Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)

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 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!
 

One thing that you should know about me is that I love The Office. The humor is always brilliant and the characters are weird, but loveable. As it is Christmas season, I've begun indulging one of my personal Christmas traditions. That tradition would be watching all eight Christmas episodes of The Office on repeat. I can't explain it, but they get me in the Christmas spirit like no other.

For this reason, I decided it was a great time to pick up Mindy Kaling's book. (If you don't know, Mindy Kaling is a writer on the show as well as playing Kelly Kapoor). I knew that to be a writer on this particular show she must be hilarious in her own right.

 

Basically, I was correct.

 

It was the kind of funny that works really well in books like this. You know, books that tell stories from the person's life, not necessarily in chronological order. It told about her childhood and her college years, her time in New York looking for an in into the industry, and eventually it told about her time in LA working on The Office. I really enjoyed all the stories she told. She had a way of including enough detail to give you a good laugh, but not so much as to make the stories boring.

 

I also particularly loved the sections where she wasn't exactly a story, it was more like she was giving an opinion about life in general (like how men look best, why she loves karaoke, and other random tidbits).

 

I don't have much else to say other than that this was a charming and genuinely funny read. If you like The Office or funny books of any kind, I'd recommend this one.