Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me (And Other Concerns)

Title: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me (And Other Concerns)
Author: Mindy Kaling
Published: November 2011
Pages: 222 (hardcover)

Summary: 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!

In Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, Mindy invites readers on a tour of her life and her unscientific observations on romance, friendship, and Hollywood, with several conveniently placed stopping points for you to run errands and make phone calls. Mindy Kaling really is just a Girl Next Door—not so much literally anywhere in the continental United States, but definitely if you live in India or Sri Lanka.

My Thoughts: Can I just go ahead and say that Mindy Kaling has officially make it onto my "People I wish I was best friends with" list?  She writes with the confidence and flair that I can only wish I could have in my writing.  Very intelligent and self-aware, not to mention hilarious, Kaling's book is a must-read for comedy lovers, The Office fans, and pretty much anyone who enjoys light-hearted, fun books.

However this book does not quite hit the Bossypants a la Tina Fey level of riotously funny, I still think Kaling is one top notch comedy writer.  She's so relatable it hurts, her stories are palatable, and although she's confident in her humor-prowess, it never reads as arrogant. So yeah, add humble to the list of awesomeness that is Mindy Kaling.

Speaking of lists, I think I enjoyed that part of this book the most: her organization and her lists.  Whether it be her favorite moments in comedy, alternate titles for her book, or best friend right and responsibilities, I found that this little tidbits all had an air of honesty and hilarity to them.  Those along with the very specific topics (I love specificity), her opinions, and let's not forget the relevant photos, it made for a quick, fun, and easy read.

I loved Kaling and her writing on The Office as well as The Mindy Project and I honestly cannot wait to see what other laugh-out-loud bits of hilarious genius or observational comedy that are spawned from her career and creativity as a great writer and actor. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will definitely be recommending it to all my friends and family who want a summer read they can wholeheartedly laugh along with.
My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Off to the Outer Banks!

If you couldn't tell from the title of this post, I'm going to North Carolina's Outer Banks next week for our family vacation! While there is plenty to do there like kayaking and visiting historical Wright Brothers places, I will definitely be taking some time to myself to read on the beach. Which begs the question, what am I going to read? I've been pouring over my to-be-read list trying to pick out the best compilation of vacation books for myself, and since I've been reading a lot of fluffy books recently I thought I'd pick a wider variety to take with me to the coast. After all, variety is the spice of life! Here are the books that made the list:
(All links lead to the books' respective summary page on Goodreads).

Confessions of a Shopaholic - by Sophie Kinsella
I've just started reading this novel a few days ago. I'm not even 25% of the way through and I can already say it's positively a delight.  As someone who has just graduated college and is dealing with the stress of money, loans, affording the basics, etc. etc. I feel like I can relate. Not only that, but the witty writing, humorous dialogue, and relatable awkward situations that Rebecca gets herself into are what make this book a must for my getaway. Not only that, but I loved the movie adaptation of this novel with Hugh Dancy (can you say swoon?) and Isla Fisher, and I'm quickly finding out that while the movie was great, the book has the potential to be even better and more delightful.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me (and Other Concerns) - by Mindy Kaling
About three years ago I read Tina Fey's Bossypants and fell in love with humor memoirs. It's a small genre, but a very enjoyable one, I assure you.  My old roommate recommended this book to me after having borrowed Fey's book from her, and at the time I was a little hesitant. I only knew Mindy Kaling from The Office and nothing else. I thought she was pretty funny then, but didn't know if a whole book written by her would be worth it. Now this book is everywhere in the best possible way and I can confirm that Kaling is in fact funny. Words cannot do her TV show justice. So I will finally cave into the hilarity and give this book a go.

The Bell Jar - by Sylvia Plath
I've been trying to beef up my list of classics I've read, and after having read Sylvia Plath's poems this past Fall, I had to get my hands on her Plath's only novel, The Bell Jar. A semi-autobiographical account of her life, this coming of age novel has touch millions of lives and is usually a required reading amongst high schoolers. I, however, was not so lucky to get to discover this novel at an early age, but I'm glad to have discovered it along with Plath's poetry.  Side note: if you have not read Sylvia Plath's poetry, I highly recommend it. Her sharp, unashamed, brash words will leave your mouth watering for more. And I'm hoping for some of that kind of prose in this world famous novel.

