Book Review: Why Not Me?

Synopsis from Amazon.com:

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 “Player” tells the story of Kaling being seduced and dumped by a female friend in L.A. (“I had been replaced by a younger model.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.

I loved Mindy Kaling’s first book, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, and although Why Not Me? was great, I don’t think it was as good as her first book.

For this book I actually bought the audiobook, which is something I rarely do because I cancelled my Audible membership so I have to pay the outrageous price to get it and I don’t have money like that. However, for Kaling I did it because I love her and honestly I don’t regret the decision because it was great to listen to the book but it’s definitely not something I needed to purchase.

Kaling had me laughing as she recounted stories about starting her own show, her dating woes, and what it means to be confident. I loved her anecdotes, especially her one about meeting President Obama, and she gave valuable life advice. Honestly, my only complaint about this book was that it felt like it was missing something. Maybe it was because I couldn’t help but compare it to her first book, but this one just didn’t do it for me the way her first book did.

I will say I loved learning more about her and B.J. Novak’s interesting relationship, or as they affectionately refer to it, “Soup Snakes”. That was one of the highlights of this book for me. Also, if I ever do meet her in person my first question is going to be is the airplane scene between Mindy and Danny on her show based on the airplane scene that she describes between herself and Novak in this book? I would guess it is because the two scenes are too similar not to be.

Overall, I do recommend this book to read but not to buy. I don’t think this is one I would reread. I think I got everything I needed from it in the first read and although it’s nice to have it’s not a necessary addition to my audio bookshelf. Definitely check out if you haven’t yet. It is pretty good.

Borrow or Buy: Borrow.

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