Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)

So, full disclosure: I’m a pretty big Office fan, and I watch The Mindy Project. So, yeah, I like Mindy Kaling’s brand of humor. It’s sort of self-effacing in a girl power-ish kind of way. If you’re not familiar with her work, she’s basically a comedy screenwriter and actress who was on The Office and now has her own show. This book is her her memoir-slash-autobiography written pre-Mindy Project, but post-the Office.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me is more or less exactly what you’d expect from her. If you like her type of humor, you’ll like the book. She’s snarky and accessible, driven but has no pretensions whatsoever about herself. She covers super serious topics like boys and narcissistic (her words, not mine) photos of herself she has on her phone.

The book is very enjoyable and none of it is boring. It’s not going to change your world, but oh well. She also covers pretty extensively her path that led her into getting into the comedy business, including her flops such as a not particularly successful stint guest writing on SNL, which was interesting.

Oh, quick caveat, if you are reading this book in public, people who don’t know what it is will probably assume it is a self-help book because of the title. They may, for example, try to ask you how you are doing and if you are okay. This is happened to me. For serious. I should have just said I was okay, but thank you, because insisting that this book is “actually really funny” and that the writer is “a famous comedian so it’s not a self-help book” sounded really unconvincing, even if true.

But anyway, if you’re curious, you should just read it cause it’s quick, easy and fun. I think she says it best so I’ll just quote her instead: “This book will take you two days to read. […] If you’re reading this book every night for months, something is not right.”