a few more alternate titles for Mindy Kaling's collection of essays?
The Girl with No Tattoo
I Want Dirk Nowitzki to Host Saturday Night Live So Much That I'm Making it the Title of my Book
&
There Has Ceased to Be a Difference Between My Awake Clothes and My Asleep Clothes*
While I was able to make instant connections to these possible titles, I'm kind of glad she went with Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) because its the question girls like me have been asking ourselves since 7th grade.
Lets be honest...who knew Mindy Kaling was such a jane of all trades? Obviously as a pretty big fan of The Office, I knew almost everything one needed to know about Kelly Kapor, but what did I know about Mindy Kaling other than that she was the actress who played Kelly Kapor?
I'd seen her name pop up as co-executive producer but what did that mean anyway?
I'm not one to really check out all the credits for a show or any particular episode but if I had I would have learned that Mindy has been a writer on The Office since season 1 & that she has already directed a couple episodes.
Other things I learned about Mindy Kaling:
1. she loves making lists (this book consists mostly of lists)
2. her real name is vera & her "american name" comes from the show Mork & Mindy
3. She grew up in Massachusetts
3. She went to Dartmouth...IN NEW HAMPSHIRE (Dear Min, I went to college in New Hampshire too can we be besties?)
4. she has pretty much known since birth that she wanted to be a comedienne
5. she is a writer, actor, producer, director, shop-a-holic, & knower of pretty much all things awkward
6. she & rainn wilson mask their rock solid friendship by publicly hating each other
7. she is everything I would love to be
Here is why
Well obviously because she nailed her very first attempt at writing a book. It took her about a year & a half but it seems effortless. If i wanted to, I could have read this book in one sitting. "...And Other Concerns" is only about 220 pages, but even if it was 500 I still could have just sat in my bed indian style, flipping pages, laughing hysterically, and taking note of every quote that made me go "get out of my head, min!" [about half way through I started calling her Min, we're that cool...well we would be if we knew each other ::nods::]
instead
I kept stopping myself whenever the book started getting too good. I didn't want it to end...ever...and when it did (as I sat in the break room at my job)...my life suddenly lacked some purpose.
My purpose for the last 2 days had been to read this book, fall in love (in the most heterosexual, non fatal attraction-ish way possible) with mindy, and be inspired.
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? made me want to write a book, it made me want to write a play based on ben affleck & matt damon or w/e the current bromance is? maybe I could have tackled brad & clooney ::nods::
it made me want to keep at everything i'm doing now because even Mindy had to suffer through the post-grad limbo, working jobs you never thought you'd have work, dealing with people you never thought you'd have to deal with & look at her now!
I think in order to be as successful as she has, both in her career & personal life, you'd have to kind of look at life the way she does. She's super light & funny about it. Yes shes emotional & rambly like the rest of us but she turned some of her most embarrassing experiences into an amazing-ly written book.
You have to be accepting of yourself in ways you never thought you could be ::nods::
What else can I say about this book other than that it is my mid 20s bible & Mindy Kaling just might have passed Oprah** as my own personal Jesus?
All that is left for me to say about Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) without completely giving it away:
1. buy it.
2. read it.
3. you will love it...i promise.
4. i think boys can read it too but they probably won't really get it...especially when she goes into how pierce brosnan's chest hair pretty much changed her life
5. upon completion of her book you will conclude that Mindy is everyone you would ever want to know rolled into one awesome person...& if not then...whatever your opinion doesn't reallllllly matter anyway! just mine & min's!...i'm kidding...kind of?
Oh! & have you not heard of "Androgynous Kids & Puppets"?***
*for the rest of the list please see page 7 of this extraordinary piece of non-fiction ::nods::
**i initially typed her name with a lower case "o" & spell checked promptly notified me of my blasphemy...Oprah [capital "O", ya'll!] maintains her #1 spot on my list of "Jesuses"
***the final reason i think you should get, read, & love this book immediately
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