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

Dear Mindy,

Can we be BFF's? We can have sleepovers and watch television reruns all night. We can not go for runs together. We'll gossip about boys all night. It will be glorious.

Love,
Brie

Ok, but seriously, Mindy is one of those famous people I would actually want to be best friends with in real life. I watched Mindy as Kelly Kapoor on the office for years, looking forward to every time she appeared in an episode (damn you Mindy, for being such a great writer for the show that you eventually had to stop acting in it altogether). Then I found out she was writing a book and I was pretty excited for it's release. AND THEN, I found out she had her very own show coming out. Needless to say, I've watched every episode of The Mindy Project since it began airing last fall and I love it. I am a HUGE Mindy fan. Obviously.

But let's back up. I hate to draw attention to how far behind I am in blogging about the books I read, but I actually listened to Mindy's book on audio back in August. I needed a new audiobook (this one was only my third one ever) and I had decided to go the comedy route thinking it would be easier to pay attention while driving in my car. And it's true: it's much easier to follow along with a book that really has no plot and is just a book of rambling musings of ones life, albeit, hilarious ramblings. That's not to say I didn't love this book. I did. It was light, funny, although not really laugh-out-loud-funny, more nodding-your-head-in-agreement-funny, and I feel like I got to know more about the girl in the television screen.

 Side note: how do publishers/bookstores decide when to market a comedian's book as humour or as memoir when the content is funny, but also biographical at the same time? (Mindy's book, in Canada anyway, is shelved in the humour section, whereas, Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson, aka The Bloggess, is shelved in the biography section.)

Having listened to Mindy's book shortly before her new TV show began has made me appreciate her show so much more. I feel like it's so "Mindy". So many of her personality quirks and tendencies that ooze out of her book seem to be portrayed in her character on the The Mindy Project. She may be acting to film the show, but her character on The Mindy Project is relatable, honest, sarcastically hilarious and just trying to find love when it seems like the search is hopeless.  Which, really, isn't too far off from the Mindy in her book.  Plus, her name in the show is also Mindy, so there's that.

The problem with audiobooks is there's really no way to write down or mark your favourite quotes, short of pulling over in mid-traffic to whip out your pen and paper. Maybe this is a good thing, otherwise I'd be inclined to post a whole whack of quotes to get you to want to read this book (or listen to it). Or maybe the problem is I shouldn't wait 6+ months to blog about a book and I might just remember a favourite line or two. But probably not, because my brain does not work that way. ANYWAY...obviously, if you know who Mindy Kaling is and you aren't really a fan of her stuff, then you probably won't enjoy this book. And I promise I will try not to take it personally.

Let's Pretend This Never Happened, by Jenny Lawson

I first discovered Jenny Lawson (aka The Bloggess) on twitter sometime last year and from there, her blog. The first story of hers I ever read was the story of Beyonce, the 5 foot metal chicken.  Upon reading that story, I was instantly hooked on Jenny and her blog. I loved (love!) Jenny’s written voice - how she can be vulgar and self-deprecating and honest, all while making you choke on your coffee from bursting out laughing.  Seriously, don’t eat or drink while reading her blog or her book. But I think what so many of Jenny’s fans love about her, is the fact that beneath it all, she’s really just one of us. A little crazy (because really who isn’t?), a little very foul-mouthed, a little depressed, and a childhood full of embarrassing memories. She’s relatable and is able to find the humour in life that I wish I could write about as beautifully as she can. So needless to say, when she started tweeting about her book that was close to be published, I was so excited! 

I wasn’t sure what to expect from her book, to be completely honest. While it’s classified as a ‘mostly true memoir’, it could easily be shelved in the humour section. It’s up to you to decide for yourself what’s true and isn’t true, but I think it’s fair to say that stuff this crazy can’t be made up.  Let’s Pretend This Never Happened is essentially a scatterbrained compilation of essays. There’s no flow or noticeable order to the stories, but it works. She talks about everything from her crazy childhood growing up with a father obsessed with taxidermy;  how she met and then married her husband, Victor; their constant (but hilarious) bickering and bantering, complete with an argument captured solely on post-its; her struggles with conceiving their daughter, Haley; vaginal arthritis and of course, Beyonce.  I did a little shout of joy when I got to the Beyonce story. If you have no idea what I’m talking about you need to read this story here.  I devoured the book in a few sittings and made anyone within earshot listen to me re-read my favourite laugh-out-loud bits.  

If you are a big fan of The Bloggess like I am, then chances are you’ll have a hard time putting this book down. But this book would be also be a great “side” read – a book you can pick up and read a chapter here or there when the mood strikes.  I also REALLY want to listen to this book on audio now. I've heard it's fantastic and I can only imagine it's even funnier listening to Jenny read it. My only complaint with this book was the black and white photos. They were too small and it was hard to make out what was in the picture. I want big, colour pictures next time, Jenny!

