Bossypants

Last updated
Bossypants
Bossypants Cover (Tina Fey) - 200px.jpeg
Author Tina Fey
Audio read byTina Fey
LanguageEnglish
Genre Autobiography
Publisher Little, Brown and Company
Publication date
April 5, 2011
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint
Pages277
ISBN 0-316-05686-3
LC Class PN2287.F4255 A3 2011

Bossypants is an autobiographical comedy book written by the American comedian Tina Fey. [1] [2] [3] The book topped The New York Times Best Seller list, and stayed there for five weeks upon its release. [4] As of November 2014, the book has sold over 2.5 million copies since its debut, according to Nielsen BookScan. [5] Additionally, Fey's Grammy nominated narration of the audiobook has sold over 150,000 copies on Audible.com. [6] A paperback reprint edition was released in January 2012, from Reagan Arthur Books, an imprint of Little, Brown. The front cover features hand model and actor Joe Rosario.

Contents

Background

Fey holding a copy of Bossypants on her book tour at a Barnes & Noble in New York City April 8, 2011. Tina Fey 3 Bossypants 2011 Shankbone.jpg
Fey holding a copy of Bossypants on her book tour at a Barnes & Noble in New York City April 8, 2011.

In 2008, the prospect of a Tina Fey book was reportedly the subject of a bidding war among publishers, which led to an advance of $6 million. [7] As part of her deal with Little, Brown & Co., a gift was made to the New York-based Books for Kids Foundation. [8]

Reception

Bossypants received greatly positive reviews, Janet Maslin for The New York Times calls Bossypants "a spiky blend of humor, introspection, critical thinking and Nora Ephron-isms for a new generation." [1] Katie Roiphe for Slate is favorable toward the humor in Bossypants, especially how Fey wields jokes as a personal display of power. [9] The book was also praised by Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times , who wrote, "...any concern that Fey, like so many before her, has been ruined by fame is quickly dispelled by Bossypants, a book that reminds you why Fey has succeeded where so many have failed — because she is precise, professional and hilarious." [10] Ellen Wernecke of The A.V. Club similarly said of Fey, "The artistry of her autobiography-turned-polemic raises the bar for every comedian who dares put cursor to Word doc." [11]

It received a more mixed review from Carole Cadwalladr of The Observer , however, who opined, "There's lots to enjoy, particularly if you are, as I am, a Tina Fey fan girl. It's just the bookiness of it. 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." [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tina Fey</span> American writer and actress (born 1970)

Elizabeth Stamatina "Tina" Fey is an American writer, comedian, actress, and producer. She was a cast member and head writer for the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1997 to 2006. After her departure from SNL, she created the NBC sitcom 30 Rock and the Netflix sitcom Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015–2020), the former of which she also starred in. Fey is also known for her work in film, including Mean Girls (2004), Baby Mama (2008), Date Night (2010), Megamind (2010), Muppets Most Wanted (2014), Sisters (2015), Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016), Wine Country (2019), Soul (2020), A Haunting in Venice (2023), and Mean Girls (2024).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janet Malcolm</span> American journalist (1934–2021)

Janet Clara Malcolm was an American writer, staff journalist at The New Yorker magazine, and collagist who fled antisemitic persecution in Nazi-occupied Prague. She was the author of Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession (1981), In the Freud Archives (1984), and The Journalist and the Murderer (1990). Malcolm wrote frequently about psychoanalysis and explored the relationship between journalist and subject. She was known for her prose style and for polarizing criticism of her profession, especially in her most contentious work, The Journalist and the Murderer, which has become a staple of journalism-school curricula.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katie Roiphe</span> American author

Katie Roiphe is an American author and journalist. She is best known as the author of the non-fiction book The Morning After: Sex, Fear, and Feminism on Campus (1993). She is also the author of Last Night in Paradise: Sex and Morals at the Century's End (1997), and the 2007 study of writers and marriage, Uncommon Arrangements. Her 2001 novel Still She Haunts Me is an imagining of the relationship between Charles Dodgson and Alice Liddell, the real-life model for Dodgson's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. She is also known for allegedly planning to name the creator of the Shitty Media Men list in an article for Harper's Magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amy Poehler</span> American actress and comedian (born 1971)

Amy Poehler is an American actress and comedian. After studying improv at Chicago's Second City and ImprovOlympic in the early 1990s, Poehler co-founded the improvisational-comedy troupe Upright Citizens Brigade. The group moved to New York City in 1996, where their act became a half-hour sketch-comedy series on Comedy Central in 1998. Along with other members of the comedy group, Poehler is a founder of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.

Victim feminism is a term that has been used by some conservative postfeminist writers such as Katie Roiphe and Naomi Wolf to critique forms of feminist activism which they see as reinforcing the idea that women are weak or lacking in agency.

<i>30 Rock</i> American television sitcom (2006–2013)

30 Rock is an American satirical sitcom television series created by Tina Fey that originally aired on NBC from October 11, 2006, to January 31, 2013. The series, based on Fey's experiences as head writer for Saturday Night Live, takes place behind the scenes of a fictional live sketch comedy show depicted as airing on NBC. The series's name refers to 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, where the NBC Studios are located and where Saturday Night Live is written, produced, and performed. The series was produced by Lorne Michaels's Broadway Video and Fey's Little Stranger, in association with NBCUniversal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Annie Jacobsen</span> American investigative journalist and author (born 1967)

Annie Jacobsen is an American investigative journalist, author, and a 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist. She writes for and produces television programs, including Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan for Amazon Studios, and Clarice for CBS. She was a contributing editor to the Los Angeles Times Magazine from 2009 until 2012.

