Unbreakable Ellie Kemper

For those few readers (Grandma and Granddad <3) who have been following this blog since its inception back in July, you will know that I have now very nearly read all the books I set out to read in my very first blog post. Time flies when you're having fun!

Although looking back now, out of the four reviewed so far, only really one has received positive commentary... should I be worried that my taste in books is faltering? (Nah. This is what reading contemporary authors is all about!)

Ellie Kemper's My Squirrel Days was a hotly anticipated debut (by me). Mostly because she is such a cutie. For those who don't know Ellie, she's an American actress, known for her roles in the American version of The Office (yet to watch), a supporting role in Bridesmaids (yet to rewatch) and, of course, her first leading role in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

This book is a collection of personal essays, covering things like growing up, having a crush on David Letterman and staging plays for the family at Christmas, where even a single forgotten word could mean catastrophe. Basically, a semi-fictional autobiography. How can it be semi-fictional, you ask? Hang on...

What did I like about it?

... Semi-fictional because finally someone owned up to the fact that we forget things. So some stuff will be made up. There is no way in hell that everyone can remember decade-old conversations word for word, and small, insignificant scenes from high school, and significant scenes that they must be too nervous to remember - except for me. Or I am really missing something. Were we supposed to take notes?

I liked that I read the whole thing in Ellie's voice. (There's a downside to this, but again, hang on.) She is alive in the pages, and is pretty much exactly how I imagined her. Minus fits of rage over missing lentils from a dish. Crazy stuff.

The essays are short, sweet and make for light reading. Juicy details about the lives of actors are always fun to read, and especially when names like Steve Carell (who is the only one allowed to touch the bagels on set) and Tina Fey (who may or may not be interested in taking up spin classes) pop up. It's a great insight into Ellie's life in general, and it's interesting to read about her journey from working in a cupcake shop (honestly, what did you expect?) to sort-of-stardom.

What was I not massively fond of?

Let's be honest - this book is superfluous. It's super cute too, it's fun because we like Ellie, but it's not a piece of great literature, and it doesn't really do much above promoting Ellie herself. This is not to say I didn't enjoy reading it, on the contrary. But I did wonder occasionally what I was hoping to get out of it, or why I was reading it in the first place.

But that's stardom, isn't it? If you're famous and you have some time on your hands (or if your publicist thinks it's a good idea) you are going to end up writing a book. Following from this then, of course, is the fact that only people who know Ellie will pick this up.

I also found that, although I really enjoy watching her on TV, I don't think her style of humour is particularly suited to written form. Her comedy forte in Kimmy was her attitude, her smile, her incessant enthusiasm, and I think this is stronger on screen.

Overall...

Despite everything, a person like Ellie is someone to aspire to be. Because she seems always happy, always optimistic (take the essay called Hysteric in which she describes her emailing habits. What's wrong with laughing in caps?).

And a little bit of light reading never hurt anyone.

6/10