A Couple of Great Comedy Reads

During my commute into work, I find I need a distraction to help with any anxiety attacks if the train is especially busy. Reading is one of my favourite distractions, especially if it's one that is going to make me chuckle!

I appreciate these two books probably are fairly obviously choices, but I genuinely loved reading both of them. Being a huge fan of Parks & Recreation and 30 Rock I couldn't wait to read both books!

Yes Please by Amy Poehler is part memoir, part life advice and is an absolute hoot which made me laugh out loud on several occasions. If you're not familiar with Amy, she's an Actress, Comedienne and Writer who hit the big time with Saturday Night Live and the UBC. Since then she's gone on to do some awesome bits and pieces including Parks & Recreation which, if you haven't seen, you need to watch because it's frikken hilarious. 

The inside of the book describes this as  "A collection of anecdotes, essays, ideas, lists, and haikus from the mind of one of America's most beloved entertainers, Yes Please offers Amy's thoughts on everything from her 'too safe' childhood outside of Boston to her early days in New York City, her ideas about Hollywood and showbusiness, the demon that looks back at all of us in the mirror, and her joy at being told she has 'a face for wigs'. A delight on every page, Yes Please is chock-full of words, and wisdom, to live by."

Without spoiling anything, this book will make you feel pretty darn chuffed about being weird, a little different, or perhaps someone whose mind didn't quite think like everyone else's. We're awesome!

Bossypants by Tina Fey is probably the book that started the whole comedienne book writing trend and again, I loved this! This is more memoir than than Amy Poehlers book and follows Tina through school, summer camp and her rise to fame, again through Saturday Night Live where she and Amy met for the first time. It is hilarious and well worth a read.

The synopsis of this on Amazon really does set the whole tone for this book, with the description stating  "Once in a generation a woman comes along who changes everything. Tina Fey is not that woman, but she met that woman once and acted weird around her. Before 30 Rock, Mean Girls and 'Sarah Palin', Tina Fey was just a young girl with a dream: a recurring stress dream that she was being chased through a local airport by her middle-school gym teacher. She also had a dream that one day she would be a comedian on TV. She has seen both these dreams come true. At last, Tina Fey's story can be told. From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately half-hearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon - from the beginning of this paragraph to this final sentence. Tina Fey reveals all, and proves what we've all suspected: you're no one until someone calls you bossy."

Again, I don't want to spoil anything for you, but if you'd like somewhere to start on the comedienne front, I'd recommend this as it's not too long and really will make you chuckle. As a fan I really enjoyed finding out more about where she started from. It certainly makes you appreciate how hard people have worked to end up doing a job they've dreamed of and makes me motivated to keep on pushing to wind up where I want to be. These things don't happen overnight people!

Have you enjoyed any good comedy reads lately? What would you suggest I read next?