Let me be honest here for a second.... I wanted to absolutely love this book. I really really did. And I did like it, but did not LOVE it like I wanted to. I thoroughly enjoyed watching The Office and I like Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, but this book just wasn't that funny. Kimmy has a normal, carefree (and assuming at least somewhat wealthy) upbringing in St. Louis, attends Princeton to play field hockey and ends up quitting the team at the beginning of her sophomore year. Shortly after, she joins an improv group and lives happily ever after.

Not really, but that's what it certainly seems like. After she graduates Princetons, she attends Oxford since she doesn't know what she wants to do with her life and is still being financially supported by her parents. Then she moves to NYC and starts doing more improv (and is still being financially supported by her parents). She eventually gets to audition for The Office and the rest of her career falls into place. It just all seems very happy-go-lucky and like she didn't have any hard times to deal with while trying to become a famous comedic person in NYC/Hollywood. The only bad thing she mentions in the book career wise is the fact that she auditioned for SNL (and got Lorne Michaels' name wrong in the process) and didn't get a callback.

I just think I would have enjoyed this book more if there was a little bit more substance behind it. More gritty details. Not a memoir for someone who doesn't seem to have had that much super interesting stuff happen to her. Or if she wrote this book 10 years from now and had more stories to add to it.

PS (and these are a little too TMI on her part) The fact that she wrote about how she randomly pees her pants from laughing too hard (and that was before she had a child so she can't even use that as an excuse) and how she doesn't wash her hands after going to the bathroom in her own house is so gross.

I love Ellie Kemper, but I'm sad to say that I didn't love this. While her funny voice and wit shines through in a lot of the essays, overall, I was underwhelmed. She's talented, for sure, but her life is incredibly privileged and average - and that doesn't make for a compelling read. This was far too basic for my liking, although I enjoyed the bits about The Office and her Netflix show a lot!

This book was such a great read! Very entertaining! It felt as if you were sitting at a cafe having a conversation with a friend who is talking about her life. She spoke of emotional, funny and learning moments for her. Each chapter showed us what her world was like growing up and working in the entertainment business. The best parts were those where she didn't take herself seriously.

Love this book! She has such a wonderful voice for story telling. I laughed out loud throughout the book.

I love, love, love the Netflix show Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and when I saw that Ellie Kemper had written a book I knew I had to get my hands on it. This book was delightful in so many ways, I loved getting to know Ellie more, even though she actually reminded me of her character, Kimmy. The book is basically a series of essays on topics ranging from her childhood hobbies (which involved squirrel watching, hence the title), to her college experience, to her auditions for SNL and The Office. The only thing that would’ve been better would’ve been listening to this book on audio. It was the perfect light, funny read for me and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the books written by Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Mindy Kayling.

*thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review*

I loved watching Ellie Kemper on The Office and in Bridesmaids, and this is exactly the book I was expecting from her. The memoir covers her childhood, path to comedy via NYC and Chicago, and her major acting roles. I enjoyed reading about her tenacity to make it in comedy and how much effort she put into improv.

Ellie didn’t have a difficult upbringing, and this book is not in any way similar to hard-hitting memoirs of this year like Educated. However, what her memoir lacks in dramatics it makes up for in humor. I laughed out loud several times during this book and ended up reading it in a day. If you want something fun and not too serious to read, this is a great choice.

I was so excited to see this book on NetGalley – I knew I had to read it. As a self-proclaimed Office and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt fan, and as a St. Louis native, I knew I had to read Kemper’s book. And I am so glad I did!

Kemper’s humor comes across in her writing so well. I giggled constantly while reading this book. Each chapter tells of a different experience or memory from Kemper’s life and she is very open and honest in her writing. She includes a disclaimer in the beginning of the book that her stories will be embellished – and there are plenty of moments where you can see this in action, and it gives the work an artful storytelling quality that I quite enjoyed, because really, everyone remembers things differently than how they happened. Kemper uses this to channel her humor and creates a scene that almost feels like you’re reading the scene of a movie.

It was wonderful seeing all the bits and pieces that Kemper includes about St. Louis in her story. St. Louis is both a fairly large city and at the same like a small town (where you bump into people you know more often than not), so it often gets passed up when people consider major cities in the US. It was nice to get this little nod of recognition from Kemper. As she related bits about her childhood, I could easily picture the places she mentions and I got a little thrill every time.

It was also amazing to hear a little behind the scenes tidbits from the shows and movies she’s acted in, like getting a little Office trivia. It was very cool to see things from her perspective about a show that I’ve watched so many times. She actually lived some of it!

I would definitely recommend this to fans of the Office or Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. It’s also just a really funny book with lots of slice of life scenes that are made larger than life with Kemper’s humor and storytelling. A fun, quick read that’s worth picking up.

