Why Not Me?
By: Mindy Kaling
Published Year: 2015
Publisher: Crown Archetype
Pages: 240
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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): 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 “Player” tells the story of Kaling being seduced and dumped by a female friend in L.A. (“I had been replaced by a younger model.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.
First Impressions
I received the first book that Mindy wrote through the Birchbox book club and fell in love. Because of how much I enjoyed the first book, I started watching The Mindy Project and started to really like Mindy as a person and an actress. I was very excited when I heard that she was writing a second book and immediately put in on my TBR.
What I thought
This book was great. It definitely did not disappoint and I had higher expectations for this one than I did her first. This book addresses Mindy’s more current life events as opposed to her childhood, as in the first book. I’ve read a lot of celebrity autobiographies and the second book about more current events is usually a letdown and not as interesting as the first. However, this was not the case with Mindy’s novel.
It isn’t written in exactly the same style as her first book, but there are definitely similarties. I think in the first book there were a lot more advice sections, whereas this one had a few more stories. I really enjoyed learning about all of the different parts of Mindy’s current life and found it to be funny, entertaining, and insightful. One of the things I love most about Mindy is that she is smart. She makes a lot of observations that make the reader think and I appreciate that.
I loved reading this book and couldn’t put it down. I, unfortunately, don’t have a lot to say about it other than it was very enjoyable. It is definitely written better than some other celebrity autobiographies that I’ve read and I didn’t feel like it was lacking anything.
I could turn around and re-read this book right now. I want to purchase it and add it to my collection and I recommend everyone read it. If you haven’t read the first one, I recommend reading that first. Not necessarily because you have to, but just because that one is so good too! I think by reading her first book before this one, you get to know Mindy a little better and can end up enjoying this book a little more. I’m sorry that I don’t have much to specifically say about this book, but it’s a little hard to talk about it since it doesn’t have a plot. It is well written and a great book to read.