![(Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?: (And other concerns)) [By: Kaling, Mindy] [May, 2013]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Yzpz9hO4L._SY445_SX342_.jpg)
My wife and I share my Amazon account and, typically, my inbox fills up with all of the purchase notifications sent by the company. And I mean ALL. Originally I wondered if my account was hacked and why would thieves make ridiculous purchases such as the Hunger Games and Bossy Pants (or whatever the title is). After a bit of inquiry, I can now, somewhat-safely, assume the email-notifications are simple requests for reviewing the books she buys. However, in this case, a book I've never read deserves a review.
This past week of Christmas felt like a cannonball run over a 5 day period. We are a couple of SINKs (like a DINK but I'm finishing up my MFA, so...) who often are expected to do the traveling between many states within a very hasty, intense, hyper-caloric-infused, few crazy days to see both sides of our family. Generally, this means we travel by car and spend a LOT of time behind the wheel trying not to kill each other out of boredom.
What made this year really nutty and unique was that we could ONLY afford to travel by car after recently moving to the DC area. Our families live in both Upstate New York and Vermont and to not see them would grant us an automatic fail in their books (not really, but we sometimes wonder as first-borns). As mentioned before, we don’t have kids (often an opportunistic, golden-ticket for not traveling) and our furry, pissed-off cat will not grant us any pass.
We do love our family, and we do want to see them, but 10 to 12 consecutive hours in the car, confronting an ice-storm no less, is tough. Real tough. And if anyone knows what it’s like to travel during the holiday season by car, it can sometimes feel like you’re crazy-town-banana-pants, weaving in and out of lanes of people paying attention to nothing, but crooning their Christmas Carols on their iPod. Why their iPod? Other than convenience, if you travel the routes we have to, typically, you’re driving through radio deadzones with nothing more than three choices: static, Christian Rock or Rod Stewart. No slam to born-again lyrics or Stewartness, they both have their place, but I cannot personally handle too much exposure to either for a lengthy period of time. We also did not have an iPod.
At some point during the leg of the trip, my wife, in the passenger seat, snickered while looking down at her Kindle. I asked her what was so funny. She shrugged it off and continued to read. After realizing my wife and I know a lot about each other, and mooning truck drivers while driving was out of the question, I looked for ANY WAY to be entertained for the rest of the day during our first leg of travel. So I proceeded to pry and she informed me it was simply something silly that Mindy said in her book. She then offered to read the passage out loud. I chuckled. The style of Mindy’s telling of an event in her life was very well written and humorous. Next thing you know, my wife and I were laughing the hours away, practically in tears, as she re-read the book orally, front to back, for the remainder of the trip.
What makes this book so great is how truthful Mindy shares her anecdotes. She’s smart, witty and honest. At first glance, things felt very arbitrary and self-centered, but in fact, so are we and what we pay attention to from time to time. She provided a great balance of what you’d expect - “this is Mindy’s path to success” - with a very humanistic, modest look at her past. She teaches us how parents will continue to be an interesting influence in our choices, how success is sometimes “I got lucky”, and then throws in smatterings of “So here are some selfies I found on my blackberry”. Random? Yes. Relatable? Completely. Made me think of ridiculous things in my past and that maybe I’m on the right path to what I would consider success.
So aside from greatly improving upon our lively experience during our trip to Vermont, Mindy gave me perspective. I don’t read as much as my wife does, but if many books were written like Mindy’s, I’d probably read a lot more of them. And who knows… Maybe even make it a tradition that my wife is to read out loud during our annual cannonball run. We’ll probably even save crazy-town-Bossy-Pants for next Christmas.
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Reviews with images
Book is missing pages. Others are out of order
I recently ordered Mindy Kaling's book "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?" And when I got to page 54, the very next page was 135. I flipped through the book looking for page 54 and found page 166 was next to 87. I think my book was printed incorrectly and I don't know who I need to contact for a replacement book! I've attached a photo to show you what I mean. Needless to say, I can't find page 55.
Top reviews from other countries
Ashwin
delivery as expected. The book is a good read
Reviewed in India on April 8, 2019