Asylum - by Madeleine Roux
I have a strange fascination with mental illness and mental institutions. Is this a controversial and macabre subject? Yes. But I can't stop reading about it.  And this is a novel that goes along those same lines of macabre yet fascinating. A bone-chilling photo-novel, much like the amazing Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, this book is about sixteen-year-old Dan Crawford who while spending a summer in an old asylum (hence the title) decides to go exploring with his classmates one night only to realize that he and his friends didn't end up at this asylum by coincidence. There isn't much else in the summary of this book, but honestly that just makes me even more excited to read it.

Burned - by Ellen Hopkins
Last year, I was hooked by a number of Ellen Hopkins' other books of verse. I mean I was enraptured. Like so many others, I can read a Hopkins book in less than two days and still be wanting more of the drama that comes with them. And after looking at the reviews of this book, it looks even better than the others! I'm so pumped to delve deep into what looks to be another promising, dark, twisted read from Hopkins. I'm not too sure what it's about, but I think that makes it even more exciting to read. I love to be surprised at the twists and turns of dramatic novels, especially Hopkins' works. 

Girl at Sea - by Maureen Johnson
Ah yes. Another perfect YA beachy read for me to devour.  Not many people know this, but I get my life force, my essence if you will, from books like this one. It's got everything! A boy meets girl story, romance, beachy/oceanic fun times, and underwater treasure. Yes I just said underwater treasure, aka the best kind of treasure next to buried. What does this treasure do? Oh you know, it could unlock the secrets of civilization itself, no biggie. Written by Maureen Johnson, one of the baronesses of chick-lit and young adult literature, this novel hasn't made as much of a splash in the YA book review world as her other books, have but it looks just as promising for an entertaining read.

If you can't tell, I'm extremely pumped for my vacation and for my vacation reading.  I can't wait to marathon read all of these wonderful books from my beach chair for a whole week. And if you're going on vacation soon with a pile of books like me or if you're just daycationing (real word? it is now!) and reading from the comfort of your own back yard, let me know what is on your vacation TBR list! Happy reading!

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Title: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Author: Jesse Andrews
Pages: 295
Publication: March 2012

Summary: Greg Gaines is the last master of high school espionage, able to disappear at will into any social environment. He has only one friend, Earl, and together they spend their time making movies, their own incomprehensible versions of Coppola and Herzog cult classics.

Until Greg’s mother forces him to rekindle his childhood friendship with Rachel. Rachel has been diagnosed with leukemia—-cue extreme adolescent awkwardness—-but a parental mandate has been issued and must be obeyed. When Rachel stops treatment, Greg and Earl decide the thing to do is to make a film for her, which turns into the Worst Film Ever Made and becomes a turning point in each of their lives.

And all at once Greg must abandon invisibility and stand in the spotlight.

My Thoughts: Greg Gaines is a boy of many flaws.  He's overly self-deprecating, not self-aware, can't take a compliment to save his life, and not to mention a tad selfish.  And you know how whenever a character does something stupid and you get secondhand embarrassment from just reading about that stupid something? Yeah, that's very prevalent in this novel when it comes to Greg Gaines.  That's not to say he doesn't eventually win you over, though, because that does happen. Eventually.

For the first third of the book, I found myself either laughing at the witty writing or skipping over the massive info-dumps of background about Greg, Earl, and even sometimes Rachel (aka the dying girl). With these info-dumps came stories of how Greg did something stupid or was at a loss for a socially acceptable response to a question and sometimes it was funny, however other times it got a little annoying when these ridiculous responses would take pages to end and you're just cringing because of it.

Other than that, I did think this was a funny book. It was witty and enjoyable from beginning to end. But don't go into this book thinking, "Hey! I'm going to read this because someone is going to fall in love with the dying girl! Right?" Wrong. It's not a romantic book at all. It's a book about friendships, figuring out what it's like to start thinking about others, making better life decisions. At least, I think that's what it's about.

I say that because you can get all kinds of morals from this story and you can learn a lot from Greg's mistakes, like he eventually does himself.  Also, if you like a fair amount of cussing, bad movie remakes, and 12 year old boy level kind of humor, then this book is made for you. It's your soul mate. Pick it up, give it a nice ceremony it's been dreaming of since it was just a picture book, and marry it. You are no doubt bound to love it.
My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars