Oh, Tina Fey, how I love you and your hairy arms and your ability to write -- and talk -- about anything and everything and nothing all at once, and to make it meaningful and witty and also hilarious. Your takes on honeymooning, gay boyfriends, breastfeeding, and making your way as a woman in a male-dominated industry are ah-freaking-mazing, and I am ashamed that it has taken me so long to finally pick up and read (ahem, listen to you read to me) Bossypants.I was sad to see this one end. Really, I was. I devoured the six-or-so hour audiobook, narrated by Tina Fey herself, in a matter of days, popping discs into my Walkman (yeah, I went out and bought one of those for precisely this purpose) while walking the dog, doing the dishes, you name it. Bossypants is a laugh-out-loud, tear-inducing, witty look at the things that matter to a lot of women, but that a lot of women are too chicken to talk about: getting your period (note: it doesn't actually look like the blue laundry detergent that they use to demonstrate in TV commercials, much to Fey's confusion), breastfeeding (and how some moms are those crazy ladies who do nothing but insist to everyone and anyone that breast milk is better than formula), what it is to be a working mother, to be a woman in a male-dominated industry, to stake your claim on the world, on your world, on your workplace, whatever.
Bossypants taught me that it is ok to do whatever I want, and I don't have to care if you fucking like it (with props to Amy Poehler on that one), that it is ok to laugh at things that make me uncomfortable, like unibrows and questions about my reproduction plans (which are none of your goddamn business, thank you very much), and that sometimes, even Tina Fey and Oprah over-extend themselves, just like the rest of us.
Seriously, I can't say enough good things about this book. It's not going to go down in the history books as the greatest memoir of all time, but it will go down in the annals of this year as one of the funniest six hours I've had to date.
“You can’t be that kid standing at the top of the waterslide, overthinking it. You have to go down the chute.”
P.S. Every single review out there says to go to the audiobook for this one. Let me just add to the din and clamor voices: Check out the audio for this one. Tina Fey rocks it.
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Thoughts from other bookworms:
Desktop Retreat
The Boston Bibliophile
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Bossypants | Tina Fey, nar. Tina Fey | Hachette Audio | 9781609419691 | $29.98 Audio CD | 5 hr, 35 min | April 2011 | Buy from an independent bookstore near you
I loved this book but like you said, everyone says the audiobook is amazing so I think I may need to check it out as well. There are worse things I could have multiple copies of.
ReplyDeleteI am normally pretty suspicious of books by celebrities, but the positive reviews of this one keep piling up. I don't normally do audiobooks, but I may actually check this one out!
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