Review: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling
Publisher: Three Rivers Press. September 2012
Pages: 240
Genre: Nonfiction, Humor
First Lines: Thank you for buying this book. Or, if my publisher's research analytics are correct, thank you, Aunts of America for buying this for your niece you don't know that well but really want to connect with more.
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And now for something completely different. This isn't my normal type of reading, but finals week was pretty heavy and I just wanted something to cheer me up and keep me entertained. And I just really like reading books by funny, successful ladies who talk about how their lives are supposedly terrible and awkward, just like mine. Celebrities are just like me!
Mindy Kaling, who writes for The Office and is now on The Mindy Project (which I haven't actually seen) is clearly funny and smart. She writes honestly about her life, from the smallest embarrassing moments from childhood to how she found success in Hollywood. A lot of her stories are kind of painful, but she manages to make them light and often inspiring. This book makes you want to be her friend so badly. Kaling isn't afraid to be her quirky self and she writes it well.
Some Quotes:
At one point Mindy is listing things she wants included in the gift bags at her funeral (please can this be a thing?) and this one killed me "(3) a copy of a drawing I did when I was little of what I wanted to be when I grew up, which was an astronaut. Under the drawing should be written, in cursive, "She finally found her wings" or "...and we have lift-off""
Under the list of alternate titles for the book: "There Has Ceased to Be a Difference Between My Awake Clothes and My Asleep Clothes."
Outlandishness Rating: 3/10
This book made Mindy Kaling pretty relatable. The way that Mindy Kaling thinks, however, is often pretty absurd and hilarious. And there was a picture of her and her friend in a New York subway car, where her friend was hanging from the metal bar near the ceiling by her legs. That kind of blew my mind.
Recommended For:
Anybody who enjoyed Tina Fey's Bossypants, or similar humorous memoirs.