Book #25 "Yes Please" by Amy Poehler, and #26 "Shopaholic to the Stars"

My last two books were duds and thus reinforce my idea that I need to get back to my goal of reading classics before I die. 

I really enjoyed reading Tina Fey's "Bossypants" and since she and Amy Poehler are such great comedians together I thought Amy's book would be good as well. It was really awful. The first few chapters are filled with Amy stating how hard writing a book is for her. She repeats it constantly. Amy also didn't plan to write her book so it seems choppy: each chapter derailing in a train of rambling thought. The tone of her book overall is sad, despite her attempt to be funny in some parts. But it is apparent that she is suffering and is trying not to let it show. This is probably because she was writing a book during her divorce process and made the mistake of thinking that she could express herself the same way to the same audience whether by acting or by writing. And this is a mistake because an experienced actor can mask their emotions by taking on a persona however Amy is not an experienced writer and thus couldn't mask her emotions leaking through the lines of the book showing that she was depressed at times, enraged and overall discontent with her state of being during the process of this book. I felt sad for her. One chapter she wrote specifically on how to deal with divorce, and she wrote it in an attempted sarcastic voice, but failed even there to be truly sarcastic. I winced at times reading the book.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend it. Maybe in a few years she will be emotionally healthy again and back to a place where she is satisfied with herself. But at this time in her life, she should have stayed away from writing because as crazy as it sounds, writing is theraputic and sometimes things you don't mean to say come out in words that you didn't know you had hanging around inside of you. 

"Shopaholic to the Stars"

Let me preface by saying that I am a serial reader. If there is a series and I enjoyed the first book then I will read the entire series or works by that author even if the last few are bad, like "Shopaholic to the Stars". I have read the entire Sherlock Holmes series, Anne of Green Gables, Wizard of Oz, books by Jane Austin and most books by Agatha Christie. Series reading can get boring because the voice of the author gets redundant and stories begin to seem predictable. The more accomplished authors will continue to develop their characters, like Anne from Anne of Green Gables, or the married couple Tommy and Tuppence of Agatha Christie who begin their journey as a young dating couple and end the series as retired aging folk.

Sophie Kinsella is not the accomplished author who continues to develop her characters. In "Shopaholic to the Stars" the main character, Becky, moves to Hollywood with her family and hopes to become a famous stylist for A listers in Hollywood. She sacrifices the comfort of her child, husband, well-being of her father and ignores her best friend in need to fulfill her caprice of becoming famous and a sought after star like those who have won Oscars. The book is riddled with stereotypes of Californians, Americans and is overall written in an exaggerated way. Even the main character is much more exaggerated than in the previous novels and doesn't have the same charm that she did in the previous stories. I think Kinsella, the author, was doing very well with the series and just stretched out one more book knowing there was an audience for this series. However, her other books like "Wedding Night" did well and the characters were fresh. I would recommend for her to ditch writing anymore Shopaholic books and stay with writing books where she can still develop the characters.