Why Not Me?

Mindy Kaling is an exceptionally intelligent woman who has worked hard for her success in an industry that's been famously unfriendly to women. Her book is mostly not about that. Instead, it's a deceptively hilarious extended meditation on how she from bribing classmates to like her with Skittles at the age of 12 she became the force of nature that she is. In Hollywood, which believes its own fictions about what the world wants from female writers of comedy and even more about what it wants from female TV icons, she's done what every woman in the TV business must have thought was impossible: created her success by hard work and being herself. She was there before Lena Dunham and before Amy Schumer.This book is funny, so maybe a younger person might miss the recurring message: to achieve success, MK had to pick her priorities (make sacrifices) at every turn. Near the end of the book, there's an excellent account of how she learned the difference at a young age between earned success and unearned self-esteem, which is something many parents today don't understand.How did she learn to rise above her own insecurities? By refusing to concede that other people's ideas about what she was entitled to achieve were more valid than her own--and by hard work, sleepless nights, and knowing what she wanted. Most important, she emphasises the absolute and seldom acknowledged connection between self confidence and self acceptance and hard work plus tenacity. And yet on the surface, it's a funny book that's not about any of those things.I liked it. Any ambitious young woman would benefit from reading this.She's an excellent role model for any young woman who wants to learn how to get there (or anywhere) from here.

I went from moments of “This is so great’” to “That was 15 minutes of my life I will never get back.” There were parts of this book that fascinated me and cracked me up, and others where I was bored stiff. The book seemed to jump around at random, making it feel disjointed, with a number of sections that left me thinking, “WTF?? Why was that even in the book?” All the positive and negative moments average out to a 3.

Mindy Kaling's second book (her first was "Is Everybody Hanging Out Without Me?") is another lighthearted, though superficial, collection of essays. For those not familiar with Kaling, she started off as a writer/actress on "The Office" on NBC, and went on to create and star in her own sitcom, "The Mindy Project", on Fox. Kaling's first book focused more around her childhood and early career after finishing college at Dartmouth and starting in screenwriting. Her latest book focuses more on how her life changed after her own television show blossomed (it later was cancelled by FOX but picked up by online streaming service Hulu). This book is a lot quicker and not as introspective as her first book (where she talked a lot about struggling to make it in NYC in a shared boxcar apartment, and how she struggled with body image growing up) , but has her undeniable wit and humor that fans of the Mindy Project would love. I would have liked, selfishly, more depth (she does talk about this a lot, but more in a jocular, brushing-it-off-sort of way) to her discussions about being a female in Hollywood, facing constant and the challenges she faced in starting her own television show and staying true to her artistic vision - which is my only critique - but I guess that's not really the point of this book; it's a lighthearted and humorous account of her experiences in Hollywood.The best essay comes at the end, and was a "do-over" response to a question she received during an appearance at a signing from a young girl asking her how she managed to maintain her confidence. The response was not unconventional or full of any unexpected wisdom, but the fact that she realized her brief response she gave to the fan was not sufficient and wrote a whole essay about it in her book was refreshing. This book is the literary equivalent of popcorn - it's not going to fill you up or surprise you, but it's airy, lighthearted reading.

Coming off having read Anna Kendrick’s and Tina Fey’s books, I figured this would be in a similar vein: witty, insightful, clever, and (ultimately) a view into where she came from, what her life was like up til now. Perhaps I should’ve read another of Kaling’s books, since this was more a mix of general stand up and personal stories, and I really just wanted the latter. For someone who claims to be endlessly giving off TMI, too much of this book hid her behind generic comedy. Oh well.

Mindy Kaling is hilarious, and both her books are top fun reads, also valuable for her experience building her own empire on sheer talent and energy. Her career path is really unique for a woman of colour in comedy, both writing and performing and eventually creating her own show on her own terms, and there's a lot to be learned here. You feel as if you're chatting away with an ideal best friend.

I love Mindy Kaling! I really really do. And I must admit I started this book a little cautious because I read her last one with high expectations and felt a little let down at the end. This time I found myself laughing out loud almost all through and nodding like a crazy person when I agreed with her witty observations (thank goodness it was my bedside reading and not my commuting book). I'm sure her humour is not for everyone but it's certainly worth a read just for the text/email relayed love story close to the end. Loved it!

Second time around with this book as listened to the audiobook when it first came out. Fun and easy read, keep going until the end for the gems in the last chapter.

It was engaging in the beginning but seemed to dissolve into nonsense halfway through. It felt like comedic filler rather than something that was heartfelt. I struggled on with it till the end and found that the final chapter did seem like something that Kaling had thought through. All in all would refer to it as a beach read, easy and nonsensical.

A quick and engaging holiday read from a likeable tv personality. I couldn’t help but wonder about the editorial process, as it took quite a scattergun approach to a myriad of topics with no evidence really of an overarching structure.Not saying that it wasn’t interesting but I did find myself often wondering where the book was going.