Bossypants

Good night that is a disturbing cover.  But the book inside is worth the price of having this cover in your house.  Also, is it weird that I took me at least two days to realize that she is wearing a hat?  I guess that I just thought it was her hair, but when I realized it was a hat, it made things even more weird somehow.

As you can guess, Tina Fey's memoir is hilarious.  She lays out everything from her childhood and parents to her time at Second City in Chicago, and finally SNL and 30 Rock.  She explains her writing process in the endnotes as sitting down and talking to a friend, and that is exactly what this book feels like.

I never know how to review a book like this because 1) it's not a children's book and 2) it's really hard for me to review memoirs.  So personally, I liked it.  Fey gave insight on what it was like to play Sarah Palin, she revealed what it is like for her as a working mom, and she dedicated whole chapters to one long joke.

Moving on, let's talk about my favorite parts.  I loved the chapter on her dad, Don Fey, the ultimate well-dressed alpha male.  I thought her quote from Colin Quinn, "you don't come home with a shamrock tattoo in that house", was a great description and likely very true.

I also loved all of the insight on 30 Rock, and I don't even watch that show.  I knew that it was a hit with critics and developed a weird, hipster cult following, but I didn't know that was not the goal.  Fey says over and over that they were trying to write the next great American sitcom.  They wanted the crazy success of Seinfeld or Home Improvement, but they realized pretty early on that was not going to happen, so they leaned into the weirdness and made it work.  I think that I'll try to catch an episode here or there and see what I'm missing.

Since Fey is probably most well known for playing Sarah Palin, it's interesting to read how that all got started.  And that her Republican parents thought she was going too far in the sketches.

All in all, if you are a fan of Tina Fey, 30 Rock, SNL, any of it, you'll really enjoy this book.  It's very light, really funny and has some great memorable moments, everything a good memoir should be.

Happy Reading!