Book #45: Bossypants

Title: Bossypants
Author: Tina Fey

When I crawled into bed with Bossypants a few weekends ago, I knew I wasn't going to get out until I'd finished the book. Luckily, it was a Saturday night, so I could read until I fell asleep, then force Eddie to get out of bed with Maren in the morning to quiet her pleas for chocolate milk and a granola bar. I have a lot to say about this book, and hope to eventually get my stuff together enough to write something coherent enough that I can put it up at fMh, but for now, I'll say that this book rocks. I lay in bed for hours, ignoring my papers and my kids, laughing out loud, reading passages aloud to Eddie, and feeling indignant for Fey and for all the women out there who are trying not just to make it in a man's world, but to change the world so it's not just a man's world. My favorite chapter spotlighted the weekend when Oprah guest-starred on 30 Rock, which also happened to be the weekend Fey hosted SNL and did her first stint as Sarah Palin, which also happened to be the same weekend her daughter Alice turned three. All three events were huge for Fey, and her description about trying to juggle all three is hilarious. While Fey does tackle a lot of hard issues in the book, I was interested to see that while she talks a lot about how she and Amy Poehler feminized SNL (although she doesn't come right out and claim it), there hasn't been, to my knowledge, a mother on the show. I think that Fey, Poehler and Maya Rudolph all left while great with their first child. If, as Fey suggests, working on SNL is about 1/100th as hard as working as a coal miner, then why no working moms?