I blogged about this book in my September book haul and had planned to read it during school but surprise, surprise (not surprising at all), I didn’t read it during little study breaks between classes and on the bus ride to and from university. I mean, I read a few of the essays that way, but definitely not the whole book. I’m not sure why I was so ambitious with the amount of pleasure reading I thought I would do during the school term, but I think it was largely due to the fact that I needed to justify the book shopping I did after my August book buying ban last summer was lifted.
If you haven’t heard of Mindy Kaling, she is a hilarious comedian, writer, and actor. She wrote for the remake of the classic BBC show The Office, and then began her own tv show The Mindy Project, along with voicing characters like Disgust in the adorable movie Inside Out, Taffyta Muttonfudge in Wreck-It Ralph, and the Tourist Mom in Despicable Me.
Also, Mindy Kaling predicted the future in this book. In her essay, “Franchises I Would Like To Reboot” she mentions how awesome it would be if the next Ghostbusters film had four female leads, but notes the unlikelihood of this given the demographic is teenage boys. Well lo and behold that the recently released ghostbusters stars Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, and Kristen Wiig. Mind you, Kaling did share an office with Kristen Wiig during her time as a guest writer for Saturday Night Live, so maybe the idea got tossed around.
This book is sectioned into different parts of her life, covering her childhood as the daughter of immigrant professionals, her time in New York in an off-Broadway play with one of her best friends about Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, her time in Hollywood as a writer and actor, her love life, her appearance, and her legacy in which she lays out her funeral plans and proposed eulogy.
A few of my favourite essays include Don’t Peak in High School, Best Friend Rights and Responsibilities, Types of Women in Romantic Comedies Who Are Not Real, Someone Explain One-Night Stands To Me, “Hooking Up” Is Confusing, I Love Irish Exits, and Revenge Fantasies While Jogging.
I love Kaling’s unique and witty narrative voice, and how relatable she is as a character in her essays and as a person. Plus it helps that we seem to share the same sense of humour and opinions concerning what makes a guy great, a best friend great, or what is just not a cool thing to say to someone about their appearance.
This little tour through Kaling’s life is riddled with funny, slightly inappropriate, and oh-so-true observations about people and life, and is such a light and easy read, making it the perfect book to take down to the beach or on a plane ride. The essays do not have to be read in the order they appear in the book, so readers have much more freedom regarding the topic of their reading.
On a final note, in response to the title of this book, who wouldn’t want to hang out with Mindy Kaling??? I definitely would.
Do you like Mindy Kaling, either as a comedy writer for The Office, an author, or as an actor???
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