First line: There comes a time in every sitcom actress’s life when she is faced with the prospect of writing a book.

Summary: In this short memoir by actress Ellie Kemper we get a look into her life as a kid, breaking into show business and getting a starring role on a Netflix sitcom.

Highlights: I love Ellie Kemper and her roles on The Office and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. I always imagined her to be similar to her characters and after reading this, I think that she is. She seems to be a happy person with lots of energy. She is funny and goofy. I believe she would be a great person to have as a friend. I was happy to read this. It was very quick and enjoyable.

Lowlights: I did not have any laugh out loud moments but just some internal chuckles.

FYI: Perfect if you love Bossypants!

“I am a natural born shut-in who dreads leaving the couch.” -Ellie (but also me)😆
I’m a big fan of The Office and really liked The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, so I enjoyed this fun little book of quirky stories from Ellie’s life. It was self-deprecating, quick, & sarcastic. It also includes interesting little tidbits from The Office, Bridesmaids, and stories of celebs she’s encountered. The chapter called Slob about germaphobia after she had a baby made me giggle. Fun fact: her puke in Bridesmaids was made up of graham crackers, vanilla pudding and whipped cream😆 Now you know! *Thanks to @netgalley and @scribnerbooks for the free advanced copy for my honest review.*

Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC.

I already loved Ellie Kemper, but this collection of short stories just makes her even more relatable. She weaves a wonderful portrait of her life. If you like fun relatable series, give My Squirrel Days a read. You will be pleasantly surprised.

This book is a perfect match to my perception of Kemper's persona: cute, harmless, mildly amusing. I smiled at parts, but I never laughed out loud. And I certainly never chuckled or guffawed. More than that, though, I don't feel like I learned anything about Kemper. There were no surprises, no insight into the inner workings of a woman who is most certainly smarter and more interesting than the characters she has played.

A nice collection of essays, but most stories fell a little flat for me. It just wasn't all that interesting and didn't hold my attention.

Loved this book. Ellie Kemper is authentic and genuine and I read this book with her voice in my head.

I had no idea who Kemper was when i received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. But this is a charming collection full of humor. However, it seems rather shallow in places.

Let’s get this out of the way first: this book is not the next Gone Girl. There is no twist in the third act.

Ellie Kemper is a popular comedic actress, trained in improv and appearing in the same universe as Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. And because of this, Ellie has a book. It’s not a bad book, but it’s not going to change any lives.

In a series of essays, Ellie details the trials and tribulations of her life - upper middle class upbringing, Princeton education, and starring role in a hit tv show with very few other credits to her name. While this may seem tone deaf, Ellie imbues her writing with enough self-doubt and deprication that she remains likeable, if only a little boring.

I enjoyed her essays about her childhood a bit more than her “making it in the comedy world” stories. In several places, I laughed out loud. I’m not ready to move to NYC and convince her to enter into a co-dependent friendship with me (that role was reserved for Mindy Kaling after her charming “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?”, the best of the privileged comedy star memoirs) , but if Ellie wants to hang sometime and eat some cupcakes, I’d be down for it.

While I'm a self-professed lover of celebrity memoirs, I wasn't in love with Ellie Kemper's My Squirrel Days. Although there were a couple of entertaining essays, many of the topics were mundane and sometimes boring (e.g. complaining to waiters about a lentil and quinoa salad; joking about telling grandchildren about taking 500 SoulCycle classes). While I think any topic can be interesting in the hands of the good writer, I just didn't care much for style of writing in this collection. I also wish that Ellie had provided more detailed insight into working on the sets of The Office and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

(Note: Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for the opportunity to review this ARC ahead of publication).

Ellie Kemper is not only a wonderful actress and comedienne, but now also a great writer. I was engaged from the very beginning of the book, when learning about her childhood and how she grew into adulthood. Her observations about becoming an adult, getting married, and having children is done in a very real, yet very funny way. What a gem this book is. Maybe not the particular section on her husband's feet, but otherwise :) I would definitely recommend it!

Provided by Net Galley

I really wanted to love this book. It starts out with her talking about how it was her turn but maybe that was the problem... I have read many of the other books from Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Mindy Kaling and it seemed too similar to them, but without as much heart. The stories were cute but very surface level. She seemed very much like the characters she plays. I would recommend for anyone that wants a quick, light read without much substance.

I watched the Office occasionally and never watched Ellie on her other show but I have seen her on interviews and the Today show and found her to be authentic and funny. That is what this read is. Not my usual type of reading but found this to be funny and entertaining. I enjoyed it.

I really enjoy Ellie Kemper's acting, especially on The Office and was excited to see she'd written a memoir! And while I did enjoy this, it was not quite as delicious as other celebrity memoirs which I read to get a sense of background and world building to see how they became what and who they became. This was a fun series of humorous essays and I'd love to see Kemper write again in a few decades.