Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? - Mindy Kaling

I love Mindy Kaling. One of my favorite parts about listening to the Office Ladies Pod is hearing which Office episodes I wrote were written by Mindy. She's witty and smart and her jokes just land. So I was very excited to find this book on our office book swap shelves. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me is a collection of essays, written in between the hey day of The Office and the start of The Mindy Project when Mindy went from a fan favorite character on a popular sitcom to the lead of her own vehicle.

I never watched the Mindy Project because I don't really watch TV and I don't have Hulu, but I did see her latest movie Late Night, which I loved. The writing in it was so reminiscent of some of the best Office episodes she's credited for. So I guess I am surprised I didn't fall out of my seat in love with this book. But while each little story was funny on its own, I didn't devour it as a whole.

I liked learning about her background and I'm real bummed that I didn't even know Matt & Ben was a thing until listening to the Office Ladies Pod. So if anyone is doing a revival of that after we all stop hiding in our homes, hit me up because I'd like to see it. That she was an awkward, pudgy youth is not really a surprise. People who grow up golden don't typically tend to have a sense of humor.

So I'm glad I read this. And I love Mindy. I'll definitely read Why Not Me?, her second book, whether I find it for free at the office or not.

3.5/5 Stars 

Yes Please - Amy Poehler

Funny, kind, thoughtful, and seriously... Funny - Amy Poehler is doing this life thing and having a good time. The only Golden Globes ceremony I have EVER watched was the one hosted by Amy and Tina Fey. They were magnificent. 

Yes Please was published in 2014 when Parks and Recreation was in its fifth or sixth season, 30 Rock was on the air, and Chris Pratt hadn't yet taken off his shirt in Guardians of the Galaxy (no, thank YOU Star Lord). In any case, what I mean to say, is it was published when Poehler was at the top of her game and her friends were all doing well and had interesting projects. Right now I think she's hosting a crafting show with Nick Offerman (I don't really watch TV so I'll have to take Google's word for it).

In any case, Yes Please talks a lot about Amy's work with the comedy troop, The Upright Citizen's Brigade, Saturday Night Live, and then Parks and Recreation (which I've never watched but want to start). Through those experiences she has met a lot of people and been able to influence the types of shows and movies that are made by, for and about women. 

Overall, Amy just seems like a really NICE person who is also really funny but not in a cruel way. She has an entire chapter on apologizing for a skit that she did not properly vet and was a vicious portrayal of a handicapped child. Ouch. 

I hope to see Amy in future projects because she really is just a silly joy.

4/5 Stars. 

You Can't Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain - Phoebe Robinson

I really needed this book after a lot of heavy reading in January. It was full of really honest critiques but also funny. I listened to this as an audio book, which based on how it unfurled, might be the only way to really digest this book. 

You Can't Touch My Hair (YCTMH) comes through in a series of essays by Phoebe Robinson, one of two women who make up the podcast duo of Two Dope Queens. Phoebe has been a writer, standup comedian, and actress and is still making her way in the entertainment business. I gather from the book that the book deal came after the popular success of a blog, Blaria (Black Daria), but I've never read the blog before.

Robinson is a few years younger than me, so her pop culture references were on the periphery of my own experience, but still close enough that I understood them. Glad I didn't waste time watching The Kingsmen even though I love Colin Firth. Listening to the book was a bit like spending an extended period of time with a Millennial. As a gen-x type I got a little tired of the constant voice modulations prevalent in the young, but that's probably spot on generation-wise. 

I digress. I've spent time this past year consciously trying to make an effort to listen to more voices that aren't like mine, specifically cis, het, college educated, white woman. My echo chamber is deep and wide after almost ten years of college and post-graduate education. So listening to Robinson's book was not only entertaining because of the jokes, but also interesting because of the different perspective Robinson brings as a black woman.

In the end, I felt the book ran a little long. I feel like there was quite a bit of material added for the audiobook that may not have appeared in print, and in the end it felt a little repetitive, but YCTMH still made me laugh. I actually spit coffee out in my car when she referred to Craig's List as Lucifer's Taint.

That's back to back Robinson books for me (Michelle Robinson aka Michelle Obama and Phoebe Robinson). What should I read next? 

3/5 Stars.

A Man Called Ove - Fredrick Backman

A Man Called Ove is a thoroughly entertaining of a lonely curmudgeon who is really actually a good person. The writing is humorous and swift. There is a lot of detail but it doesn't bog the story down unnecessarily. This is a story of big sweeping themes about love and loss, friendship and family, told through small details about one individual person. 

The story starts with Ove attempting to buy an iPad and slowly through the story in various back flashes and limited description from other characters, we get to see what has brought Ove to be the person he is, and why he is so desperately unhappy. 

