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

By: Mindy Kaling

Narrated by: Mindy Kaling, Michael Schur, B. J. Novak

Length: 4 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In this hilarious instant classic, the creator of The Mindy Project and Never Have I Ever invites readers on a tour of her life and her unscientific observations on romance, friendship, and Hollywood.“[Kaling is] like Tina Fey’s cool little sister. Or perhaps . . . the next Nora Ephron.”—The New York Times

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! With several conveniently placed stopping points for you to run errands and make phone calls, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? proves that Mindy Kaling really is just a Girl Next Door—not so much literally anywhere in the continental United States, but definitely if you live in India or Sri Lanka.

Praise for Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

“Where have you been all our lives, Mindy?”—Glamour

“Who wouldn’t want to hang out with Mindy Kaling? . . . [Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?] is like a mash note to comedy nerds.”—Time Out New York

“Very funny.”—Boston Globe

©2011 Mindy Kaling (P)2011 Random House

Critic reviews

“She’s like Tina Fey’s cool little sister. Or perhaps… the next Nora Ephron.” (The New York Times)

“The fashion opinions of Kelly Kapoor mixed with a Miss Manners-esque advice column.” (Entertainment Weekly)

“If you love Kelly and think the three minutes or so allotted her on episodes of The Office are too few, you can take home Mindy.” (The New Yorker)

Funny. But I thought it'd be funnier.

Where does Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

2nd out of 3.

If you’ve listened to books by Mindy Kaling before, how does this one compare?

I haven't listened to any other books by her. I'm not sure there are any.

What does Mindy Kaling and Michael Schur bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I've listened to books where I felt I'd like it better if I was just reading it myself. But my inner reading voice wouldn't have translated Mindy's humor as well her own voice does.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

It was ok...

I was really looking forward to this book but I was left a little disappointed. She was whiny and it was hard to listen to someone who is so successful complain about her life. It didn't leave me warm and fuzzy.

Enjoyable

I really didn't know much about the author before listening to this, and bought it based on impulse and the audible recommendation. It is interesting, light, funny, and flows well. And as an added bonus, I find Mindy's voice pleasant.

Mindy is one of the girls

I felt like I was hanging out with one of my best girl friends while listening to this book. Can't go wrong hanging with Mindy.

Loved it!

Would you listen to Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) again? Why?

Absolutely. Mindy Kaling is absolutely hilarious, and listening to her tell her own story made it that much better, I couldn't imagine this being narrated by anyone else.

Mindy Narrates It!

Mindy narrates her own book! 59 chapters all 3 minutes or less. Perfect for the people with self proclaimed ADD.

Like chatting with a super fun friend

So much fun! I love Mindy Kaling and she narrates this audiobook which is perfect. Driving to work was just like sitting with a friend listening to her tell me all her stories and opinions. I had a smile on my face through the whole book and laughed a bunch.

AMAZING!

If you could sum up Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) in three words, what would they be?

Hilarious and fun book!

What did you like best about this story?

I love that Mindy narrated it!

Which scene was your favorite?

When she was talking about writing for SNL.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I laughed pretty much all the way through.

Any additional comments?

Get It!

Delightful

What I Liked: The book is still quite funny despite it being a memoir, but that's sort of to be expected given Mindy Kaling. She has a flair for witty, punchy writing that can be a tad self-deprecating at one moment and then fierce and confident the next and all makes sense. Especially when you listen to the audiobook, the whole experience is unmistakably her.

And this book definitely covers her Hollywood life including her time on The Office, which may seem like a weird thing to celebrate. But you have to understand that I have gone through so many biographies and memoirs and a lot of times they end just as the story gets to the point they get involved in whichever show or movie they have become most famous for. This book doesn't do that, and that's such a relief.

What Could Have Been Better: That said, the book does bounce around a lot and Kaling's tendency to vocalize her mental wanderings means that you'll get a lot of incidental bits and pieces. A lot of them are funny, don't get me wrong. But some are just totally random and really do feel off-topic. It's not consistent and you'll not care most of the time, but there will still be moments depending on your sensibilities.

And then the book feels oddly short and I wish that they had gathered more stories or something. It's a great piece and Mindy has a flair for conversational writing about her thoughts on the human experience (or whatever else we want to call it) and we don't get enough of it with this book.

Mildly entertaining, more like a podcast

Wishing I had saved my credit in this one because it’s not so much of a story and feels more like a stream of consciousness. While I adore Mindy, this isn’t something I would have paid for had I known better.