Review: Yes Please by Amy Poehler

Yes Please by Amy Poehler
Publisher: Dey St.
Release Date: October 28th, 2014

In Amy Poehler’s highly anticipated first book, Yes Please, she offers up a big juicy stew of personal stories, funny bits on sex and love and friendship and parenthood and real life advice (some useful, some not so much), like when to be funny and when to be serious. Powered by Amy’s charming and hilarious, biting yet wise voice, Yes Please is a book is full of words to live by.

I must admit that I've never really watched Parks and Rec. I only recently began watching and have been told to just skip season one, so I'll probably do just that. But regardless, I've wanted to read Amy Poehler's book for a while now. She seems to be funny, with many stories to tell, and I had heard that it was a pretty feminist book as well. And in a way, it is.

 Amy isn't afraid to show and talk about the tough stuff--about the topics many others don't want to talk about. Part memoir, part essay collection, her book follows her musing on her journey through life thus far. She's able to talk about her experiences with an air of lightness through her use of humor while also balancing that with being grounded and very forward, open, and honest about everything she's done and everything she talks about.

It is so interesting to hear her life story and to hear about how she got to where she is today. It's amazing how she and many of her friends are now big names but how they started out in a similar place. She emphasizes how they struggled, what they sacrificed, and how they really worked hard to get where they are today.

I found her later essays to be much more intersting, with some of them really sticking out to me (I don't have the book on me because I borrowed it from the library, so I don't have the titles of the specific essays). They vary in topic and tone, but I appreciated the way she got her message--about feminism, about hard work, about whatever--across. It was very well done. She's and effective writer whose style will definitely draw in all different types of readers.

As I mentioned, I did find her book subtley feminist, and I loved that. She followed her own dreams, didn't let others get in her way, and owns/is proud of herself, her friends, her journey, her experiences, and all of her decisions and choices. Even if/when she regretted her choices, she was able to reflect on it and how it directly or indirectly helped lead her to where she is. I didn't agree with everything she said, and I don't necessarily agree with all of her choices, but the beautiful and wonderful thing is that that's okay. She accepts and allows for that within her writing, encouraging readers to be proud and open and honest about our own opinions, actions, and choices, regardless of what others might think/say about it, just as she does. She is so grounded and real, which is why so much of this might be relatable even if the circumstances are far from what most of us have experienced. And she does this while keeping her writing entertaining and easy to digest. I loved it!

Yes Please: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Book Depository

Review: Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit

Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit
Publisher: Haymarket Books
Release Date: May 20th, 2014

In her comic, scathing essay “Men Explain Things to Me,” Rebecca Solnit took on what often goes wrong in conversations between men and women. She wrote about men who wrongly assume they know things and wrongly assume women don’t, about why this arises, and how this aspect of the gender wars works, airing some of her own hilariously awful encounters.

She ends on a serious note— because the ultimate problem is the silencing of women who have something to say, including those saying things like, “He’s trying to kill me!”

This book features that now-classic essay with six perfect complements, including an examination of the great feminist writer Virginia Woolf ’s embrace of mystery, of not knowing, of doubt and ambiguity, a highly original inquiry into marriage equality, and a terrifying survey of the scope of contemporary violence against women.

***I have, without any shame, copied this review from my review up on Feminists Talk Books***

I've become very interested in essay collections/personal essay collections, and I've been hoping to read more feminist essays, so Men Explain Things to Me was one of the first ones I came across and decided to check out. I almost wish I had found it and read it sooner.

The book is perfect for someone who's looking to start reading more about feminism, our patriarchal society, and similar topics. As shown in the blurb, the book covers the topic of marriage/marriage equality, domestic violence and gender violence in general, the silencing of women, and more. She uses her experiences to talk about wider topics affecting women, but she's definitely just scratching the surface.

I greatly enjoyed the diversity of topics, issues, presentation styles, etc in the book. I didn't find it dry or over-the-top. I know some people didn't like how in-the-face she was about violence statistics, but I thought it was well done. I didn't find it to be too much. People live that reality every day, and she did it in a classy, professional way without making it dull or slow. All of the essays, in fact, were easy to read, but they made me think about my experiences and form my own opinions. I honestly loved every single one of the pieces and for different reasons. The Virginia Woolf one, as well as the one describing the woman in the picture, particularly stood out to me because they were different, not because they were tons better than the other essays.

Only two small things irked me. There was something that Solnit said about women who wear a hijab/burqa (burka) or a veil that I don't agree with and found to be insensitive to different cultures and to the choices of individual women. Yes, it may be used to silence women and keep them under submission, but many women choose to wear a hijab/burqa/veil and are proud to. Some feel more empowered. For some, it's part of their religion and culture, and they feel comfortable doing it, choosing to wear it. Other than this one thing, she was great about writing with awareness and acknowledging different opinions/experiences/peoples.

The other was that I was hoping that she would have at least a small bit of exploration of how feminism also affects/applies to men and thus why we should all be feminists. She briefly thanks the men who support women and the feminist movement, but I think it would have also been effective to discuss how the feminist movement also helps men by breaking down social norms and societal expectations and gender roles. Women are leading the fight to break these down because it more obviously binds them, but it really helps everyone in society. I only wish she could have mentioned that somewhere and was almost expecting her to.

I am very happy to highly recommend Men Explain Things to Me, particularly if you're looking to start reading or building up a collection of books that talk about feminism/feminist topics (non-fiction). I myself will be buying the book sometime soon.

Men Explain Things to Me: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Book Depository

Rebecca Solnit: Website