“What 19-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. So I spent four years attempting to charm the uninterested.” - Tina Fey

"Why's this book called Bossypants? 
One, because the name Two and 
a Half Men was already taken."

Tina Fey and I have a weird relationship.  I mean, I guess it's mostly that I have a weird relationship with Tina Fey because Tina Fey does not actually know that I exist.  I lovelovelove Tina.  Love her.  And I really want to lovelovelove 30 Rock, because it's her baby.  But I just don't.  I love Alec Baldwin and Jane Krakowski.  I just don't love 30 Rock.  I've tried a bunch of times to make it happen, but it's just not going to work out between us.  Sorry, Liz Lemon, I'm just not that into you.


Luckily, Tina Fey does about 8,302,483,920 other things that I do love.  In high school, I loved her as a writer on Saturday Night Live.  In college, I loved her as a writer and performer in Mean Girls.  In grad school, I loved her as pitch-perfect Sarah Palin on everything.  And in my life that is not currently defined by being in school, I lovelovelove her as the author of the new memoir-or-something (it's not exactly a memoir, it's more like a series of comedic short stories mixed with advice and personal details) Bossypants. Seriously, it's hilarious and poignant and endearing.  It vacillates between priceless anecdotes from childhood, (Including one about the utter confusion that results when a girl gets her first period and it's not bright blue like in maxi-pad commercials.) tales of life at the Second City and Saturday Night Live, (“Only in comedy does an obedient white girl from the suburbs count as diversity.") and personal stories about her family and friends.  

"When Crystal Meth is offered, May she remember the parents who cut her
grapes in half And stick with beer. " - From the chapter entitled, A Mother's
Prayer for its Daughter)

All if this is told through by women trying to work hard to be the best mother, wife, daughter, friend and professional she can be.  Although Tina's stories are often extraordinary (Not all of us hang out with Alec Baldwin and Will Ferrell everyday. Or are the boss of two hundred people on a hit comedy show.) her voice is ordinary; her struggles to balance work and family, to compromise her ideals and her reality, are universal.  She's almost unbelievably real, and undeniably funny.


xo kate