Bossypants / Tina Fey

In her highly anticipated first book, Fey hilariously covers her childhood and coming-of-age; time at Chicago's Second City; years at Saturday Night Live (SNL) as a writer, "Weekend Update" cohost, and performer; development of 30 Rock; and ubiquitous role as Sarah Palin. She gives advice on raising an "achievement-oriented, obedient, drug-free, virgin adult," how to be a good boss and what she learned from SNL producer Lorne Michaels ("Never tell a crazy person he's crazy"), and breast-feeding ("If you choose not to love your baby enough to breast-feed, you can pump"). After portraying the queasy-factor of putting in contact lenses as somewhere between a breast self-exam and losing a tampon string, Fey writes, "If you are male, I would liken it to touching your own eyeball, and thank you for buying this book." Of Fey's Palin debut on SNL, which was viewed by ten million people, she explains, "You all watched a sketch about feminism and you didn't even realize it because of all the jokes." She accomplishes the same feat with her book.

English.