Bossypants by Tina Fey Audiobook Review

Book: Bossypants by Tina Fey, Hachette Audio, Released on April 5, 2011

Audiobook Info:  Memoir/Humor, Library copy, Audio length: 5.5 hours, Read by the author.

Rating: 4 / 5 Stars

I have been eager to listen to Bossypants by Tina Fey for ages, but had a hard time tracking it down at the library. The book format just would not do – I had heard too many good things about the audiobook. Finally I found a copy, and it came just at a time when I needed a little more laughter in my life.

Since I’m very late to the Bossypants bandwagon I’m not going to summarize the book too much. Tina Fey uses self-deprecating humor to talk about her life in entertainment and her experience as a wife and mother. Her stories are very amusing and at some points even laugh out loud funny. She talks about her upbringing and also her experiences as a woman in comedy and being the boss on 30 Rock. And though I was most interested to hear Fey talk about her career and SNL horror stories, what I ended up liking the most were her personal observations about beauty, weight, if she’s going to have another baby (she did!) and her experience as a cover girl.

I always like when authors narrate their own memoirs, and especially when the author is as witty as Tina Fey.  Fey has a conversational tone and speaks at a pleasant, brisk pace. She does sometimes make a reference to the fact that you are listening to an audiobook and I always wondered if she was ad-libbing at all. Her voice trails off at times in her reading, but for the most part I thought she did a great job with the narration. Since I listened to a library copy I did not have access to the PDF that Fey refers to many times, and I’m tempted to check out the print copy sometime to see the photos I missed.

The audiobook is broken up into short segments on different topics ranging from Sarah Palin to 30 Rock to balancing work and motherhood.  She gives props to her famous co-workers including Alec Baldwin and Amy Poehler, and also to the writers on 30 Rock, including favorite lines and episodes. The book is well balanced between personal and career highlights, and the only topic I wished she touched more on is her experience making Mean Girls.

Bossypants is an inspiring and humorous audiobook, and worth the wait. It is one I made time to listen to. Oh, by the way I listened to Bossypants in the Playaway format, which is a first for me. A Playaway is an all in one audiobook/mp3 player, and you supply the battery and earphones to listen. It is a pretty great format but I haven’t seen them around too often. Give one a try sometime! At just over 5 hours long, Bossypants is a quick and enjoyable listen, perfect for fans of memoirs, humor and of course, Tina Fey.

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7 thoughts on “Bossypants by Tina Fey Audiobook Review

  1. I love Tina Fey and I’ve heard nothing but great things about this book! I really need to get my hands one it.

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  3. fishgirl182 says:

    really great review. this is one i’ve been wanting to read for awhile now and i definitely think hearing her read the audiobook would be a good way to read it. and i’ve never heard of playaway. it sounds like a cool way to listen to audiobooks though so i might have to check it out.

  4. sawcat says:

    I don’t think this audiobook would have been worth listening if anyone other than Tina Fey narrated it. I loved it, and I tend to avoid the memoir/biography genre.

  5. Kristilyn says:

    I read this one in print and didn’t really like it — I think I would’ve liked the book a lot more on audio! As for the PDF, if you insert one of the CDs into your computer, the PDF should come up in the CD’s content folder — I noticed this when listening to Jane Lynch’s Happy Accidents on my computer. 🙂

    Great review!

  6. […] 7:  The Reading Date: Bossypants (audiobook) by Tina Fey […]

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