Friday, April 27, 2012

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling


Mindy Kaling has lived many lives: the obedient child of immigrant professionals, a timid chubster afraid of her own bike, a Ben Affleck-impersonating Off-Broadway performer and playwright, and finally, a comedy writer and actress prone to starting fights with her friends and coworkers with the sentence “Can I just say one last thing about this, and then I swear I’ll shut up about it?”
Perhaps you want to know what Mindy thinks make a great best friend (someone who will fill your prescription in the middle of the night), or what makes a great guy (one who is aware of all elderly people in any room at any time and acts accordingly), or what is the perfect amount of fame (so famous you can never get convicted of murder in a court of law), or how to maintain a trim figure (you will not find that information in these pages). If so, you’ve come to the right book, mostly!
In Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, Mindy invites readers on a tour of her life and her unscientific observations on romance, friendship, and Hollywood, with several conveniently placed stopping points for you to run errands and make phone calls. Mindy Kaling really is just a Girl Next Door – not so much literally anywhere in the continental United States, but definitely if you live in India or Sri Lanka.

I have always loved Mindy Kaling’s portrayal of Kelly Kapoor on The Office, which is what encouraged me to read this book. I actually finished it in one day, and am happy to say I was not disappointed. I like reading biographies written by comedians, because I have yet to read one that I didn’t enjoy. Mindy’s comedic timing is borderline perfect, and she manages to poke fun at herself and certain people without being horribly brash. I love Chelsea Handler’s honest, no-bullshit sense of humor, but Mindy’s is more refreshing.

She incorporates comical childhood memories (the one involving her on a diving board at summer camp had me laughing out loud) with some insightful life goals that really give you a feel for who she really is and what she really wants out of life. I loved the chapter about the difference between dating a boy and dating a man, which is a situation every woman goes through at least in her life. Some of the chapters were rather short; the chapter involving men and their chest hair was only a page and half, which makes it seem a little random.

Overall, it was a quick read, made me laugh, and made me like Mindy Kaling even more. 




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