If you're still not convinced to read this book, then I leave you with this - a piece of one of my favourite stories (if I had to choose just one!) about the time Jenny and her cousin find a Playboy magazine at her Grandlibby's house:

"Hey, Grandlibby?" I asked. "What's a 'turn-on'?"

She paled visibly, looking mildly ill. "Well," she said...struggling for words, "it's...um...the things that make you happy, I suppose?"

I turned to my cousin. "My turn-ons are Rainbow Brite and unicorns."

Michelle smiled back, her two front teeth missing. "My turn-ons are Monchhichis.  And Tubble Gum."

Grandlibby issued a terse, strangled laugh. "Yeah. I could be wrong about that. I don't speak real great English, you know.  Why don't you just never use that phrase again, okay?"                      

Darth Vader and Son

Let me start by saying that I am not a Star Wars fan. I just don't get it. But this book, my friends, is pure brilliance. Jeffrey Brown paints us a laugh-out-loud story of what it would look like if Darth Vader had to take an active role in raising his four year old son, Luke. It's super funny because the comics are full of truth, whether you are a regular-ol' parent, or the Dark Lord of the Sith. And I'm proof that you don't have to even like Star Wars to find it funny. Or be a parent. Because I'm still laughing as I flip through this book. We had a great time at the book store today, reading out-loud, our favourite pages.

Like this one:

And this one:

And one of my definite favourites:

So whether you're like me and you just have to own a book like this one, or are in the market for a great gift idea, this is the book for you. And for an extra 26 seconds of your time, I invite you to watch the book trailer below.

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, by David Sedaris

It’s not uncommon for me to have more than one book on the go. Different moods call for different reading material. Unless of course, I start reading an amazing novel and am unable to put it down. In those cases, I invest all my attention to that book. 

I find it really difficult to go to sleep without having read at least a few pages of a book. But lately I have been finding myself heading to bed at obscenely late times, and I’m lucky if my husband will let me read a quick page or two before insisting “lights out!” The last thing I want to do is read “a page or two” of a really good book, especially when most chapters are many pages long. (I have issues where I can't stop reading mid-chapter.) Therefore, I always like to have an “easy” read on the go, a book that you can pick up and be satisfied in only reading a few pages. 

Enter: Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim (DYFCD).  A compilation of personal essays, this is the perfect book for quick bed time reading, where you don’t want to be sucked into the story and end up staying up all night reading. I also have a tendency for reading well past the point of being tired, which ultimately results in my having to backtrack several pages in the book the following night to re-read what I already read, but can’t actually recall. With DYFCD, each chapter (essay) stands alone which makes this the perfect book to just pick up whenever you have a few extra minutes. No recalling necessary! 

This particular book I picked up last fall at a charity book sale a friend was having. Naturally, I couldn’t walk away empty handed and it seemed I had read everything else that was for sale. I’ve never before read anything by David Sedaris, so I cannot compare this piece of work to any of his others and I went in with no expectations. 

That being said, I did expect to laugh more. Not necessarily laugh-out-loud laugh, but at least a little chuckle here and there. If anything, most of the stories made me slightly uncomfortable out of shear embarrassment for Sedaris and his siblings. I also couldn’t stop thinking how if Sedaris were my brother and was writing some of these stories about me, I’d probably never speak to him again! (And maybe they don’t...) The book started out promising. The best (and funniest) story was the first one, in which Sedaris recalls a Halloween from his childhood. On this particular Halloween, one of the families on his block missed it and

proceeded to trick-or-treat on November 1^st, oblivious to their error. Sedaris’s mother, not wanting to embarrass these children, hurriedly tells Sedaris and his siblings to go and get some of their own candy. Sedaris is horrified that his own mother would even suggest such a thing:

“...Had I been thinking straight, I would have hidden the most valuable items in my dresser drawer, but instead, panicked by the thought of her hand on my doorknob, I tore off the wrappers and began cramming the candy bars into my mouth, desperately, like someone in a contest. Most were miniature, which made them easier to accommodate, but still there was only so much room, and it was hard to chew and fit more in at the same time. The headache began immediately, and I chalked it up to tension.”

Okay, So I did laugh-out-loud at this point.   In my opinion, some of the best humour and best comedians out there are the ones where we can relate to their jokes/anecdotes. While this was true in the first essay, I quickly found myself unable to find any relevancy in the rest. Had this book been classified more as a memoir as opposed to humour, I may have felt differently about it. People’s lives and often, misfortunes, can be fascinating to read about (think: Glass Castle), but I kept waiting to laugh or come across a part I wanted to read out loud to my husband... it never happened.