I finished Mindy Kaling’s book, “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?” recently, and I have to say I was a little disappointed. I had heard so many good things about it, and I just didn’t think it was the great. Maybe it’s because I read it so long after it was published, or maybe it’s because I’ve never gotten into “The Office”, but I didn’t like this book as much as I wanted to. (And I loved Amy Poehler’s book, so I thought I would love this too.)
1. I feel like she thinks she’s all that and a bag of chips.
She would talk about episodes of “The Office” and would have to mention that she wrote it. And I understood why she mentioned it sometimes (like it related to her writing career) but it always came off as braggy to me and made me feel like Kaling thought she was the most funniest person ever.
2. It felt very random.
Similar to Poehler’s book (which I know was written after Kaling’s), Kaling included a lot of chapters that were just fun little lists about things she was interested in. For some reason, I found these lists off the wall and unrelated to my interests and her book. Maybe it’s because I’m not that into comedy? Or I just don’t like Kaling’s style, but I didn’t find her random thoughts as interesting as as Poehler’s.
3. It was weirdly interesting to a read a book years after its publication.
This book was published in 2011, and a lot has changed since then. For example, “The Office” was still filming, Poehler and her then husband were still together, and Joan Rivers was still alive. It was both interesting and horrific to see these little details that changed people’s lives forever (mostly Poehler’s divorce and Rivers’ death) printed forever in this book. It makes me wonder what it’s like to read even older books that are completely different than life today.
I probably won’t review this book since I didn’t really like it, but I would suggest if you’re thinking about reading Mindy Kaling’s book, go for it, and then read “Yes Please” after it.
Side note: Kaling told this really touching story about her best friend from when she was a kid, and I was my favorite part of the book. I felt it was the most honestly written part and it really captured what I wanted to know about Mindy.
Happy reading,
Kimberly