I liked this book so much that I went home after finishing it and stayed up way too late watching the Swedish language version of the film (apparently a Tom Hanks version is in the works but no real facts on that yet) and I cried even though I knew EXACTLY what was going to happen. The movie doesn't have some of the lightness of the book, but it's extremely well done. Highly recommend.

4.5/5 Stars. 

The Last Black Unicorn - Tiffany Haddish

Well this was a fast and funny read. I wish the audio version of The Last Black Unicorn had been available first because listening to this book in Tiffany Haddish's unique delivery would have been even funnier. I may even listen to it when it finally comes through the waitlist from the library. 

I was first made aware of Tiffany Haddish through a friend who had seen her on SNL and suggested we have a girls evening of watching Girls Trip. This was a great idea as the movie was hilariously raunchy and Tiffany Haddish did really steal the show. 

Tiffany and I are around the same age, but the similarities pretty much stop there. She grew up in terrible circumstances, abandoned at 3 by her father, raised by a constantly fighting mother and step father among half-siblings who were favored by the adults. Then her stepfather attempted to murder her mother (maybe) and all the kids by cutting the brake lines to the car. Instead of dying, her mother was terribly injured and schizophrenia was triggered. She was then put into foster care where she lived in multiple group homes and suffered terrible beatings until she was eventually placed with her grandmother.

After reaching the age of 18 and graduating high school, her grandmother put her out of the house on her own. Tiffany lived out of her car while pursuing a comedy career. She then married an abusive husband and left and remarried and left him again. There are some bright spots in all this but the mere fact that Tiffany can still find humor and light in the world is the brightest of spots. 

She's great. And hilarious. The book isn't the most polished, but neither is Tiffany, and that feels right. 

4/5 Stars. 

Food: A Love Story - Jim Gaffigan

I'll just say if you like Jim Gaffigan, you'll like this book. A lot of these jokes come from his most recent tour and of course since the book is about Food, the Hot Pockets jokes are told again. But there's something familiar and comforting about his comedy - like a grilled cheese. He's funny but not edgy funny. No biting sarcasm or deeper humor than self-deprecating jokes about his desire and ability to eat basically everything.

After all, "a cucumber is just a pickle before it started drinking."

Some of the jokes are interesting considering his wife just went through a close call with a brain tumor and I wonder how his comedy will change over the next year. I'm sure some of it will make for good material. A comic's brain likely never stops working that way.

I listened to the audio version of this book so it really was like listening to Jim's standup routines.

A star rating won't make much of a difference on this one but I laughed out loud several times and enjoyed myself so 4/5 Stars? 3/5 Stars?

The Taming of the Shrew - William Shakespeare

"Shakespeare is timeless. He's classic. His words and messages resonate today." Well full stop. That must be said about other plays, because Taming of the Shrew does not hold up. Sorry Will. 

The title character, The Shrew, is Katherina. An older sister to sweet beautiful Bianca. Kat is quick witted and even quicker tongued. She fires back at would-be suitors and her family alike. She's actually quite funny and her dialogue is some of the best. But Kat has a problem. She has a younger sister who is itching to get into the dating game and a father who declares that Bianca may not date until Kat is wed. (Sound familiar? You're thinking of the 1999 movie with the amazing Heath Ledger, 10 Things I Hate About You - the story was based on Shrew and has a way way better message than the original work).

So Bianca's suitors, Hortensio and Gremio call up a friend Petruchio and convince him that Kat is a good find. She's got a sizeable dowry and.... Well that's all that Petruchio seems to really care about so he's in. 

Petruchio convinces Kat's father that they love each other, even as Kat yells that she cares nothing for the man. Then Petruchio shows up at their wedding dressed like a beggar and hastily whisks Kat away after the ceremony so she doesn't even get to go to the party portion of the wedding. Then he keeps her at home without sleep and food until, essentially, he "breaks" her. Nice huh?

Meanwhile, Lucentio, a young student from Padua has also fallen in love with Bianca. He trades places with his servant who poses and Lucentio and gets Bianca's father's agreement to wed Lucentio to Bianca. Lucentio, in disguise, poses as Bianca's grammar teacher, and she falls in love with him. The two marry in secret while Bianca's father is still hashing out the details with Lucentio's servant, posing as Lucentio. Oh great comedy ha ha.

I'm sure this all plays better on stage. In the end, Hortensio discovers he wants to marry someone else and the three couples, Petruchio/Kat, Lucention/Bianca, Hortensio/Widow all are together and Petruchio bets the other men that he can command his wife more ably then the others. He does. And Kat gives a rousing speech about how women are meant to be commanded by men. 

Ouch. 

