Book Review — Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Kelly Kapoor from The Office has always been an interesting character to me. She’s the Customer Service Rep who falls in love with Ryan and is often at the end of Michael Scott’s stereotypical rants (like everyone else and Toby). So I didn’t pass at the chance to read more about Mindy Kaling, the author of this book who plays Kelly Kapoor. She does have a chapter dedicated to The Office in this book.

If that is not enough reason for you to check this book out, let’s go on. It’s also very short. About 222 pages. She doesn’t get it wrong when she says in the introduction …

“This book will take you two days to read. Did you even see the cover? It’s mostly pink. If you’re reading this book every night for months, something is not right.”

The book opens up with Mindy’s childhood. How she came up against bullies for her weight which she lost and gained a couple of times throughout her childhood. Throughout the book, she makes lists about everything.. what she shares in common with Kelly Kapoor, what she doesn’t, her hilarious guide to being an awesome guy (that wasn’t a particularly good one haha).

She goes on to talk about fame at Dartmouth College and her climb into the comedy industry, and Hollywood, living in New York, her friendships, and her family.

She talks about her romantic life just a couple of times though she talks about dating and relationships in general, which was disappointing to me because in the few pages she did write about them, I found her thoughts interesting.

Not really a deeply thought-provoking book, this could serve as a time-passer while you wait for your friend at a restaurant. Her conversational tone is perfect for the content she writes about and she makes some pretty awesome references too. I know she loves romcoms, we all do, I still don’t know why we had to sit through a whole chapter lecture on female leads in romcoms. It was funny though.

In all, I did not expect much and I was not disappointed. If you are looking for a read to beef up your book count for the year, this is it.

Best Parts: My All-Important Legacy

Worst Parts:

Favorite Quote: “Please, no religious stuff. I kind of insist no one mention God or anything at my funeral. I’m not making some big atheist statement, but I want this to be solemn because people are so upset I’m dead, and I don’t want to share the spotlight with God.

…If Steve Carell doesn’t show up, I want my children and my children’s children to make a mental note of it”.

Rating: 3.0 / 5 stars