Bossypants: HI-LAR-I-OUS

Bossypants by Tina Fey
Started: May 2011
Finished: June 2011
Format: Kindle
Goal: 13 of 25
(Didn't meet my goal of 25 by June, but at least I read during a very busy time.)

I love Tina Fey. In fact, if I could meet any celebrity in the world, I would want to meet her. And Oprah. It's a close tie. My adoration for Tina goes back to her movie Mean Girls and her stint on SNL doing the "Weekend Update." She's a smart, witty, successful hard-working mom in a male-dominated industry, and most importantly, she's down to earth AND an excellent writer, which is confirmed by her memoir Bossypants. I LOVED this book because it made me laugh out loud, which I don't always do while reading. (For some reason, the laughter stays inside my head when I read--but not with this book.) In fact, my bed-shaking-laughter woke Jason up one night while I was reading and he had already drifted off to sleep. (By the way, when I read him the line, he didn't think it was so funny. I blame the sudden wake-up not the Tina.) Here are some of my favorite lines (I finally figured out how to annotate with my Kindle! My life is now complete!) :
  • "This worked out perfectly for me in college, because what nineteen-year-old Virginia boy doesn't want a wide-hipped, sarcastic Greek girl with short hair that's permed on top? What's that you say? None of them want that? You are correct."
  • "Donna was an enigma wrapped in bacon wrapped in a crescent roll."
  • "My mother knew the importance of getting the right fit for a bra, so she took me to JCPenny and tried one on over my clothes. She tried a bra on me over my clothes in the middle of JCPenny. I thank her for this. This early breast-related humiliation prevented me form ever needing to participate in 'Girls Gone Wild' in my twenties."
  • "Maybe my feet are so amazing that I want to shelter them so they can live a normal life. I don't want them to be the Suri Cruise of feet."
  • "I prefer the retro chic of spending Christmas just like Joseph and Mary did--traveling arduously back to the place of your birth to be counted, with no guarantee of a bed when you get there."
  • "We dined at Red Lobster. There is no one of-woman-born who does not like Red Lobster cheddar biscuits. Anyone who claims otherwise is a liar and a Socialist."
  • On her decision to have another baby..."And what's so great about work anyway? Work won't visit you when you are old. Work won't drive you to get a mammogram and take you out after for soup. It's too much pressure on my one kid to expect her to shoulder all those duties alone. Also, what if she turns on me? I am pretty hard to like. I need a backup."
I'll stop so as not to give away all of the funny-ness, but there is much more where that came from. Her chapter entitled "The Mother's Prayer for Its Daughter" really hit home and had me saying, "Amen! Preach it, Tina!" One of my favorites: "May she play the Drums to the fiery rhythm of her Own Heart with the sinewy strength of her Own Arms, so she need Not Lie With Drummers."

If you are a Tina fan like me, then you must add this to your to-read pile. This book will make you love her even more because she's exactly like you imagine her to be. And the candid insight she gives to her SNL days, 30 Rock success, and Sarah Palin impersonations is worth the read. If you aren't a Tina fan, then don't bother reading this book because you won't appreciate it.

Finally, Tina's nugget of wisdom that has made her one of the most successful women on television:
"Do your thing and don't care if they like it."



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