Table of Contents: Bossypants

Author: Tina Fey
Publisher/Year: Reagan Arthur Books, 2011
Synopsis: Tina Fey’s new book Bossypants is short, messy, and impossibly funny (an apt description of the comedian herself). From her humble roots growing up in Pennsylvania to her days doing amateur improv in Chicago to her early sketches on Saturday Night Live, Fey gives us a fascinating glimpse behind the curtain of modern comedy with equal doses of wit, candor, and self-deprecation. Some of the funniest chapters feature the differences between male and female comedy writers ("men urinate in cups"), her cruise ship honeymoon ("it’s very Poseidon Adventure"), and advice about breastfeeding ("I had an obligation to my child to pretend to try"). But the chaos of Fey’s life is best detailed when she’s dividing her efforts equally between rehearsing her Sarah Palin impression, trying to get Oprah to appear on 30 Rock, and planning her daughter’s Peter Pan-themed birthday.

What Others Have to Say
The Guardian
"Fey is out of her genre, and it shows: it takes an age to get going, and it's less like prose non-fiction than a sketch comedy in book form, with a disproportionate number of one-liners, not all of which work. What it does have, though, when you eventually get to it, is a good old-fashioned mission statement."

National Post
"Because for all the jibes about how to deal with right-wing internet commentators and arch-less Greek eyebrows, Tina Fey refuses to discuss her role in contemporary culture. Maybe she doesn’t understand it herself. The result is a joke-driven memoir that resonates like a punchline without the setup."

The New York Times
"It’s a spiky blend of humor, introspection, critical thinking and Nora Ephron-isms for a new generation."

The A.V. Club
"Even as she declares her effortlessness to be an illusion, Fey makes her potent combination of wit and attack look easy."