When I picked this up, I wasn’t expecting much. These celeb books are usually episodic. Like Tim Gunn’s book called Golden Rules, or something, is all over the place, and mostly, I walk away with the feeling that he is really into thank you notes and hates rude people, but is that worth spending 200 pages saying? I actually really liked him, but his book makes him sound very tedious and was all over the place. Tina Fey’s Bossypants made me laugh, but again, it was like a series of magazine articles. She doesn’t really get into any subject that deeply, and although she’s a good writer, not every good writer has a book in them, you feel me?
So with Mindy Kaling’s book, I figured it would be a pastiche of funny, but largely shallow and unrelated blog entries — boy, was I wrong. Okay, I wasn’t entirely wrong, but I was pleasantly surprised by the substantive chapters. They’re all somewhat relevant to career, but she writes a great deal about her friendships, growing up, and her family, and she’s funny, but it mostly works because she’s being honest. She has a chapter yelling at married people to stop complaining how much work marriage is, because single people need inspiration, and even her chapter on rules for kareoke was engaging, because I thought she had some really good good rules.
Anyway, if you’re looking for a light read, choose this one. I did because my brain is at a candy-only IQ level right now.