Are you Listening? Audiobook Review: Bossypants by Tina Fey

Bossypants by Tina Fey

The Scoop:

The life and times of Tina Fey. Written and narrated by Tina Fey. What else can I say that can't be said so much better by comedic writer extraordinnaire, Tina Fey? Nothing, really so I'm going right into what I thought of the audio version of the book.



My Thoughts:

If there's one thing I love more than books that have their plots based in fairytales it would probably be any episode of Hawaii Five-O where Alex O'Loughlin takes his shirt off.

But that's neither here nor there (but it sure is pretty to look at). No, actually what I love more than fairytale themed books are the audio versions of any book written by a comedian and then narrated by that same comedian. Some of my favorite audiobook experiences came from Denis Leary, Ellen Degeneres and Lewis Black, to name a few. Bossypants ranks right up there with my favorite performances. Not only did I get the inflection the author intended but the performance was enhanced with the actual audio of the first Sarah Palin SNL skit Tina Fey did and other things (my favorite being the use of what sounded like an actual intercom for her portrayal of the evacuation scare she and her husband had on their honeymoon cruise).

In my experience with the audio versions of books that contain pictures or illustrations I always feel that I am losing that aspect of the visual to gain the benefit of having somebody entertain me on my usually horrendous commute. In this instance, though, the pictures from the book swere included as pdf files on the last cd. That doesn't really do much good when you're listening in the car but gives you the option of using your computer to get that much more out of the audio experience.

The only thing that I thought kept this audiobook from being PERFECT was that sometimes Tina Fey (yes, she always needs to be called by her first and last name--just like she does for her dad, Don Fey) spoke in an aside and did it very quietly and quickly so I couldn't turn the sound up in time to be able to hear it. I would either have to rewind or just skip over it. Otherwise I felt she did a great job with the the writing of her life story (so far) by mixing a lot of humor in with just the right amount of seriousness--there was a bit of her growing up, her time at Second City in Chicago, becoming a writer and Weekend Update anchor for SNL, creating, writing and producing 30 Rock and even about her family life after marriage and a baby. A top notch audio experience!