This book is exactly what I expected, in all the best ways. Ellie Kemper is silly and sweet without being trite or saccharine and her writing reflects her perfectly. I enjoyed this immensely!

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Unlike a whole slew of recent comedian memoirs, this book is written by a comedic actress who is also an actual writer - and it shows. Although Kemper's life doesn't yield a huge amount of "story", she expertly manipulates every non-event of her seemingly ordinary (if very privileged) life into a genuinely funny anecdote or set-piece. Her persona isn't quite as naive as the characters she has become known for (Erin in The Office, and Kimmy Schmidt), but she deliberately plays up these aspects of herself and her life to great comic effect. Nobody is going to come close to beating the current modern classic in this genre - Tina Fey's Bossypants - but Kemper doesn't try, and her book is all the better for it.

Fans of Ellie Kemper will love this funny memoir! Written with a light hearted vibe, Ellie details her background and rise to capture a role on her own series. Her sunny disposition shines throughout this delightful read.

I liked the tone and humor of this book a lot. I thought some of it was a little scattered, but I enjoyed it overall.

Comedian and actress Ellie Kemper has made a name for herself playing sweetly good-natured characters. You probably now her as Erin on The Office, Becca in Bridesmaids, or the title character in Netflix's The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. As she says, "I have played a wide range of characters over the years - characters ranging from ditzy and cheerful to flaky and upbeat."

Based on her new book of essays, Ellie Kemper might not be a ditzy and flaky as the characters she's played, but she's probably at least as cheerful and upbeat. She takes us from her childhood days staging elaborate Christmas play for her family and emulating naturalist Dian Fossey by studying neighborhood squirrels instead of mountain gorillas to her time practicing improv comedy, auditioning for Saturday Night Live, and preparing to be a real life bridesmaid while also playing one in a blockbuster movie.

If you liked Tina Fey's Bossypants and Amy Poehler's Yes Please, give My Squirrel Days a shot.

I loved her on The Office and I love her even more after reading this! Ellie Kemper is wildly hilarious and each of her essays were solid gold.

This book is a group of essays from the actress who starred in The Office and Unbreakable Kimmie Schmitt. Much like the actress, they are charming and funny. The positive and upbeat vibe she gives out as her characters shines through in her real life also. It was interesting to read about her childhood and her early start in the showbiz.

A very delightful, easy, funny read whether you're a fan of the actress or not.

I loved My Squirrel Days. It was refreshingly funny. I learned so much about Ellie Kemper’s life. I heard her voice when I was reading each page. She has lead a full life.

I got an advanced copy for my honest opinion.
While, I love Ellie Kemper as an actress, this book did not hold my attention past the first half of the book. I enjoyed the first few chapters, but after it fell flat. I do think that I would have enjoyed the book much more as an audiobook if it were narrated by Ellie herself.

Charming book. Kemper comes across as very normal and, of course, very funny. One thing that stuck out to me is just how hard she's worked.

I enjoy watching Ellie Kemper as Kimmy Schmidt. I laughed in a few places in the book, but it seemed rather Kimmy-ish in the randomness of the chapters.

I’ve read a lot of these memoirs by rising comedic actresses - Mindy Kaling, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, even Amy Schumer and Lena Dunham. While Ellie Kemper seems like a great lady, this book just isn’t that interesting. She makes landing her biggest acting jobs just seem like luck, and glosses over her upbringing, meeting her husband and having her child. Instead, we get a story about one time she didn’t recognize that there were in fact lentils in her brunch dish. At the end, I didn’t feel like I knew or appreciated her anymore than before.

*I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Laugh out loud funny! I’ve loved Ellie Kemper since The Office so reading this was a must for me. After all, she states “there is an unspoken rule among redheads, and that is that we must immediately love one another.” Even if I weren’t a redhead, I’d still love this book.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for this hilarious read!

My Squirrel Days basically details Ellie Kemper's rise to fame and her journey along the way. I enjoyed her quirky character on The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and since my son is a big fan of Julie's Greenroom on Netflix, I've watched the episode numerous times where Ellie teaches the kids about improv.

