By My Dearest Friend, Amy P.

I straddled the the highly anticipated reading of Yes Please between yesterday and today. It was a 329-pager, but I did enjoy it and so I'd like to call it My Midsummer Night's Dream. I was pushed because I just desperately wanted to turn the page out of my love for Amy (as fake as a friendship through the television may be), and because I know my summer reading cannot give me the same thrill. I really haven't the slightest idea why it's so satisfying to know the ins and outs of someone else's life. But I confess that it is. I like to hear that she usually can't sleep well, about her Boston pride and suburban childhood. And it gives me a certain faith in my unpredictable lifestyle that she spent days dirt-poor in the streets of New York and Chicago as a life-loving improv performer only to become, and I quote, "rich as shit". If you're lucky enough to at least steal a copy from your innocent friend, you may want to note that I consider the following chapters to be at a surpassing standard of excellence:

Sorry, Sorry, Sorry 65 (on apologies)
Gimme that Pudding 157 (on winning, losing, and doing both at once)
Bad Sleeper 171 (the name tells all) and the first page especially of
Things They Don't Tell You About the Biz 271

Amy has written some fine sentences that I also wish include:

"Good for her! Not for me. This is the motto women should constantly repeat over and over again. Good for her! Not for me." 32

"Apologies have nothing to do with you. They are balloons in the sky. They may never land. They may even choke a bird" 76

"Inevitably, I'd think about my own death, which next to staring at your face in a magnifying mirror is probably the worst thing you can do for yourself." 129

"I like to refer to the transition period of any new job as 'finding out where the bathrooms are'" 135

"As the old saying goes, 'Don't ask for permission to sit on George Clooney's lap, beg for forgiveness once you do.'" 164

"My motto has always been "Do work that you are proud of with your talented friends." My other motto is "I need to keep working or the government will seize my boat." Both of these things helped me say "yes please." 250

This was a good one so kudos to you, Amy. Now it's time for Bossypants.

Yes Please by Amy Poehler from the Harvard Coop (out of its usual jacket)
Mug from Marks & Spencer ☼