If you’re a fan of The Office – which I am; I even blog about the show for work – you know Mindy Kaling as the delightfully dippy customer service representative, Kelly Kapoor.  Kelly isn’t one of the main characters, but I’ve always loved her.  Her particular brand of ditzy neediness is all kinds of hilarious and endearing.  And I was even more fascinated by Kelly when I discovered that the actress who portrays her, Mindy Kaling, is a writer and producer on the show.  Kelly may have wasted all of her brain cells on online shopping and celebrity gossip, but Mindy is incredibly smart (Dartmouth grad! almost as good as Cornell! GO BIG RED!) and hysterically funny.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) is Mindy’s sort-of memoir, sort-of stream of consciousness ramblings.  She takes the reader from her days as a “timid chubster afraid of her own bike” and self-proclaimed comedy geek, through high school and college, to her early career as a Ben Affleck impersonator in a two-woman off-Broadway production.  (She co-wrote the show with her roommate, Brenda, and they decided to only have two parts, because then they could play the parts and they wouldn’t have to pay anyone.)  From her early days as Ben in Matt&Ben, Mindy jumps feet first into a new show that no one thought was going anywhere – a silly, random little show called The Office.

Between memoir-ing, Kelly – errrr, Mindy – gives you fascinating flashes of insight into her incredibly random brain.  She treats you to musings on topics such as what is the perfect amount of fame to have… why men should not shave their chests… why size 8 is the Hollywood stylist’s Kryptonite… why Amy Poehler rules… and more.  I was laughing until I cried and reading random paragraphs to my long-suffering husband as he tried to drive the car home after a long day at work.  And the next time I watched The Office (Ryan, Kelly finally found a great guy!  LEAVE HER ALONE!) I had new respect for Kelly.  (Like I said, I already knew that Mindy Kaling was a writer/producer on the show – but reading her book just brought home for me how smart and funny the lady really is.  And she’s only 2 years older than me… man, that burns.)  Mindy, if you’re reading this, I can be funny from time to time, in structured indoor scenarios.  Let’s be besties?

Get the book!  Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? And Other Concerns, by Mindy Kaling (not an affiliate link)

First off, let me say this: I think Tina Fey is a genius.  A warm, witty, on-point, hilarious genius.  Now let me follow that with some sacrilege.  ::whispers:: ithinkilikedmindykaling’sbookbetter.

Bossypants was certainly amusing, and read more like a traditional memoir than Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?.  And, as an expectant parent, I did like the advice Tina gives on “how to raise an achievement-oriented, drug-free adult virgin.”  Tina brings a darkly funny voice to everything from gay rights to her first post-college job (receptionist at the YMCA, yowsa) to women in comedy to being the “boss” on 30 Rock.  I chuckled appreciatively at regular intervals throughout the book, and basically lived for the chapter in which Tina recounts in detail her experience impersonating Sarah Palin on SNL.  (I watched those sketches over and over and over and over in 2008.  And then again after finishing Bossypants.  They’re still just as awesome.)

But… and Mindy Kaling would kill me for saying this… ::whispers:: ilikedmindykaling’sbookbetter.  Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? literally had tears running down my face at times.  I was trying to figure out why this is.  Maybe because Mindy Kaling is a little bit closer to my age?  (Not that Tina Fey is old – she’s not – but Mindy only has a couple of years on me.)  Or that Mindy hasn’t been established for very long, and she still seems to believe that her success must be some kind of mistake?  Or maybe it’s because I actually watch The Office and I don’t watch 30 Rock.  (My husband hates Alec Baldwin with the fire of a thousand suns, so it’s a marriage thing.  I’d probably watch if not for that.)  I dunno why.  I still really, really enjoyed Bossypants and would recommend it to anyone who likes a witty memoir or who is interested in women in comedy.

Get the book!  Bossypants, by Tina Fey (not an affiliate link)

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