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

My wife and I share my Amazon account and, typically, my inbox fills up with all of the purchase notifications sent by the company. And I mean ALL. Originally I wondered if my account was hacked and why would thieves make ridiculous purchases such as the Hunger Games and Bossy Pants (or whatever the title is). After a bit of inquiry, I can now, somewhat-safely, assume the email-notifications are simple requests for reviewing the books she buys. However, in this case, a book I've never read deserves a review.This past week of Christmas felt like a cannonball run over a 5 day period. We are a couple of SINKs (like a DINK but I'm finishing up my MFA, so...) who often are expected to do the traveling between many states within a very hasty, intense, hyper-caloric-infused, few crazy days to see both sides of our family. Generally, this means we travel by car and spend a LOT of time behind the wheel trying not to kill each other out of boredom.What made this year really nutty and unique was that we could ONLY afford to travel by car after recently moving to the DC area. Our families live in both Upstate New York and Vermont and to not see them would grant us an automatic fail in their books (not really, but we sometimes wonder as first-borns). As mentioned before, we don’t have kids (often an opportunistic, golden-ticket for not traveling) and our furry, pissed-off cat will not grant us any pass.We do love our family, and we do want to see them, but 10 to 12 consecutive hours in the car, confronting an ice-storm no less, is tough. Real tough. And if anyone knows what it’s like to travel during the holiday season by car, it can sometimes feel like you’re crazy-town-banana-pants, weaving in and out of lanes of people paying attention to nothing, but crooning their Christmas Carols on their iPod. Why their iPod? Other than convenience, if you travel the routes we have to, typically, you’re driving through radio deadzones with nothing more than three choices: static, Christian Rock or Rod Stewart. No slam to born-again lyrics or Stewartness, they both have their place, but I cannot personally handle too much exposure to either for a lengthy period of time. We also did not have an iPod.At some point during the leg of the trip, my wife, in the passenger seat, snickered while looking down at her Kindle. I asked her what was so funny. She shrugged it off and continued to read. After realizing my wife and I know a lot about each other, and mooning truck drivers while driving was out of the question, I looked for ANY WAY to be entertained for the rest of the day during our first leg of travel. So I proceeded to pry and she informed me it was simply something silly that Mindy said in her book. She then offered to read the passage out loud. I chuckled. The style of Mindy’s telling of an event in her life was very well written and humorous. Next thing you know, my wife and I were laughing the hours away, practically in tears, as she re-read the book orally, front to back, for the remainder of the trip.What makes this book so great is how truthful Mindy shares her anecdotes. She’s smart, witty and honest. At first glance, things felt very arbitrary and self-centered, but in fact, so are we and what we pay attention to from time to time. She provided a great balance of what you’d expect - “this is Mindy’s path to success” - with a very humanistic, modest look at her past. She teaches us how parents will continue to be an interesting influence in our choices, how success is sometimes “I got lucky”, and then throws in smatterings of “So here are some selfies I found on my blackberry”. Random? Yes. Relatable? Completely. Made me think of ridiculous things in my past and that maybe I’m on the right path to what I would consider success.So aside from greatly improving upon our lively experience during our trip to Vermont, Mindy gave me perspective. I don’t read as much as my wife does, but if many books were written like Mindy’s, I’d probably read a lot more of them. And who knows… Maybe even make it a tradition that my wife is to read out loud during our annual cannonball run. We’ll probably even save crazy-town-Bossy-Pants for next Christmas.

I have a confession: I read this book twice in the span of 2 weeks. It was that funny! One of Mindy's guest stars on "The Mindy Project" described her as "frighteningly charismatic," which I think is perfectly apt. She finds a way to infuse charisma and energy into her descriptions of even the most mundane activities. Because of her honesty and charisma, I'd probably be likely to enjoy any of her future books, of which I hope she writes many!The book covers a healthy variety of topics, from Mindy's squeaky-clean, high achieving childhood to her post-college days living in cramped quarters with her best friends making ends meet in New York, to her professional growth on The Office and beyond. The stories she tells are vibrant and often very funny, and written in a self-referential style.I found it refreshing that she was not jaded nor depressed (not that there's a PROBLEM with that, but that it seems almost all comedians have a dark side or period of depression/drug abuse). At the same time, she was brutally honest about parts of her life that worked, parts that didn't, and times where she could/should have worked a little harder (cough cough...Conan). She also shared some great philosophies on life, such as that if you can't find a character that's a good fit for you, you have to CREATE one (like she did with Matt & Ben, and now with The Mindy Project). She also has beautiful passages about her family and what she wants in romantic relationships, which I found realistic and heartening.Just a few negatives: like many others, I wish that she had provided more detail of her transition between NYC and LA - it was a stark change without very much description. I also felt that her self-portraits were totally unnecessary and not that funny. That being said, I like that she is confident enough to throw that in there just because she wants to! There's an utterly un-filtered element to her writing which some might find solipsistic, but I find refreshing.I find Mindy to be a fascinating bundle of contradictions. We know she has an insane work ethic and works 16+ hour days on The Mindy Project as writer, creator, lead actress, and producer, yet she fully admits to being lazy at different parts of the book (from her Conan internship to SNL to the times when she gets a week to write an episode for The Office). She seems to fervently want what her parents have (a mature companionship), yet she didn't start dating "men rather than boys" until her 30s (which seems late for someone who is very self-aware and knows what they want). That being said, I love that she is not afraid to present herself unfettered, contradictions and all - it's quite a fun whirlwind to read. I hope she writes a follow up!

Didn't know much about Mindy Kaling before reading this (other than she acted and wrote for The Office), and now I'd read anything Mindy Kaling wrote. Have read one of her other books so far, and loved it, too!

Great book! full of funny insights and anecdotes! I 100% recommend the purchase of this item.

The delivery was very prompt. The condition of the book was pristine and as expected.I have skimmed through the pages of the book but appears to be a very fast entertaining read.

The book is really funny, more than once I had to stop reading to laugh my a** off. It's easy to read, it goes fast and you'll miss it when you finish it.

Mindy comes across as a delightful combination of superficial, intelligent, generous of spirit, kinda mean and just hilarious. I'd like her to be my friend!