Review: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Author: Mindy Kaling
Publish date: 2011
Source: Library (ebook)
"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 makes 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've been looking forward to reading this ever since I found out Mindy Kaling was writing a book. She is hilarious on The Office and on Twitter and I, like most others who like her, feel like we could be best friends. This book was definitely proof of it.

This was a fun, quick read at only 222 pages (and pictures!). I read it over two nights, although could have easily done it in one if I didn't have that pesky job I needed to get sleep for. Damn work getting in the way of my reading! Anyway, the whole thing was really entertaining. I thought Mindy was funniest when she was talking about her childhood and her relationship with her close friends. Like I said, the whole thing just cemented the fact that I'd like to be BFF's with her.

The first two thirds of the book flowed really well, but the last third felt a bit forced. She includes some photos from her blackberry and a few essays just weren't as funny as the others. All in all though, very entertaining. I'd love to read more by Mindy and think I will definitely reread this one as an audio book!