Mindy tells us the instance where one big celebrity didn’t even mind the grand gesture given by her. She was visiting the restaurant along with her parents, and the celebrity was hosting a large number of people for an expensive dinner. This created a lot of confusion. Mindy tells us the interesting events that happened after that. Are you kidding me? The thrill of living was high school? Come on, Mr. Cougar Mellancamp. Get a life." Why Not Me? is all that we’ve come to expect from the creator and star of The Mindy Project: refreshing, confident, genuine, and, yes, absolutely hilarious.” — Refinery29 Last, but obviously not least, is this short but hilariously relatable piece on Kaling's writing process and being productive.

I think the essay about her baby nurse "Help Is on the Way" was my favorite overall. Kaling touches on her mother's death and what having a newborn is actually like. All the essays made me laugh but that one also came pretty close to making me cry. I'm not usually one to read celebrity biographies and/or memoirs, but come on—this is Mindy's book we're talking about here. OF COURSE I was going to read it.Was my culture just a spectacle for the white majority, or were they meaningfully connecting with a diverse narrative? To be sympathetic, Jess had to be a pretty-but-not-too-pretty, nice, likeable Indian girl, defined by her culture and her inability to fit into the western world. Where did this leave me, as a fellow Indian girl, who was less compliant, less likeable? While Kaling doesn’t shy away from bringing culture into the story – Devi’s cousin Kamala is in the throes of navigating an arranged marriage set-up; Devi has her textbooks blessed at the mandir, which she also attends for Ganesh puja – it isn’t the defining and only driving force behind the show. Sweet, funny Mindy Kaling. Her delightful audiobook was the perfect prescription for a long and stressful week. After all these years with friends who are five ten or taller, I have come to carry myself with the confidence of a tall person. It’s all in the head. It works out.”

In Why Not Me?, Kaling shares insightful, deeply personal stories about falling in love at work, seeking new friendships in lonely places, attempting to be the first person in history to lose weight without any behavior modification whatsoever, and believing that you have a place in Hollywood when you’re constantly reminded that no one looks like you. So, she was born the same month and year I graduated from high school, which technically makes her young enough to be my daughter...I STILL want to be Mindy's best pal!We both believe that the only way to truly get something in life is to earn it. (Thank Jeebus for the story about her mother and her thoughts on “participation trophies” – GO MINDY’S MOM!)

Bottom line is, for a book written by a comedian, this wasn’t full of hardy hars. There was a little too much talking about how she’s always been the funniest person in the room (while not being particularly funny in her anecdotes) and continual name-dropping of various meet/cutes with the President (I could elaborate, but I’ve already met my quota on offending dozens of GR members this month) for me to fully get on board. However, if you (or a young female in your life) are looking for some good advice regarding owning who you are, Mindy surprisingly had some quality stuff to offer: Context is so important. If this question had been asked by a white man, I might actually have been offended, because the subtext of it would have been completely different. When an adult white man asks me, 'Where do you get your confidence?' the tacit assumption behind it is: because you don't look like a person who should have any confidence. You're not white, you're not a man, and you're not thin or conventionally attractive. How were you able to overlook these obvious shortcomings to feel confident?' I don’t actually understand the meaning of generosity. It means giving to people and expecting nothing in return. It doesn’t mean giving to someone with the expectation, or even hope, that they will regale you with praise for being such a generous person.” It has been said many times, but it is true: Steve Carell is a very nice guy. His niceness manifests itself mostly in the fact that he never complains. You could screw up a handful of takes outside in 104-degree smog-choked Panorama City heat, and Steve Carell’s final words before collapsing of heat stroke would be a friendly and hopeful “Hey, you think you have that shot yet?” Devi is Indian-American. But Devi is also so much more than that.’ Photograph: Isabella B Vosmikova/Netflix

Success!

Never Have I Ever follows Los Angeles teen Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), who is navigating all the usual trials and tribulations of being a teenager: dating, identity, popularity, and the demands of her family and cultural life. I liked the book good enough, she is really funny. I could give a million funny excerpts but I won't do that, but there is one where she is giving her daily routing driving to work and this one thought was particular funny and scary to me. lol In Never Have I Ever, I get to experience what my white friends have had for their entire lives. A character who has many similar experiences to me – I too got a nose ring as an act of teen rebellion only to be celebrated by my parents as an act of Indian femininity – but who isn’t trying to be every brown girl. Because she’s not the only brown girl in the show: there are multiple culturally diverse lead characters, each with their own complex storyline.