I: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? & I Do Not Come To You By Chance

My “I” titles are super long!

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling
Genre: memoir

Mindy Kaling is an actor (and a writer and producer) for the American version of the TV show The Office. I've only watched the British version (which the American version is based on). Still, the title and cover grabbed me, and the book was sooo worth it.

Kaling talks about everything from being bullied by the popular Senagalese boy in her (Cambridge, MA) high school class to accidentally breaking her best friend's nose during a play, only to have the producer force them back on stage to perform the last ten minutes for the horrified audience. She describes a guy as being really cute, in a "hottest guy in AP-calculus kind of way." READ. THIS. BOOK.

For a rather awkward segue, I’ll throw out that Mindy Kaling says she was conceived in Nigeria, which happens to be the setting of the next book… 

I Do Not Come To You By Chance by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani

Genre: general fiction

Kingsley graduates from university in Nigeria with an engineering degree, and struggles to find a job in a terrible economy. But then his father, who had been ill for years, dies in the hospital. The family is left with hospital bills they can’t pay, and as the oldest child Kingsley is now expected to support his mother and help clothe, feed and educate his younger siblings. Kingsley also wants to get married, but his girlfriend’s parents aren’t interested in her being with someone with no income or prospects.

So Kingsley takes up his uncouth cousin’s offer to become a 419 scammer (419 is the article of the Nigerian Criminal Code against financial fraud), and starts spending his days sending scam emails (with just the right number of misspellings and grammar mistakes) off to foreigners. He becomes a rich man. And then his troubles really begin…

I was so impressed with this book. Nwaubani managed to make Kingsley sympathetic without ever sugarcoating the fact that he was a criminal. Kingsley, Cash Daddy (the uncouth cousin), and the other 419ers are villains to their victims, heroes to those they help, irredeemably tainted to their more honest acquaintances – and altogether very human in their struggles.

And the book is funny!

Random Day!

My currently-reading stack:

I was reading a sample of a book with a highly promising premise. Now I'm depressed, because a guy in the book just described his own grin as quirky and lop-sided, in passing, without humor or irony. No, I won't tell you what book it was. No, I'm not reading the rest.

BUT, I have a truly funny book to recommend.
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling
Genre: memoir

I've never watched the American version of The Office (loved the British version), but the title and cover grabbed me, and it was worth it. Kaling talks about everything from being bullied by the popular Senagalese boy in her high school class to accidentally breaking her best friend's nose during a play, only to have the producer force them back on stage to perform the last ten minutes for the horrified audience. She describes a guy as being really cute, in a "hottest guy in AP-calculus kind of way." READ. THIS. BOOK.

I'm now reading
Bossypants by Tina Fey
Genre: memoir

(Yes, there does seem to be a theme to my Random Day - two makes a trend on the internet, right?) I can probably count all the episodes of Saturday Night Live I've seen on my fingers, and I've never watched 30 Rock (though I keep meaning to). But something about Tina Fey really appeals to me, so here we are.





Also reading
Witch by Marie Brennan
Genre: fantasy

 I loved Warrior, so I have high hopes for this.



The Scottish Prisoner by Diana Gabaldon
Genre: crossgenre fantasy/historical fiction

I've checked Amazon every day for a month now to see if someone heard my prayers and moved up the release date (yes, I'm silly like that. Sometimes dreams do come true). It took me two years to buy Outlander after first hearing of it, and another year to actually finish the first chapter. And then I devoured it and the next six books over the following month or so (I believe the shortest one is around 800 pages, so this was no mean feat), barely pausing for showers, friends, or sleep. After that I read all the Lord John books, of which this is the fourth. Lord John Grey is my favorite character of all time, of any age or gender, in any medium. I'll be featuring the Outlander series in its own post at some point. Let me just say these books have everything I love in fiction - science, history, magic, great characters, messed-up relationships, humor and brilliance. Mmm, yes please.

So there they are: past, present, and much-anticipated future. What are you reading?