Tina Fey

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, comedian Tina Fey reveals all, and proves that you're no one until someone calls you bossy.

Bossypants

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!

reads like having dinner with your hilarious friend who you'd happily listen to all night. Written during the later seasons of "30 Rock," I particularly enjoyed her behind-the-scenes stories about the show's creation, struggles, and successes. However, I have to admit that as a non-American reader, some of the humour fell flat for me. Many of her references and cultural contexts are specifically tailored to an American audience, leaving me in that awkward position of knowing something's funny but not quite getting the joke. It's like being at a party where everyone's laughing at an inside joke you weren't there for. Despite these cultural barriers, Fey's wit shines through, and it definitely made me want to revisit "30 Rock" again for the hundredth time.

Pratik M

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.

Antonio Bolio

Me reí tanto que comencé a dudar si de verdad estaba tan chistoso o el imaginarme a Tina Fey como Sarah Palin hacía que me riera. Al final me di cuenta que no me la estaba imaginando, solo me estaba riendo porque de verdad es una lectura muy, muy divertida.

Marcy Pursell 

** spoiler alert **
           I've been wanting to read this for years, and finally listened to the audiobook, narrated by Tina Fey herself. I loved hearing her stories of growing up, being in college, and working at Second City, SNL, and 30 Rock. She's funny and relatable, and if you like any of her work, I think you'll like this book.

Kat Albanese

Denaiir

I really enjoyed tis audiobook, it was fun, the narration by the author was upbeat, on point and funny. I really enjoyed the parts about SNL, and the funniest for me were the parts about the cruise and photoshoots. You'll know what I mean if you read it. I laughed quite a lot and generally had a good time listening to it.

Lamia Hajani

3 stars

Meh. I wanted to like it more than I did - I really do like Tina Fey. But something about this book made it feel like it came short of expectations, which might be unfair to relate my rating to what I expected from the book based on its popularity. I don't know - I wish it was funnier or that the essays connected better. I've just read better than this from writers like Mindy Kaling.

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 all 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!)

Briar's Reviews

Tina Fey is a legend. Honestly, I look up to this woman. She's smart, sassy and seriously funny. I have wanted to pick up this book since it came out, but you know how it is. So many books to read, so little time, so little money.

I finally came across this book and have been staring at it for probably about a year. It's been sitting on my shelf collecting dust, and finally it was time. I was anxious, tired and sad: I needed funny. This book fit the bill and helped lift my mood a lot.

So, the book:

Tina Fey's story telling is sassy, spunky and raw fun. It's a jokey memoir that tells true tales but isn't exactly what you expect. It kind of rambles, but I like it that way. It makes the book feel honest and awkward, which is kind of what I except a Comedian to write like. Comedians are funny, not necessarily poets.

Not only is it funny, but it gives some good life advice to. Tina Fey's inner Mom came out, and I quite enjoyed it. It's nice to see a celebrity who acts human in their books. She may have a supernatural force in her comedy, but it proved she's just like everyone else. It felt human. I like that. 

I snickered my way through this book. It's a great book that actually made me laugh. If you like memoirs with some funny sass, grab this book! I think it lived up to the hype, but not in the way I expected. That's a good thing!

Overall, this book was quirky and relatable. It's a must read for me and one I'll jump back into in the future when I'm having a rough day. Tina Fey is the kind of person I want to sit down and have coffee with. Also, 30 Rock, SNL and Mean Girls are on her resume. She's a comedy legend in my books.

Also, Amy Poehler! Yay!

Four out of five stars.

Jowanza Joseph

What a fun read.  This book had been recommended to me for months and I finally got around to it.  There is a wide spectrum of things to be learned about Tina Fey's career, life as a mother and other advice by reading this book.  Recommended to all.

Once in a generation a woman comes along who changes everything. Tina Fey is not that woman, but she met that woman once and acted weird around her. Before 30 Rock, Mean Girls and '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 all suspected: you're no one until someone calls you bossy.

Juliana Matias

Although I am a somewhat recent convert into the world of strong female celebrity memoirs, I have recently read had 3 of them read to me by the authors through the fascinating experience that are audiobooks, and I must admit I have been converted. It's always a breath of fresh air to have an intelligent woman talk to/at you for 4-6 hours about funny little anecdotes that may or may not carry some underlying lesson about the world.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I have never seen an episode of 30 Rock, not do I watch Saturday Night Live or did so at the time she worked there, so I really had no expectations starting this. I didn't know what Tina Fey's kind of humor was. It just seemed like the world overwhelmingly recommended everyone in the world and their mothers read this if they were into memoirs. So I bit the bullet and bought it.

