Bossypants by Tina Fey Narrator: Tina Fey
Length: 5 Hours 35 Minutes
on April 5th 2011
Genres: Humor, Form, Essays
Pages: 288
Format: Audiobook
Source: Purchased
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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!)
I can remember my first time watching the series 30 Rock. As always when I try a series, it’s usually on Netflix. So, I marathon-ed the episodes for several days barricaded in my bedroom, and emerged with a bit of a girl crush on Tina Fey.
However, this is not a review of 30 Rock, but of Tina Fey’s audiobook, Bossypants. Let’s pretend you are not an audiobook person at all, but you want to be, because it would make your commute and your cleaning so much better. You don’t know where to begin because there are SO MANY AUDIOBOOKS out there. Well, I’m here to tell you, begin with Bossypants, especially if you are a Tina Fey fan. Why?
A) Bossypants is a short audiobook. It’s 5 hours and 35 minutes long, so not exactly a huge chunk of time to devote.
B) It’s read by Tina Fey. Nobody wants to listen to a boring, monotone person. Nobody. Fey puts her characteristic wit and humor into her narration, and let me tell you her comedic timing is spot on. Fair warning, you may find yourself laughing out loud while listening to this audiobook.
C) This audiobook of Bossypants by Tina Fey is hilarious. Look, smiling is good for you. Laughing is even better and considered a stress reliever. And straight up, the audio only enhances Bossypants.
D) Bossypants is a bit ADD. It’s comprised of a series of vignettes in Fey’s life. It tends to jump from topic to topic. Perfect if you are like me and can’t focus all that long. You go from feminism to cover shoots to being homely to period guides to breastfeeding. A lot of jumping around, but strangely it works for the story. I honestly felt as though Bossypants was a funny take on the random things that seemed to pop in Tina Fey’s head.
As a book, Bossypants is decent, as an audio, I think it is great and among my favorites.
This Hachette audio is definitely worth an audible credit for sure.
Disclosure: Obtained with my Audible credit.
Other Reviews of Bossypants by Tina Fey:
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I absolutely loved the audio book too! I read the actual book then got the audio book from my library a few weeks after because Tina reads it. It’s just a fantastic book, whether in print or audio. Great review!
I’m glad it works well in print, too!
I’m not an audiobook person…but may try this out. Your enjoyment convinced me! That and the fact that Tina Fey reads it, very cool, I bet it makes the experience that much better.
Tina Fey’s narration completely enhanced the experience.
So I totally wasn’t sold on this audio until reading your review. I’m not a HUGE fan of Fey and was kind of nervous. But now I’m looking at every library trying to find it! Haha! Awesome review!
Yay! Another one convinced to give Bossypants a chance! 😀
I’ve heard great things about this audiobook. I think she is the perfect person to narrate it as well. I heard it was very good. I’m going to put it on my wish list/gift list.
I hope you get a copy and enjoy it!
I’m not the hugest Tina Fey fan. It’s not that I’m *not* a fan, I’m just not a huge fan. But I think she is super funny, and I wanted to read the book…until I found out she read her own audiobook. Then I decided to listen to her read it to me. I haven’t gotten to it yet, but it is *very* high on my audiobook wishlist.
(And I totally agree about audiobooks making cleaning the house much better.)
I can understand that, and am glad you want to read Bossypants even though Tina Fey isn’t your favorite comedian ever.
I can’t wait to listen to this on audio. I’m waiting (not too patiently) for it to become available at my library!
Hopefully it’s available soon!
the idea of hearing the author read their own audiobook is hugely interesting to me.
also, Tina Fey rocks my world.
For the most part, I like when authors read their own audiobooks. However, I like professional narrators too.
I just downloaded this from audible so I am thrilled to learn how awesome this is! I am a big Tina Fey fan so I think the audiobook format is a fun format for this one.
Definitely. Also, don’t you just love audible?
I loved this audiobook and I’m glad I listen to it, instead of reading the book. I loved her descriptions of her Summer Show Times summers 🙂
Those were hilarious.
I borrowed this book from my coworker but haven’t read it yet. I tried one audiobook that completely turned me off, but I’d definitely try this audiobook out, especially after reading your review. Hubs doesn’t read, BUT he does like audiobooks. He’s listened to two of Michael J. Fox’s. In the case that the author is reading it, I’d feel more inclined to listen to it.
I won’t lie there are plenty of bad audiobooks out there. It’s kind of like the glass slipper, when you find the right one it is most excellent.
Thanks for linking my review. I loved this too and also picked up mine through audible. Absolutely a must to listen to on audio! 🙂
I keep meaning to read this book. A lot of my friends have read it because they are Tina Fey fanatics and they loved it.
I also need to buck up and listen to an audio book. I can honestly say that I have never tried it before and it is definitely something I need to do. Maybe I should start with a book that I have read before or an audio book that has a very good reader doing to the audio…
I’ve never been able to actually get into audiobooks, and I don’t read a lot of memoirs, but this one definitely sounds like it would be a lot of fun. It sounds a little like Samantha Bee’s memoir that I read last year & really enjoyed. Maybe I’ll have to find me a copy of this one! 🙂
I can not imagine anyone but Tina Fey as narrator doing this book justice. We, the listeners would miss the Fey nuance. I liked her before I listened to this book. I might even go find copies of 30 Rock now (I’ve never seen it – would rather read.). I heard somewhere that this audiobook was fabulous. Whoever told me that didn’t lie.
How much I like an audiobook depends on who reads it so I’ve tended to stick to books by semi-comedians who read their own books – I already know they can speak clearly and non-monotonously. This one might be my favorite. Tina can make situations funny that wouldn’t be funny to anyone else. I just finished Jeff Dunham’s audio book which is really interesting, but he tends to overuse certain phrases which I found distracting (he has some great stories though).