Review: Is Everyone Hanging out Without Me? And Other Concerns by Mindy Kahling

Challenge criteria: A book written by a celebrity

Blurb:

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!

Image via Goodreads

What I liked:

Reading this was like sitting down with a friend having them tell you about their life up to the point where they first meet you. You get a great insight into Mindy’s childhood, school life, her break into the entertainment industry, and the stint she had living with her two best friends in a tiny bedsit. If they could survive that, that’s a pretty solid friendship.

It was also good for me to see what strict, tough parents were like in another culture. I had the Irish Catholic upbringing, complete with the overbearing parents. It was great to see what the same was like in another famously strict culture – Hindu parents.

There was also a good amount of photos from Mindy’s life illustrating the story as it went along, and providing a look at who she was actually talking about. It’s nice to see them in real life and compare them to the version in your head

What I didn’t like:

Ok this is the first time I’ve ever done this.

I didn’t find anything I didn’t agree with in this book.

Out of five?:

Five. Without any doubt. I’d been really looking forward to reading this one, and it definitely didn’t disappoint me. It’s made me really hungry to find Why Not Me and give that one a read as well.