I tried to give the story the benefit of the doubt and to understand it as people in the 1600s might have, but even with taking the other parts as pure sarcasm, the end speech by Kat leaves any stretch in that direction impossible. So, I'd much rather stick with the 1999 version in my brain rather than this outdated sexist comedy. Besides, Heath Ledger running around the stadium bleachers was hilarious. Also, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Julia Stiles and Gabrielle Union - How 90s was this movie?!



3/5 Stars. Because it's still Shakespeare.

Two for the Dough - Janet Evanovich

Here I was ten minutes from finishing my long run on Saturday and the book ends. No more distraction. And really, these books so far have been a wonderful distraction for me as I train for yet another half marathon. 

Two for the Dough begins where One for the Money left off (read my review here). Stephanie Plum is not quite such a novice bounty hunter, although she still has a lot of room to improve. She kind of bumbles around irritating criminals and police alike. Detective Joe Morelli is back and the chemistry between him and Stephanie has increased. It's fun to anticipate these two getting together. They fight, they flirt, he left her handcuffed to a shower curtain last time around, this time she leaves him pantless on the side of the road. You know, tit for tat with these two. 

Ranger makes a few small appearances. And Grandma Massur is back and doing ride alongs with Stephanie. I did miss some of the people I got used to being around in the first book, like her cousin's husband Eddy Gazarra, but LuLu is back and she's working with Stephanie now and keeping her in the books was a hugely wise move I think. She may have been a hooker in the first book, but now she's a file clerk for the bond agency and she's the only one there with street smarts. This all made much more sense to me because once upon a time a few years ago I read #15 in this series and while I don't think I needed to read all the previous books to understand the plot, reading these does have a lot more payoff with character development over such a long series). This book actually made me laugh out loud a couple of times and I found it funnier than the first, even if the plot didn't move quite as briskly. 

In this one, Stephanie is looking for Kenny Mancuso (I apologize for mispelling any names here, I don't know how they are spelled since I only listen to the audio books). Mancuso is Morelli's cousin and just happened to shoot his best friend in the knee cap. Stephanie wants to find him because it means basically a month's paycheck for one guy. As Morelli says, she does have a knack for running into her marks. She happens upon Kenny several times. 

The story weaves in some conspiracy with coffins and some missing guns. I can say that I put this one together pretty quickly so I felt a bit smarter than Stephanie in the end. So the mystery part of the story could be a little tighter. However, for a running distraction, this book was the perfect fit.

4/5 Stars.

Bossy Pants - Tina Fey

I'll just start out this review with the fact that I LOOOOOOVE Tina Fey. I love that she's unapologetic over her success. She's self-effacing and confident at the same time. So listening to her read her own book was a real pleasure.

Bossy Pants gives a thorough history of Fey's upbringing and her start at Second City in Chicago. I loved the chapter detailing her days at the Evanston YMCA, a place I've been to a thousand times. I too have been warned to wear a bike helmet when walking around in the area. See, Tina Fey, I'm famous by proxy now!

She gives a great perspective on what it was like to work at Saturday Night Live and later on 30 Rock, a show I absolutely adore and am sad is no longer on TV. She even goes into detail on her stint playing Sarah Palin which was after she had already left SNL. It's weird that the book came out in 2011 and so much has changed since then. One of the last chapters is about whether she was going to have another baby (she may have been pregnant while actually taping that audio portion) and 30 Rock is, sadly, no longer on TV.

Tina Fey is hopefully going to be around producing and acting for quite some time. I think she's a great role model for doing your own thing and being unapologetic (whoops I used this word to describe her already) about doing it as a woman. She's one of those famous people I'd really like to have a beer with. 

4/5 Stars.

The Litigators - John Grisham

I was pleasantly surprised that I actually really enjoyed this book. I haven't read John Grisham in a while. I've always associated him with 90s legal thrillers. I received this book over a year ago as a gift and just now got around to reading it. It's a comedy!

The story follows David Zinc, an associate attorney at a mega-firm in Chicago. One day David just can't go through another 12 hour day at the legal sweat shop a lot of these firms specialize in. So he goes on a fantastic drinking bender and then winds up on the doorstep of a two man ambulance chasing operation. The two partners at this firm are totally inept and hanging on by a thread. David decides to throw his hat in with them and becomes the firm's associate.

The two partners, Oscar Finley and Wallis Figg are bumbling along when one of them gets the bright idea to tag onto a giant mass-tort case against a major pharmaceutical company. Considering the pedigree and lack of ethics exhibited by the partners, the litigation does not go well, to comical results.

I enjoyed watching the Chicago backdrop of the legal community float through this book. It was entertaining and Grisham kept the action moving without getting thoroughly bogged down too far in talking about the minutia of the law suit itself.

4/5 Stars.