The pilot episode of the American television sitcom 30 Rock premiered on October 10, 2006, on the CTV Television Network in Canada, and October 11, 2006, on NBC in the United States. The episode was directed by Adam Bernstein and written by Tina Fey, the series' creator, executive producer, and lead actress.

<i>Mean Girls</i> 2004 film by Mark Waters

Mean Girls is a 2004 American teen comedy film directed by Mark Waters and written by Tina Fey. It stars Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Tim Meadows, Ana Gasteyer, Amy Poehler and Fey. The film follows Cady Heron (Lohan), a naïve teenager who transfers to an American high school after years of homeschooling in Africa. Heron quickly befriends two outcasts, with the trio forming a plan to exact revenge on Regina George (McAdams), the leader of an envied clique known as the Plastics.

<i>The Morning After</i> (book) 1993 book by Katie Roiphe

The Morning After: Sex, Fear and Feminism on Campus is a 1993 book about date rape by author and journalist Katie Roiphe. Her first book, it was reprinted with a new introduction in 1994. Part of the book had previously been published as an essay, "The Rape Crisis, or 'Is Dating Dangerous?'" in the New York Times Magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carole Cadwalladr</span> British investigative journalist (born 1969)

Carole Jane Cadwalladr is a British author, investigative journalist, and features writer. She is a features writer for The Observer and formerly worked at The Daily Telegraph. Cadwalladr rose to international prominence in 2018 for her role in exposing the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal, for which she was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, alongside The New York Times reporters.

<i>Saturday Night Live</i> parodies of Sarah Palin Television comedy sketches

The sketch comedy television show Saturday Night Live aired several critically acclaimed sketches parodying then Alaskan Governor and vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin in the lead-up to the 2008 United States presidential election. The sketches featured former cast member Tina Fey, who returned as a guest star to portray Palin. Fey won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her impersonation of Palin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Roiphe</span> American novelist

Anne Roiphe is an American writer and journalist. She is best known as a first-generation feminist and author of the novel Up the Sandbox (1970), filmed as a starring vehicle for Barbra Streisand in 1972. In 1996, Salon called the book "a feminist classic."

<i>Eat, Pray, Love</i> 2006 book by Elizabeth Gilbert

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia is a 2006 memoir by American author Elizabeth Gilbert. The memoir chronicles the author's trip around the world after her divorce and what she discovered during her travels. She wrote and named the book while living at The Oliver Hotel on the downtown square in Knoxville, TN. The book remained on The New York Times Best Seller list for 187 weeks. The film version, which stars Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem, was released in theaters on August 13, 2010.

Saturday Night Live is an American sketch comedy series created and produced by Lorne Michaels for most of the show's run. The show has aired on NBC since 1975.

"TGS Hates Women" is the sixteenth episode of the fifth season of the American television comedy series 30 Rock, and the 96th overall episode of the series. It was written by co-executive producer Ron Weiner and directed by Beth McCarthy-Miller. The episode originally aired on NBC in the United States on February 24, 2011. Guest stars in this episode include Cristin Milioti and Chloë Grace Moretz.

<i>The Taliban Shuffle</i> 2011 book by Kim Barker

The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan is a memoir by U.S. journalist Kim Barker about her experiences reporting in Pakistan and Afghanistan. It was published in 2011.

Christine Elaine Montross is an American medical doctor and writer. First a published poet and a high school teacher, she later took up medical studies, and became an assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University's Alpert Medical School. She is the recipient of a 2015 Guggenheim Fellowship.

<i>House of Holes</i> 2011 novel by Nicholson Baker

House of Holes is a 2011 novel by American writer Nicholson Baker. It consists of a series of chapters that are more or less connected which tell of the sexual and emotional experiences of a variety of characters in a kind of sexual fantasy land, the titular "House of Holes". The third "dirty novel" by Baker after Vox and The Fermata, it is praised by many reviewers for the inventiveness of its language.

References

  1. 1 2 Maslin, Janet (3 April 2011). "'Bossypants' by Tina Fey – Review". The New York Times. Retrieved 29 August 2011.
  2. Fey, Tina (2011). Bossypants . New York: Little, Brown and Co. ISBN   978-0-316-05686-1.
  3. Fey, Tina; Narrated by Tina Fey (2011). Bossypants (Audiobook). London: Hachette Audio.
  4. "Bestsellers: Hardcover Nonfiction". The New York Times. 24 April 2011. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
  5. Lewis, Andy (November 13, 2014). "Amy Poehler, Lena Dunham Books Debut on Par With Tina Fey's Megahit". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved September 5, 2016.
  6. Bosman, Julie (October 2, 2011). "Stars Will Read Amazon Unit's New Audio Book Series". Media Decoder (blog). The New York Times. Retrieved 6 November 2011.
  7. Kelly, Keith J. (October 1, 2008). "Fey Eyes Big Pay Day: Publishers Toss $6m Book Offer for '30 Rock' Star". New York Post. Archived from the original on September 8, 2012. Retrieved November 6, 2011.
  8. Neyfakh, Leon (October 3, 2008). "Little, Brown Will Publish Tina Fey Book". The New York Observer. Archived from the original on October 4, 2008. Retrieved November 6, 2011.
  9. Roiphe, Katie (30 March 2011). "Tina Fey's Tough Girl Feminism: The rough humor in Fey's new book Bossypants is exactly what the movement needs". Slate.com . Retrieved 21 September 2011.
  10. McNamara, Mary (April 4, 2011). "Review: 'Bossypants' by Tina Fey is funny and heartfelt". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved September 30, 2016.
  11. Wernecke, Ellen (April 28, 2011). "Tina Fey: Bossypants". The A.V. Club . Retrieved September 30, 2016.
  12. Cadwalladr, Carole (23 April 2011). "Bossypants by Tina Fey – review". The Observer . Retrieved September 30, 2016.