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

★★★½

For most of the book, I thought I would end up rating it 3 stars for sure. Mindy Kaling is frequently self-congratulatory, and even though you know she's doing it to be funny, sometimes I had to remind myself of that perspective. She mentions several times that teenage girls are something of a target audience for the book - and I do agree, I think I'd like to give this book to Isabelle maybe when she's in high school, though all the pop cultural references will be outdated by then - but for a book that was expected to be in the hand of teenage girls, I wasn't crazy about the use of profanity.

Mindy Kaling is definitely funny, and I was certainly entertained by the book, chuckling at times. The more I got to know her through her writing, the more I liked her. I love the way her relationship with her mom is portrayed, and it is so clear that she respects her parents immensely. Despite her emotional and dramatic tendencies (as she describes herself), she seems to be remarkably down-to-earth with good morals and healthy perspectives on friendships, family, and romances. I like that she is a loyal and devoted friend, which is made especially clear in the chapter titled "Best Friend Rights and Responsibilities". And I think it's great that she shared some her most embarrassing and humiliating experiences - it really makes the reader (perhaps a teenage girl!) feel like it's okay to be embarrassed and humiliated, that it really does happen to everybody, and you'll get over it.

I'm always especially pleased when a book takes place in the Boston area, and since Mindy Kaling grew up around here, it was fun to read about her experiences at places I know. Also, I was SO thrilled to see that photos were interspersed throughout the book. I've always found it kind of annoying when memoirs have photos grouped together in the middle of the book, so I have to constantly flip back and forth between the text and the photos to get the full contextual meaning of the pictures.

I definitely finished the book thinking I might rate it 4 stars, which is why I averaged it out to 3 1/2 stars. She mentions at the end of her book that maybe she'd write another about married life and having kids, once she is married and has kids. If she ever does write that book, I'd definitely read it!