The five best books on the business of television

Jennifer Keishin Armstrong grew up deep in the southwest suburbs of Chicago, then escaped to New York to live in a succession of very small apartments and write about pop culture. In the process, she became a feminist, a Buddhist, and the singer/guitarist in an amateur rock band. She also spent a decade on staff at Entertainment Weekly, cofounded SexyFeminist.com, and now writes for several publications, including Women’s Health, O, Writer’s Digest, Fast Company, and New York‘s Vulture. Her collaboration with Heather Wood Rudulph, Sexy Feminism, was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in March 2013.

Armstrong's latest book is Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted: And all the Brilliant Minds Who Made The Mary Tyler Moore Show a Classic.

One of her five best books on the business of television, as shared at 250 Words:

Bossypants by Tina Fey

Yes, it’s just a damn funny collection of essays, and, yes, some of them don’t directly address television. But Fey’s pieces that do chronicle her time in TV—and there’s plenty of it, from Saturday Night Live to 30 Rock—give you an intimate sense of what it’s like to work in the medium. Particularly what it’s like to be a woman working in TV comedy: You will never forget the bit about male staffers peeing in cups because they’re too lazy to leave their offices. Never.

Read about the other books on the list.

Bossypants is among Matt Kraus's seven great autobiographies by entertainers. Deborah Netburn recommended Bossypants and four other books to Natalie Portman when the Oscar-winning actor became a new mother in 2011. It is one of Randi Zuckerberg's six favorite books.

Visit Jennifer Keishin Armstrong's website.

My Book, The Movie: Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted.

The Page 99 Test: Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted.

--Marshal Zeringue