Staff Pick
Come on. Mindy just wants to be liked. She confesses to being an imperfectly proportioned, quirky semi-star and is so eager to dish up all sorts of hilarious episodes of her life — and actually lets you know how she feels about them. You'll like her, all right, and maybe even go so far as to love her just a little. Recommended By Mark I., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
From the author of the beloved New York Times bestselling book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? and the creator and star of The Mindy Project comes a collection of essays that are as hilarious and insightful as they are deeply personal.
In Why Not Me?,
Kaling shares her ongoing journey to find contentment and excitement in
her adult life, whether it’s falling in love at work, seeking new
friendships in lonely places, attempting to be the first person in
history to lose weight without any behavior modification whatsoever, or
most important, believing that you have a place in Hollywood when you’re
constantly reminded that no one looks like you.
In “How to
Look Spectacular: A Starlet’s Confessions,” Kaling gives her
tongue-in-cheek secrets for surefire on-camera beauty, (“Your natural
hair color may be appropriate for your skin tone, but this isn’t the
land of appropriate — this is Hollywood, baby. Out here, a
dark-skinned woman’s traditional hair color is honey blonde.”) “Player”
tells the story of Kaling being seduced and dumped by a female friend in
L.A. (“I had been replaced by a younger model. And now they had
matching bangs.”) In “Unlikely Leading Lady,” she muses on America’s
fixation with the weight of actresses, (“Most women we see onscreen are
either so thin that they’re walking clavicles or so huge that their only
scenes involve them breaking furniture.”) And in “Soup Snakes,” Kaling
spills some secrets on her relationship with her ex-boyfriend and close
friend, B.J. Novak (“I will freely admit: my relationship with B.J.
Novak is weird as hell.”)
Mindy turns the anxieties, the
glamour, and the celebrations of her second coming-of-age into a
laugh-out-loud funny collection of essays that anyone who’s ever been at
a turning point in their life or career can relate to. And those who’ve
never been at a turning point can skip to the parts where she talks
about meeting Bradley Cooper.
Review
“Kaling has written a second book that’s funnier, sharper and more
confident than her 2011 collection of personal essays and pop culture
riffs called Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns). Even
the title of that initial effort implied that Kaling was trying to find
her place; the tone of this new one announces that she’s found it and
is more than comfortable inviting people to spend time with her there.” Washington Post
Review
“Hilarious…Kaling knows her strengths, and plays to them
brilliantly....Aside from that effortlessly conversational tone and her
pitch-perfect humor, Kaling’s biggest strength here is curatorial. She
gives us the candy we came for — the advice, the anecdotes, the straight
talk on body image — but sprinkles in something extra.” Entertainment Weekly
Review
“…insightful personal essays from one of Hollywood’s cleverest writers....Intrepid and often irreverent, Kaling humbly probes her own triumphs and
defeats with laugh-out-loud results." Kirkus Reviews
Review
“Kaling’s irreverent take on life is both uproariously funny and
dead-on....Advice on a variety of topics — including why extensions make
everyone more beautiful and how the world needs to start assuming that
all young women are confident — make this an empowering and entertaining
read.” Publishers Weekly
About the Author
Mindy Kaling lives in rural New Hampshire and does not own a TV.