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

Mindy Kaling has lived many lives: the obedient child of immigrant professionals, a timid chubster afraid of her own bike, a Ben Affleck–impersonating Off-Broadway performer and playwright, and, finally, a comedy writer and actress prone to starting fights with her friends and coworkers with the sentence “Can I just say one last thing about this, and then I swear I’ll shut up about it?”
Perhaps you want to know what Mindy thinks makes a great best friend (someone who will fill your prescription in the middle of the night), or what makes a great guy (one who is aware of all elderly people in any room at any time and acts accordingly), or what is the perfect amount of fame (so famous you can never get convicted of murder in a court of law), or how to maintain a trim figure (you will not find that information in these pages). If so, you’ve come to the right book, mostly!

 Kelly Kapoor is awesome.

Mindy Kaling is awesomer.

Kelly is just supposed to be like an exaggerated version of Mindy herself. The entire shopping and celebrity obsession is real!

In a similar vein as Tina Fey’s Bossypants, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) is a collection of hilarious essays about growing up and finally becoming a writer and an actor on a NBC sitcom. This books was definitely less snarkier and wittier than Bossypants, but it was way more fun.

Mindy Kaling is a total girly girl and she is the best friend every girl needs! She has written about guys and hook ups and weight issues and REVENGE FANTASIES!

Who doesn’t have revenge fantasies? I have some elaborate ones myself. :D

A chunk of the book is also about The Office! Yay! As a huge The Office fan, this book was a must read for me.

And she had written about this incident when she was writing for SNL and met Amy Poehler!

For those who don’t know this, Amy Poehler is my HERO!

<3_<3

I have made a list of my favorite essays from this book.

Here goes,

Types of Women in Romantic Comedies Who Are Not Real
All About The Office
Franchises I Would Like to Reboot
Contributing Nothing at Saturday Night Live
My Favorite Eleven Moments in Comedy
How I Write
The Day I Stopped Eating Cupcakes
Somewhere in Hollywood Someone Is Pitching This Movie
THE BEST DISTRACTION IN THE WORLD: ROMANCE AND GUYS
Someone Explain One-Night Stands to Me
“Hooking Up” Is Confusing
Guys Need to Do Almost Nothing to Be Great
MY APPEARANCE: THE FUN AND THE REALLY NOT FUN
When You’re Not Skinny, This Is What People Want You to Wear
These Are the Narcissistic Photos in My BlackBerry
Revenge Fantasies While Jogging
Strict Instructions for My Funeral

Oops, that’s like most of the book.

And isn't the cover great!? It captures the spirit of the book perfectly!

The Broken Teaglass by Emily Arsenault

In the maze of cubicles at Samuelson Company, editorial assistant Billy Webb struggles to focus while helping to prepare the next edition of a dictionary. But there are distractions. He senses that something suspicious is going on beneath this company’s academic façade. What’s more, his (possibly) flirtatious co-worker Mona Minot has just made a startling discovery: a trove of puzzling citations, all taken from the same book, The Broken Teaglass. Billy and Mona soon learn that no such book exists. And the quotations read like a confession, coyly hinting at a hidden identity, a secret liaison, a crime. As Billy and Mona try to unearth the truth, the puzzle begins to take on bigger meaning for both of them, compelling them to redefine their notions of themselves and each other.

The Broken Teaglass is at once a literary mystery, a cautious love story, and an ingenious suspense novel that will delight fans of brilliantly inventive fiction.

 Emily Arsenault’s debut book was dreamy, dark and dreary. Just like In Search of Rose Notes, which I have read, loved and reviewed here http://oopsireadthatbook.blogspot.com/2011/12/in-search-of-rose-notes-by-emily.html

 I love the 3 D’s and I immensely enjoyed this book.

As emotionally satisfying as In search of rose notes, this book had a bonus delight.

It centred on words.

The mystery, the plot and the setting were all about words.

Set in Samuelson Company, a dictionary publisher’s office, the book follows College graduate Billy Webb as he lives a lonely existence in the cubicle till his colleague colleague Mona Minot stumbles upon citation from a novel called The Broken Teaglass. Each cit seems to tell a story that may reveal a past secret, buried deep in the grim office.

I haven’t read many books with male protagonists but Billy was cool. Highest form of praise I can give a dude.

With oddball characters and a plot brimming with suspense The Broken Teaglass is a literary puzzle and a coming-of-age novel with a dark and subtle sense of humour.

P.S - Another reason I totally love this book with every fibre of my being is that it introduced me to LEXICOGRAPHY!

I am 19 and totally clueless plus aimless about life and career and crap, but every once in a while I come across super-fun sounding jobs.

For example, right now I want to be a writer on a NBC sitcom. (And subsequently have a three-way with Amy Poehler and Will Arnett.)

30 Rock may or may not have influenced this decision.

Anyhoo, after reading The Broken Teaglass, I think it’d be SWEET if I was a lexicographer. Turns out they just have to read a bunch of magazines of their choice all the time and not really talk to people.

 I think it was a job specifically designed for me.

P.P.S- Another fun part of this book was all these random people calling the office and sending them letters etc with completely random and hilarious inquiries. That shit was gold.

P.P.P.S- Some might find pacing problems with this because the plot kind of moves along really slow. I savoured every bit but just wanted to put this out there.