Bossypants

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(as of Sep 19, 2024 01:07:49 UTC – Details)

Spirited and whip-smart, these laugh-out-loud autobiographical essays are “a masterpiece” from the Emmy Award-winning actress and comedy writer known for 30 Rock, Mean Girls, and SNL”. (Sunday Telegraph).

Before Liz Lemon, before Weekend Update, before 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 halfhearted 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 always suspected: You’re no one until someone calls you bossy.

Includes special, never-before-solicited opinions on breastfeeding, princesses, Photoshop, the electoral process, and Italian rum cake!

4.5
Reviewer: Patti Bridge
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: love, career
Review: In this humorous memoir, Tina Fey writes about a plethora of topics and stories, all the way from her childhood in Pennsylvania, to her starting her comedy career in Chicago, to her success all over the world. By telling her own stories with witty commentary, Fey also provides a lot of advice about femininity, love, career, and growing up. It is incredibly engaging right off the bat. The cover of the book pictures Fey with a suit, tie, bowler hat, and two large male hands holding her head up. This gives the reader a good idea of the central themes of the book. Fey is one of the most prominent females in the industry, and was a pioneer for women in comedy. The cover is not only humorous, but can be considered commentary about how she is in a very male dominated field. Even the title, “bossypants” is a funny yet accurate representation of Fey’s life. Fey also does a good job of engaging the reader with the first page. With the first line reading “welcome friend”, Fey establishes a very casual tone that makes you feel as if she is a dear companion or an older sister writing to you. She cracks a few jokes, asking the reader why they bought the book. This also says a lot about the structure of “Bossypants”. It is not organized in a way that is especially formal, which to me, makes it easier and more enjoyable to read.There is not so much a “plot” as much as there’s a progression of stories, all told with a unique voice and moral. The stories progress from childhood to professional, which lets readers find different ways to identify with Fey, making the book relatable for many different kinds of people. That’s one of the things I liked most about the book. As a woman, one of the best pieces in the book was the commentary about body image. Fey says “But I think the first real change in women’s body image came when JLo turned it butt-style. That was the first time that having a large-scale situation in the back was part of mainstream American beauty. Girls wanted butts now. Men were free to admit that they had always enjoyed them. And then, what felt like moments later, boom—Beyoncé brought the leg meat. A back porch and thick muscular legs were now widely admired. And from that day forward, women embraced their diversity and realized that all shapes and sizes are beautiful. Ah ha ha. No. I’m totally messing with you. All Beyonce and JLo have done is add to the laundry list of attributes women must have to qualify as beautiful. Now every girl is expected to have Caucasian blue eyes, full Spanish lips, a classic button nose, hairless Asian skin with a California tan, a Jamaican dance hall ass, long Swedish legs, small Japanese feet, the abs of a lesbian gym owner, the hips of a nine-year-old boy, the arms of Michelle Obama, and doll tits. The person closest to actually achieving this look is Kim Kardashian, who, as we know, was made by Russian scientists to sabotage our athletes.”This excerpt is also a good example of the language Fey uses. Again, it’s very casual and relatable, creating a relaxed tone for everyone to enjoy. You often times forget that you are reading a real book, because it seems more like an editorial or essay. Another positive of the casualness of the book is that you can read at whatever pace you want. You can read a few stories and stop, or you can read the whole thing in one sitting. The lack of “chapters” and “cliffhangers” makes it a much more lighthearted read. There is such a strong presence of voice, which is a huge positive in my opinion. Also, it really helps that you are already familiar with Fey and her persona. She has a very strong voice and distinct sense of humor, it makes it even more enjoyable. Even if you have never heard of Tina Fey or her work before, you will find it witty and thought provoking. There is also a lot of interesting information about Fey’s professional life, such as her time with saturday night live, and 30 Rock. The lack of plot or characters does not hurt the value of the book. To me, it is driven by heart and smart humor. You learn a lot, you laugh a lot, and relate to a well known celebrity more than you thought you would. I would recommend this book to anyone of any walks of life, because everyone can take something from it as a “self help” book, as well as a incredibly entertaining and lighthearted read.

