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

Goodreads Summary:

Mindy Kaling has lived many lives: the obedient child of immigrant professionals, a timid chubster afraid of her own bike, a Ben Affleck–impersonating Off-Broadway performer and playwright, and, finally, a comedy writer and actress prone to starting fights with her friends and coworkers with the sentence “Can I just say one last thing about this, and then I swear I’ll shut up about it?”

Perhaps you want to know what Mindy thinks makes a great best friend (someone who will fill your prescription in the middle of the night), or what makes a great guy (one who is aware of all elderly people in any room at any time and acts accordingly), or what is the perfect amount of fame (so famous you can never get convicted of murder in a court of law), or how to maintain a trim figure (you will not find that information in these pages). If so, you’ve come to the right book, mostly!

In Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, Mindy invites readers on a tour of her life and her unscientific observations on romance, friendship, and Hollywood, with several conveniently placed stopping points for you to run errands and make phone calls. Mindy Kaling really is just a Girl Next Door—not so much literally anywhere in the continental United States, but definitely if you live in India or Sri Lanka.

My Thoughts:

I found the writing style good but at points times annoying. Which is really my impression of this entire book. Some of the recounts of Mindy's life were legitimately funny but honestly she doesn't know how to end a story in a way that maintains the funny. Often I would finish a story thinking, "huh, well that happened" and then I went back to reading homework instead of this book.

I think this genre of comics telling how they became funny is just a little over done and is becoming tired. I don't mean that as an attack on Mindy, she is sometimes funny. I just want something that isn't so formulaic. The funniest part of of Mindy's book is the honest part at the beginning where she talks about possible reasons people are reading her book. She says something about you have just finished Chelsea Handler's book so now what? If only this book was as good as any of Chelsea Handlers.

I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone unless they are a die hard fan of Mindy Kaling.

While writing this review I was listening to Aretha Franklin.

Requiem By Lauren Oliver

Goodreads Summary:
They have tried to squeeze us out, to stamp us into the past.
But we are still here.
And there are more of us every day.

Now an active member of the resistance, Lena has been transformed. The nascent rebellion that was under way in Pandemonium has ignited into an all-out revolution in Requiem, and Lena is at the center of the fight.

After rescuing Julian from a death sentence, Lena and her friends fled to the Wilds. But the Wilds are no longer a safe haven—pockets of rebellion have opened throughout the country, and the government cannot deny the existence of Invalids. Regulators now infiltrate the borderlands to stamp out the rebels, and as Lena navigates the increasingly dangerous terrain, her best friend, Hana, lives a safe, loveless life in Portland as the fiancée of the young mayor.

Maybe we are driven crazy by our feelings.
Maybe love is a disease, and we would be better off without it.
But we have chosen a different road.
And in the end, that is the point of escaping the cure: We are free to choose.
We are even free to choose the wrong thing.

Requiem is told from both Lena’s and Hana’s points of view. The two girls live side by side in a world that divides them until, at last, their stories converge.

My Thoughts:

When I heard this book would be told from two narratives, Hana and Lena, I was annoyed. The biggest complaint I had with Pandemonium was the switching between time frames. I am pleased to say that I was not annoyed when reading Requiem. It felt natural to switch between Hana and Lena"s worlds. It was nice to get the POV from a cured person, indicating that the cure doesn't really work.

****SPOILER ALERT****

Hana has the fuzziness and weirdness from having her brain missing scoops. She is still herself though, underneath it all, and she still cares about Lena. I was not shocked to learn that it had been Hana who betrayed Lena and Alex in Delirium. She causes the dominoes to fall far too quickly for the two lovers. I had always suspected that it was Hana. She was the only one who know the plans between Lena and Alex. I love where her story ends.

Lena is still in the wilds with Raven and Tack. Julian has come along even though Alex has resurfaced. Love triangles tend to bother me but this one didn't bother me. I felt Lena had gone through a natural grief process with thinking Alex was dead. I felt her feelings for Julian were also natural. I would say the best thing about the way this story unfolded was that it all felt natural and not pushed or forced.

I like that Lauren Oliver didn't sum up the story in a nice pretty package. We know that Alex and Lena still love each other but we don't know for sure what will happen to them. We know that the Resistance has staged a massive protest in Portland but we don't know if it will last or work the way they wanted. I really think this was the best way to end my favorite series. I really enjoyed this book. I will say that it was hard at times to get through a chapter without getting a little choked up. 

I would recommend this book and the whole series to any one wanting a good read. Lauren Oliver is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.

While writing this review I was listening to an episode of Downton Abby.