Bossypants
Ratings609
Average rating3.8
Executive Summary: This was interesting and at times funny, but not as interesting or as funny as I hoped.
Full Review
I really like Tina Fey, though mostly from her writing and her work on Weekend Update for SNL. I never got into 30 Rock for whatever reason. I also enjoyed Unbreakable Kimmie Schmidt which she co-created.
I picked this book up thinking it would be interesting and funny. In particular I was expecting the story of how Ms. Fey rose to fame. There is some of that here, but not enough for my liking. She talked about a lot of random things like photo shoots and beauty tips. I'm not sure if that was meant as satire, or just something I didn't understand because I'm not a woman.
I felt like she glossed over details about how she got to Second City and how she got there to SNL. She covered her time at SNL and 30 Rock decently enough. What I discovered is I have very little in common with Ms. Fey, which maybe made it harder for this book to hold my attention.
She's had to deal with a lot of crap during her rise, and is continuing to deal with it from the sounds of things. I hope her efforts will make it easier for those who come after her, because I still find her interesting and funny despite not loving this book. I will likely check out anything she's involved with.
I read this book in its entirety in under 24 hours (AND I still managed to stick in sleep, work). This book is perfect for anyone who loves Tina Fey's sarcastic wit. It's an insanely fast read and it literally made me laugh out loud in spots. Granted, if you're not a Fey fan, you probably won't like the bulk of this book. It's no shock-and-awe campaign either; you won't find any secrets here. In essence, this book is exactly what I thought (and hoped) it would be: 290 pages of Feytastic wordage. Fey is quite the wordsmith - no surprise there - and she really can weave a story. Some chunks of the book are stuff you've probably already heard/seen/read - SNL sketch scripts, 30 Rock lines, etc. And if you get the Kindle version some of the graphics outside the regular text will be hard to read (unless I'm just a moron) - but I give this book 5+ stars. Tina Fey is a smart and sassy woman, and her book is no different. I highly recommend it to fans of 30 Rock, SNL, and cake.
Huh... Would ya look at that...
What can I say? It is a simple autobiography performed as a labor of love. It was hillarious, and it brought relatability to one of comedy's modern elite.
I clearly knew nothing about Tina Fey, besides her incredible humor, because this book took me by surprise repeatedly. I absolutely love some down-to-earth irreverent humor, but I was not expecting the casual level of profanity from this woman. Most of it seemed to be natural, but there were moments of candor which seemed excessive. I am not one to judge, I just didn't expect it.
I beleieve Tina wrote this book for her posterity, as a way of preserving some of her most endearing memories (and maybe a bit of “Well, everyone else is doing it....”).
Polished off my first Christmas book! Very funny stuff as I knew it would be. I'm a big fan of Tina Fey and her often snarky sense of humor. The book gives a breezy account of her often awkward progress from summer stock theatre to SNL and beyond. I chuckled a lot while reading this.
Having listened to Amy Poehler's “Yes Please” and Mindy Kaling's “Why Not Me” before this, I'd say this was my favorite of the three. All good, but this one had some of the sharpest stuff in it. Funny stuff, insightful cultural commentary, interesting stories. Each had these (and that's part of why I group them - the other reason being that they're of course all semi-autobiographical books by modern women of comedy), but I felt like this one brought the most.
It was weird though to hear her talk about 30 Rock like it's still on.
And the chapter about her dad was sweet and interesting but in parts really sounded like she was justifying some, at best, “dated” (more realistically: racist) views. I think she was just sort of explaining how her dad grew up and came to believe what he believed but there were a few things that seemed to dance close to justification rather than just ... I don't know, explanation. Don't even know if this paragraph makes sense. I just felt like it got a bit uncomfortable for a minute in that chapter.
Autobiografieën in audioboekvorm, voorgelezen door de persoon die het boek over zichzelf geschreven heeft, dat is nog eens wijs, vind ik.
Bossypants was mij een tijd geleden aangeraden door Audible, ik vermoed omdat ik Steve Martin's (uitstekende) autobiografie Born Standing Up al had gekocht en beluisterd. Of misschien gewoon omdat het een enorme bestseller was, wie weet.
Tina Fey (Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock) sprint zeer luchtig door haar leven. Heel soms dacht ik dat het nu wat ernstiger zou worden, maar neen.
Het heeft allemaal zeer zeer weinig diepgang, het vlindert over en weer van onderwerp naar onderwerp met op het eerste zicht de bedoeling vooral grappig te zijn. Er zitten zeer grappige stukken in, maar humoristisch vignet na humoristisch vignet met hier en daar wat feminisme-light? Zoals dat heet: ik bleef op mijn honger zitten.
Het boek is ook geschreven toen 30 Rock nog niet gedaan was, wat het wellicht niet evident maakte, maar dat mag geen excuus zijn. Ik had er meer van verwacht.
I was actually disappointed with this book. There were a few funny parts but it felt preachy and very political.
BLUF: Bossypants is a light, amusing read, but I would have been disappointed if I had bought the book instead of borrowed it.
Bossypants is essentially the ramblings of Tina Fey. This is mostly a benefit as the book reads like you're in a conversation with her. There are instances where I think she purposely made the writing seem awkward or went on a tangent with the humor, but it's exactly what you would expect from the author. (That said, the thing I found most interesting about the book was realizing that Donald Glover worked on 30 Rock.)
There is a downfall if you choose to buy/rent this electronically. All of the asterisks throughout the book correlate with a long list of “footnotes” at the end of the e-book. Even knowing this from the beginning, taking the time to read the correlating asterisk isn't worth it. I guess this doesn't really matter, but they seem amusing.
I didn't hate it, but I got bored and sleepy whenever I tried to read this. This is not my type of writer, and I love Tina so much.
It got better from the middle to the end. It is a great summer read - light and funny.
Written in her usual self-deprecating style of humor, I found the latter part of her life more interesting than her earlier pre-college days. I'm sure she can write an entire book on her parenting experience in her style of humor. I would read that. I hear that her audio version of this book is way better.
I'm a huge fan of Tina Fey so I'm not surprised by the humor in this book. I relate to her quirky personality and laughed hysterically
I heard this on Audiobook through Audible. One of the most entertaining memoirs I've heard. I'm a big Tina Fey fan.
Excellent writing and humor. I read this before bed and I couldn't help but wake up my husband in order to share passages.
I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this audio-book. I love that Tina Fey reads it herself. She had me laughing out loud all along the way.
So funny!!!!! Glad that I picked this up in audio book form, it really made the whole experience more enjoyable because Tina Fey herself read it.
Some parts were a bit draggy but Tina is so funny that I didn't mind listening to her ramble on and on.
My first audio book and my first autobiography - confident that I made the right choice by choosing Bossypants to widen my reading horizons.