Reviewer: Kindles and Wine Book Blog
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Slow to start, but once it hit its stride, I loved it!
Review: REVIEWED BY KINDLE GAL (originally posted on Kindles & Wine Book Blog)Oh, Tina Fey … You are pretty freaking awesome.I have to say, I started this book on my Kindle and did the whole Whispersync for Voice thing, where I’d switch over to the audiobook whenever I ran a quick errand or was doing a mindless task. I honestly wasn’t sure how I’d like switching back and forth between print and audio, but for a book like this one, it worked great. And because I’d split my time between the two formats, I can say without a single doubt that BOSSYPANTS is waaaaayy better heard than read.The book starts out as a collection of short stories or essays, detailing some random events in Fey`s childhood, high school, and college years. And when I say “random,” I truly mean RANDOM. In fact, I found myself getting easily distracted during the early part of the book. The chapters were disjointed and less funny than I’d expected. Fey had a fairly “normal” upbringing and experience growing up, and as great as that is for her as a person, it doesn’t make for good comedy. (It’d be like me telling all of you random stories from my childhood, high school, and college years. Zzzzz…) I actually started to worry BOSSYPANTS was going to fall victim to my DNFing ways of 2015!But then the good stuff happened.When the book hit 40%, I was hooked. The chapter titled “A Childhood Dream, Realized” told how Fey landed a writing position at SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE in 1997. I loved getting an inside peek at how this happened and her candid retelling of experiences during her nine years working on the show from a writer’s perspective, which I found endlessly fascinating! Instead of being gossipy or full of drama llama (which I imagine other books by former SNL performers might be), Fey framed these moments within her world view of what it was like to be an independent, strong woman in a workplace dominated by men. She became the head writer of a show whose most recognizable stars shifted from being men when she started (e.g., Jimmy Fallon, Will Ferrell) to women when she left (e.g., Amy Poehler, Kristen Wiig).Yeah. That was just the beginning of what ended up being a truly interesting and entertaining last 3/5 of the book.Fey goes on to tell about how 30 Rock came to be, why she really didn’t want to impersonate Sarah Palin (and how last minute it ended up being), how she balances motherhood with a job where she is the producer, writer, and star (when the book was published, 30 ROCK was still in its prime), and some funny family moments, all of which I really enjoyed!I absolutely LOVED listening to Tina Fey read BOSSYPANTS. She has an incredibly expressive voice, and I found myself laughing out loud more often when I had my earbuds in versus when I was reading. Another bonus with the audiobook is that the audio from the Sarah Palin sketches from SNL are included, which was a fun surprise! (In the book, there’s an image of Fey and Poehler as Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton from the sketch followed by the marked-up script.)Besides the slow start to the book, my only other complaint is that Fey`s voice sometimes trailed off and was too quiet on the audio. This usually happened when she made an aside or quick comment that turned out a little mumbly. But she also did some fun things when she ad-libbed on the audio, like here:”I cannot emphasize to you how well this went, because I’m using a lot of exclamation points but you can’t see them because this is an audiobook.”Love that Tina Fey. ☺BOTTOM LINEBOSSYPANTS is rather short, coming in under 300 pages in print and only 5½ hours on audio. Although it starts out slow, the back 3/5 is fantastic! Anyone who is a fan of Tina Fey should definitely give it a try, and I’d HIGHLY recommend you do it as an audiobook.Rating: B+ (4½ stars)

Reviewer: Fernanda C.
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Ótimo livro! A escrita da Tina é muito boa e te prende durante o livro. Dei boas risadas.

Reviewer: isa
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: si te gusta Tina Fey, debes leer este libro.

Reviewer: Emilie
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: In this book, Tina fey proved once and for all that she is a comedy genius. I was hooked from beginning to end and laughed the whole way through. Maybe one of the best book I ever read.

Reviewer: Leylan
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Un libro inspirador y gracioso. Larga vida a Tina Fey

Reviewer: Elisabetta
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: A distanza di anni dalla prima volta che l’ho letto, mantiene tutto il suo smalto. Caldamente consigliato!