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Another fun, hilarious book from Mindy Kaling. Great book for fans of the first one as well as any of her shows. The writing is weird and funny, just like we've all come to expect from Kaling. 

One of the great things about Kaling's writing is she'll talk about hanging out with other celebrities and such, but it doesn't feel like namedropping. She brings up other actors she is actually close with and tells interesting stories about them instead of just peppering their names in her writing. I recently read a celebrity memoir that featured so many namedrops, I couldn't help but roll my eyes when another famous person's name came up. Kaling has a great balance. Plus her story about Edward Albee was hilarious. 

Like any book, this one isn't perfect (that fantasy Latin teacher thing told almost exclusively in emails and text got a little played out by the end), but it is an entertaining and interesting book nonetheless. So many topics come up- weight, confidence, rejection, juice cleanses, friendship, and it is so fun to read Kaling's perspective on things.

From the author of the beloved New York Times bestselling book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? and the creator and star of The Mindy Project comes a collection of essays that are as hilarious and insightful as they are deeply personal. In Why Not Me?, Kaling shares her ongoing journey to find contentment and excitement in her adult life, whether it’s falling in love at work, seeking new friendships in lonely places, attempting to be the first person in history to lose weight without any behavior modification whatsoever, or most important, believing that you have a place in Hollywood when you’re constantly reminded that no one looks like you.

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Really thought I would dig this one more, as I DO find Kaling funny in her movie and tv roles, but something just didn’t work for me here. It wasn’t gawd awful or anything that bad, but I was surprised to find that I did not laugh out loud once. Not. Once. Even though I could count at least half a dozen mentions of her pointing out that she was a comedy writer. All I could think was one of my favorite lines from Finding Nemo: “You know, for a clown fish, he’s not that funny.” And at times I felt like she went a little heavy-handed with the self-deprecation… to the point of being irritating. Additionally, I found myself cringing a bit at some of the people she refers to as friends.

I did finish it, as it is an easy read and it is mildly interesting in a “skimming People magazine in the waiting room” kind of way, but about the only bit where I was honestly invested was the portion where she writes this whole scenario for “alternate Mindy” – the Mindy she imagines if she hadn’t found fame, the Mindy who teaches Latin at a private school in NYC. That whole bit is done in a blend of work emails, text messages and IMs and she actually does make a pretty entertaining story there. I would’ve happily read a whole novel with those characters!

A couple things I did appreciate or relate to: I give props to Kaling for her work ethic. Regardless of what I think of this book, I can’t knock her dedication to her job, as she lays out an average day for her readers, a day that she says typically runs from 5:30am one day to 12:30 am the next… over and over again. You have to give a nod to that.

Also nice to know it’s not just me that worries if some Uber drivers are secretly serial killers.

I've had this on my radar for awhile. Noticed the library had this on Overdrive audio and thought "I need to give that a try." So I listened to this on my commute this past week., narrated by Mindy Kaling herself. I found myself laughing out loud, she's got an excellent sense of humor. I'm a year older (yes, I'm turning 40 in April, holy shit!), so we can of age about the same time. Best of all, she came across as someone I can relate to. Bonus: she's nice, intelligent, talented, and opinionated. 
Bossypants is next!

If you like the idea of Mindy Kaling accompanying you on walks, runs, errands, etc., keeping you entertained with funny stories, you'll enjoy this audiobook.  I particularly enjoyed learning about why she and BJ Novak are "soup snakes."

Some bits of the book felt a bit filler-ish, but even those portions entertained me.  Mindy could probably read the Yellow Pages or classified ads to me and make me laugh.

I love Mindy Kaling! I really really do. And I must admit I started this book a little cautious because I read her last one with high expectations and felt a little let down at the end. This time I found myself laughing out loud almost all through and nodding like a crazy person when I agreed with her witty observations (thank goodness it was my bedside reading and not my commuting book). I'm sure her humour is not for everyone but it's certainly worth a read just for the text/email relayed love story close to the end. Loved it!