Tina Fey's Hilarious Bestseller: "Bossypants"

heatwinch: A great read. A look into the life of Tina Fey complete with hilarious anecdotes. I highly recommend.

United States on Dec 11, 2023

P Harding: Good

United Kingdom on Nov 18, 2023

Meldabird: I've had this book in my kindle library for a while and I was really looking forward to reading it. I honestly thought I would be laughing throughout every page, I managed to count on one hand the amount of times I laughed out loud.

If you're going to talk about your life, particularly your childhood or anything personal, skimming information is not it. For me personally, that's not honesty, that's just trying to show people your best side. None of us are perfect. Some of the best biographies I've read (Viola Davis, Mariah Carey, Robyn Crawford, Gabrielle Union, Tiffany Haddish, Brian Cox, Whoopi Goldberg, Michael J Fox and Questlove) have all been so brutally honest.

I remember when Tina Fey was talking about "Mean Girls" and there was a particular line that someone had said to her in High school as a child that she wrote into the script. It was brutal, but she never talked about it in the book or went into detail about the scar on her face.

I was a fan of Tina Fey before, not any more.

United Kingdom on Aug 06, 2023

evonwise: More a manual on how to succeed in TV comedy/production. Some really good stories and generally entertaining. It doesn't delve too deeply into past traumas, but seems to give an honest account of the struggles of a woman in a mostly male-led industry. I enjoyed it despite not knowing much about Tina Fey beforehand.

United Kingdom on Nov 27, 2022

Patricia Bridge: 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...

United States on Dec 07, 2017

Kindles and Wine Book Blog: 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....

United States on Apr 12, 2015

Georgiana89: Probably rather unusually for a reader of this book, I'e had very little exposure to Tina Fey beyond the ubiquitous Sarah Palin sketches that did the rounds a few years ago. I picked it up because I'd seen a few quotations from it that I found both clever and amusing - if you're debating whether this is for you, I'd suggest you take a look at some of them on Goodreads and see if they work for you.

"“Politics and prostitution have to be the only jobs where inexperience is considered a virtue. In what other profession would you brag about not knowing stuff? “I’m not one of those fancy Harvard heart surgeons. I’m just an unlicensed plumber with a dream and I’d like to cut your chest open.”"

or

“So, my unsolicited advice to women in the workplace is this. When faced with sexism, or ageism, or lookism, or even really aggressive Buddhism, ask yourself the following question: “Is this person in between me and what I want to do?” If the answer is no, ignore it and move on. Your energy is better used doing your work and outpacing people that way. Then, when you’re in charge, don’t hire the people who were jerky to you.”

The book is a...

United Kingdom on Feb 28, 2015

Treacle: I am a big 30 Rock fan and that's the only place that I know Tina Fey from. The shows are unbelievably witty and laugh out loud funny and as Tina is the heart & soul behind it all I was excited to read her book.

Don't get me wrong, the book is very good and in places laugh out loud funny but it's written very erratically and I often found myself a bit lost and not really getting the main point of what she was trying to say.

The main highs for me were;
* 'Nazi Teat' women (so well written and so perceptive of women who look down at other women on the subject of Breast or Bottle - I just wish I had read it when I chose not to breastfeed)
* Her experience of being on an official photo shoot and being all made up like a model (so normal and down-to-earth)
* Her opinions on Photoshop (very refreshing and honest)

Going back to 30 Rock again, it was great to see her give so much credit to Alec Baldwin for making it a real success - he really does give the show a fantastic edge (in fact, it would be nothing without him really despite how wonderful Tina is).

So my conclusion is read it only if you are a mega fan of hers otherwise you will think that...

United Kingdom on Apr 12, 2012