To be honest, I don't think Tina Fey set out to write a feminist book. Many people say it is a feminist book, but I don't think that's the point at all. I think it was just unavoidable. When a woman enters a male-dominated industry and lives to tell the tale, it is a truth universally acknowledged that  a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife she will invariably end up facing sexism and touching upon the subject when telling her story.

All I can say is that she touches upon a myriad of issues that are in no way, shape or form limited to gender in a such a funny and nonchalant way that it takes a while to process and understand just how inspiring it all really is. I'm all for the self-deprecating-honest-truth-using-humor-as-a-deflection-mechanism tone she uses in this book, so really, it was right up my alley, but I think there's tons of good stuff there for everybody.

I highly recommend this for just about anyone who has a pulse.

Absolutely hilarious. Could not contain my laughter while I listened at work. Not sure it would age well for some people. 

🌞Laur🌞

Vishwa

Not enough depth, and though I enjoy her work, Tina's approach to writing here didn't feel genuinely personal enough. Instead, it was littered with sarcastic humour that took away from the readers ability to understand her journey.

Her writing style mirrors the writing on 30 Rock, so maybe that's just who she is. And there's an audiobook, may be that's better. But having read other comedian's biography memoir things (Colin Jost, Trevor Noah), and expecting something of a similar level of personal-ness and depth, this one came across as not enough.

Jeannette Ordas

I laughed out loud reading about Tina's awkward high school & first job moments (though giggling into my scarf would be a more apt description since I was on a crowded plane at the time). I then made my husband read a passage about improv and he ended up reading a whole other chapter about cruising since she's so freakin' funny. She's fiercely feminist and I love that she wants to rally women together. Smart & funny? She's my kind of lady. Oh, and that this book introduced "crotch biscuits" into my daily vocabulary, I'm forever grateful.

So funny, self-deprecating, and completely enjoyable. Tina Fey is obviously hilarious, and I definitely caught myself laughing out loud at many points during the book. But she's also so honest, and I felt as if she gave you a real look inside the good and not-so-glamorous aspects of her life. And the cover makes me laugh EVERY TIME!

Izza

kate humphreys 

started and finished this in one day, haven’t done that in a hot minute. wow i loved this so much, especially having tina herself read it to me (via audiobook ofc). although a lot of her jokes and humor would he incredibly inappropriate today and i tried my hardest to ignore those bits, i really enjoyed this; as a tina fey fan, a thirty rock lover, someone who feel like a giant ugly nerd sometimes too, and honestly just as a human being. thanks for being normal tina ;)

Adam

Completely hilarious all the way through.

Charlotte 

A novel based on a real person (sort of) ✔

Mounir Bashour

Dawn Keiser

First of all, I feel I should say that this review MAY be a little biased. I absolutely adore Tina Fey. She is amazing. Bossypants was absolutely, wonderfully, hilarious.

Tina touched on many subjects: the weirdness of childhood, workplace drama, motherhood, her time on Saturday Night Live, working on 30 Rock. She didn't hold back either; she copped to the mistakes she's made. It was honest and refreshing and I laughed the entire time I was reading it.

Some of my favorite parts of the book:
“Some people say, “Never let them see you cry.” I say, if you’re so mad you could just cry, then cry. It terrifies everyone.” 
“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.”
“Gay people don’t actually try to convert people. That’s Jehovah’s Witnesses you’re thinking of.”

Honestly I could just put the whole book in here I loved it that much. I borrowed this as an ebook from my local library. I am going to go out and find the audiobook (which I found out is read by Tina Fey herself). I give this book a 5/5!

Ashley J Brown

I LOVE TINA FEY!
I listened to the audio book version read by Tina Fey, I was hooked from the first chapter. Much like when I read Amy Poehler, and Rachel Dratch's books my inner introvert admires these women with such an admiration. Reading their stories have taught me how human my heroes are.

Bossypants talked about it all; Tina's early life, SNL, 30 Rock, and life after. I couldn't help but laugh the entire time while listening. The stories and the little one liners she sneaks in are hilarious! 
My personal favorite the reference to Michelle Duggars vagina while describing her trip to the gyno. 
I would recommend this book to anyone who loves Ms. Fey

Bunnhi

Felt as though a majority of the story was Tina defending herself. It could have been great, it was fun and interesting but so, so defensive.

Amanda K

I'm probably biased because I'm a big Tina fan but I loved Bossypants. It had me laughing out loud in the library.

Tameka Young

Hilarity ensued. I wish I could write like Tina Fey...I'd be hilarious. Read it! Love it! Then read it again!