Bookworm's feast of books: BOSSYPANTS

BOSSYPANTS

Months and months ago we borrowed a couple of humourous books from a friend of ours: 1) Sh*t my Dad Says (to save typing I will call this book Sh*t through the rest of the review) & 2) Bossypants.

1) Sh*t ... was read right away to rave reviews. Both my wife and I laughed and laughed, reading passages out loud to one another, and we still paraphrase it from time to time. Grade A+ on LOLs and ranked as one of the funniest books read in 2013!

2) Bossypant had another adventure, mostly sitting on the bookshelf looking pretty. Until last month, when I finally got around to cracking it open.

Now, being borrowed at the same time my little brain has filed these books under the same heading - humour book borrowed from X. Therefore, while reading Bossypants I was constantly comparing it to Sh*t... , even though they are vastly different books in style and content. That is just how my brain works I guess, rightly or wrongly.

Onto Bossypants. This book was a very well written humour book, not as packed with laughs as Sh*t but still laughtastic. An account of Tina Fey's raise to stardom...er, class B celebrity status, whatever. Pages and paragraphs, chapters and lists, of lighthearted and intelligent joke filled prose. What the book lacked in substance it made up for in tidbits of quirky jokes and play on words.

The actual story of Tina Fey's career is, um, not action packed. No suspense, no rags to riches story. Not even a lot of struggle. I have to give credit to Tina here for taking the road less travelled, by releasing a book that does not rely on crude humour or attack humour (ie name calling of easy targets like Rachel Ray). Finally, a funny book on the bookshelf that does not deal with drugs or one night stands. She even threw in a serious theme for good measure - feminism. Constantly reinforcing that women can do anything, even get into the male dominated world of comedy.

I really enjoyed the way Tina managed to get her feminist agenda into the book. It wasn't overly aggressive, just mixed in subtly in a very feminine way. Like Mama would flavour a nice soup. There were even refreshingly truthful passages about how life on the 'top' is not all that great and even while you may look successful, balancing life, work, and children does not always happen.

Overall, it was a good read - positive & funny...even with that feminist ranting going on in the background

RATING : READ