know where to point your mouse.

This was fine, and I liked it, and that's it. Part of the reason I liked it is that it's Amy Poehler and I love her. But considering how awesome I think Amy Poehler is, I would have hoped I'd like this book much more than I did. I liked it best when imagined her voice as I read. I preferred the last third to the first third. She gives good advice, the kind of advice that women and girls need to hear early and often; the kind of advice I've heard before from many quarters but is always good to hear again (e.g. "let no be a complete sentence." "Let people fix their own problems that don't concern you." "If you don't want to tell someone something, don't." "It's okay if people don't like you.")

The book isn't linear, which I liked, because it didn't adhere to the structure of many celebrity biographies that I find self-congratulatory -- "I did small awesome thing A, then slightly bigger awesome thing B, then bigger awesome thing C, then setback. Bigger awesome thing D, Big awesome thing E, enormous awesome thing F, and now here you are reading my book and I'm the best thing ever."

Would have liked more details about her marriage/divorce (though she says straight up "I don't want to tell you about that, so I won't", which I can't begrudge her for). Would have liked more details about improvOlympic and Upright Citizens Brigade, maybe more details about how she bonded with Tina Fey and Seth Meyers. I don't mean this to sound nosy (Uh, I am, obviously)-- but it feels constantly like she is holding back the best stories, the ones that would have made this really compelling.

I get it. It's hard to write a book. And it's hard to bare your soul. But if you don't want to bare your soul, perhaps writing a memoir/biography isn't for you. And I suspect that she would do much better in the short story/essay format.