Mindy Kaling | Book Club Babe

Rating: 4 out of 5

Ever since I listened to Tina Fey’s Bossypants, I loved how audiobooks made my commute more enjoyable. Only interested in light-hearted books that require little concentration (because how hard would it be to pay attention to Moby Dick while avoiding crazy text-and-drivers?), I decided that Mindy Kaling’s Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) would make a good follow-up.

Mindy Kaling became famous for playing Kelly Kapoor on the American version of “The Office.” Her character is so obnoxiously shallow and narcissistic, but Mindy is actually someone most women could relate to. She’s a 30-something size-8 who likes gossip, guys with chest hair, and sneaking out of parties. I loved learning all the quirky tidbits about her, like how she creates revenge fantasies for her workouts, or how she hates the color navy.

Mindy talks about her childhood friends, her jobs leading up to “The Office,” and how she handles fame. She dishes on her co-stars Steve Carell and Rainn Wilson. Even her friends BJ Novak, Mike Schur, and Brenda Withers provide the other various voices on the audiobook.

Bossypants literally made me laugh out loud, but Is Everyone… still got me to chuckle every now and then. Even though Mindy’s not as funny as Tina in my opinion, I think younger readers will appreciate Mindy’s struggle to date men not boys, over Tina’s frustrations with the mommy wars. But if you’re a fan of female comedians, you’ll probably love both of them.

So got any more great audiobooks ideas? Only requirements: must be read by the author and offer lots of laughs!

Favorite Quote: “Teenage girls, please don’t worry about being super popular in high school, or being the best actress in high school, or the best athlete. Not only do people not care about any of that the second you graduate, but when you get older, if you reference your successes in high school too much, it actually makes you look kind of pitiful, like some babbling old Tennessee Williams character with nothing else going on in her current life. What I’ve noticed is that almost no one who was a big star in high school is also big star later in life. For us overlooked kids, it’s so wonderfully fair.”

So I feel bad that I haven’t started off the new year with a bunch of blogging, but that’s because I’m currently reading Ally Condie’s sequel Crossed and listening to Mindy Kaling’s audiobook Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? So far both are going ok, but Mindy’s is definitely more entertaining. Hopefully, I’ll be posting both reviews next week.

I’ve also started my last semester of grad school: I’m taking a class on Media Ethics (no, not an oxymoron!), and I’m also the social media specialist and student grader for a professor in my program. Not to mention, I’m still working as an academic tutor, and preparing for my two-month-long comprehensive exam. Phew! Just typing this paragraph stresses me out! But come May 19, I will be DONE! Watch out real world!

Ok, one more thing about myself and then I promise I’ll bring the discussion back to books. I recently spent a relatively insane amount of money on Rocket Languages Japanese (still cheaper than Rosetta Stone!), a program with dozens of speaking, writing, and cultural lessons. It’s got PDFs I can print out, and mp3s I can transfer to my iPod.

Why did I do this, you ask? Well, it’s not official yet, but for my graduation present, my younger brother and I are going to Tokyo to visit one of my best friends who lives there! We won’t be travelling until the end of June, but I want to learn as much Japanese as I possibly can before we go. It’s a challenge with everything else I have going on, but studying the language has become my favorite extracurricular activity!

Alright, back to the main attraction: this week I read on The Huffington Post that Candace Bushnell’s The Carrie Diaries has been picked up by the CW. Not a huge surprise, since “Sex and the City” was one of the hottest shows ever, and its teenage prequel will be perfect for the CW’s demographic. Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, the creators of “Gossip Girl,” will be producing the show. Much like my opinion of the Gossip Girl novels, I have a feeling that The Carrie Diaries may be better on screen than in print–mostly because all that high school melodrama seems more tolerable when you can stare at gorgeous guys like Ed Westwick.

So which actress do you think should play 17-year-old Carrie Bradshaw? Blake Lively’s got the look, but is too mature now to pass for a teenager. Dakota and her sister Elle Fanning are the right age, but look way too innocent to pull off Carrie. After a Google search of “blonde actresses under 20,” I found some worthy choices. These girls all have Disney/Nick backgrounds, so going to the CW will give them that “I’m not a little kid anymore” vibe. Plus, they’re all 18-19 years-old.

AnnaSophia Robb (“Soul Surfer,” “Bridge to Terabithia”)