Bossypants is an autobiographical

Autobiography

An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...

 comedy

Comedy

Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

 book written by American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 comedienne Tina Fey

Tina Fey

Elizabeth Stamatina "Tina" Fey is an American actress, comedian, writer and producer, known for her work on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live , the NBC comedy series 30 Rock, and films such as Mean Girls and Baby Mama .Fey first broke into comedy as a featured player in the...

. The book topped The New York Times Best Seller list, and stayed there for five weeks upon its release. Since its release, the book has sold over one million copies in the U.S. Also, Tina Fey's narration of the audio book

Audio book

An audiobook or audio book is a recording of a text being read. It is not necessarily an exact audio version of a book or magazine.Spoken audio has been available in schools and public libraries and to a lesser extent in music shops since the 1930s. Many spoken word albums were made prior to the...

 sold over 150,000 copies on Audible.com

Audible.com

Audible.com is an Internet provider of spoken audio entertainment, information, and educational programming.Audible sells digital audiobooks, radio and TV programs, and audio versions of magazines and newspapers....

.

Background

In 2008, the prospect of a Tina Fey book was reportedly the subject of a bidding war among publishers which eventuated into an advance of $6 million. As part of her deal with Little, Brown & Co., a gift was made to the New York based Books for Kids Foundation.

Synopsis

Fey uses humorous anecdotes to tell her life story, including how she came to be on Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...

and how she created 30 Rock

30 Rock

30 Rock is an American television comedy series created by Tina Fey that airs on NBC. The series is loosely based on Fey's experiences as head writer for Saturday Night Live...

.

Reception

Janet Maslin for The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

calls Bossypants "a spiky blend of humor, introspection, critical thinking and Nora Ephron-isms for a new generation." Katie Roiphe for Slate is favorable toward the humor in Bossypants, especially how Fey wields jokes as a personal display of power.