While I enjoyed learning about how Ellie became the star she is today, I probably most enjoyed the stories about her personal life and growing up. My favorite passages were about her unique method of washing her dad's car and also her reaction to germs as a first time mom. Those were both laugh out loud moments for me.

I received this book courtesy of Scribner through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

For the most part I really enjoyed this book - the chapters are broken down as mini essays on her life, though I found depth lacking. Kemper is obviously funny, and reading about her exploits will make you laugh, but I wanted more.

Hilarious. I've always enjoyed her work and this book was no different! Loved her play on Jane Eyre throughout the book. Reader, this book was super fun.

I wanted to like this book, I truly did. I was so excited to get an advanced copy, and then super bummed when I discovered it wasn't great. The writing is fine and there are definitely some funny lines/sections. However what brings this memoir is that Ellie's rise to fame simply wasn't compelling. Sure she's talented and worked for it, but unfortunately I found that boring.

Ellie was fortunate to have a smooth rise to fame. She's from a solid, traditional family background with wealthy parents who helped to support her financially. She went to college at Princeton majoring in communications and pursued comedy. She found work quickly, was cast in some great roles, met and married a good guy, had babies and remains happy.

Even as a fan of her work and characters, I still couldn't manage to spend the time sticking with this. If the above bland synopsis still sounds interesting to you, give it a try and perhaps an audio book version might be more interesting. Otherwise I say skip it and find a celebrity memoir with a bit more going on.

i love ellie kemper in unbreakable kimmy schmidt and in the office. so in the vein of mindy kaling's two books, my squirrel days feels very familiar. but i don't think this is a bad thing. ellie is a refreshing voice, her stories are funny and quirky and feel innocent and sweet in a way she can only pull off.

her appeal is in her positivity too, and given the current state of the world, it's always nice to have memoirs like this to fall back on. it helps too that ellie and i are close in age to each other, her childhood memories remind me of mine. at the end of the day, this was the exact read i thought it would be, enjoyable, sweet, funny. it's exactly what i wanted.

**my squirrel days will publish on october 9, 2018. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/scribner in exchange for my honest review.

Things I enjoyed about this book: 

I did enjoy Ellie's awkward encounters with people and her take on motherhood. She had a few comedic essays throughout her book. Whenever The Office or Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt was brought up, I was excited!

The Things I Didn’t Enjoy: 

This book was completely surface level. There was no depth whatsoever. I felt like it was a missed opportunity for us to really learn about Ellie. 

MRS BIRDS WORDS REVIEW



My Squirrel Days by Ellie Kemper deserves 3 out of 5 bird feathers. It kills me to not give her higher ratings- I think three is generous after contemplating two for so long. In a lot of was My Squirrel Days were painful. Ellie has lived a regular life, besides being a star. I didn't feel like there was anything extraordinary being laid out in front of me. I will say I LOVE Ellie Kemper as an actor. Her role in Unbreakable is to this day, one of my favorites. So I want to make this clear. I LOVE HER, but this book wasn't my favorite. The only time I literally became giddy was her last chapter because it was titled Tina Fey and I loved that one because it was all about Tina. I felt the book tried too hard to be funny and fell short. I found her parental anecdotes funny, probably because I too am in this stage. So overall, I would recommend buying it to look cool on your bookshelf or listen to it. I am sure listening to her tell the stories would be much more entertaining! 

Parent’s Guide:

Not for kids- there's a few f bombs!

Easily my favorite of the books I have been reading recently. I am a huge fan of memoirs written by female comedians like Amy Poehler and Mindy Kaling and while I knew very little about Ellie Kemper, I was super excited to read this one. This book was made up of hilarious episodes in Ellie’s life and a lot of the time, I felt like I was watching an episode of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. She truly is one of a kind and a great role-model for both being yourself and not letting anything get you down. I am already thinking about picking up copies for some of my girlfriends because you really can’t go wrong with such a cheery and hilarious book!