Harvard Book Store is honored and thrilled to welcome back Emmy-nominated writer/actress and Cambridge native MINDY KALING for a discussion of her latest book, Why Not Me? Mindy will be joined in conversation by renowned surgeon, writer, and public health researcher ATUL GAWANDE, MD, MPH of Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Tickets

UPDATE: THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT. There will be no standby line for this event. Congrats to those who got tickets!

Tickets are $42 and each include a signed edition of Why Not Me?, specially designed and bound by the publisher. All tickets are general admission and ticket holders will be seated on a first-come, first-served basis.

Tickets are limited to four (4) per order. The name of each ticket holder will be requested when purchasing tickets. Tickets are non-refundable and non-returnable. Tickets are transferable, but cannot be resold above ticket price. Harvard Book Store reserves the right to cancel (and refund) illegitimately resold tickets.

Please Note

This event will not include a book signing.

Location & Timing

This event will take place in the beautiful John Hancock Hall at the Back Bay Events Center in Boston, on the corner of Berkeley and Stuart Streets. Doors will open at 6:30pm for our 7:30pm event. Books will be distributed to ticket holders at the event, and cannot be picked up in-store beforehand. Please note that tickets expire at 7:25pm. Latecomers will be seated at the discretion of the staff.

Why Not Me?

In Why Not Me?, Kaling shares her ongoing journey to find contentment and excitement in her adult life, whether it’s 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, or most important, believing that you have a place in Hollywood when you’re constantly reminded that no one looks like you.
 
In “How to Look Spectacular: A Starlet’s Confessions,” Kaling gives her tongue-in-cheek secrets for surefire on-camera beauty, (“Your natural hair color may be appropriate for your skin tone, but this isn’t the land of appropriate–this is Hollywood, baby. Out here, a dark-skinned woman’s traditional hair color is honey blonde.”) “Player” tells the story of Kaling being seduced and dumped by a female friend in L.A. (“I had been replaced by a younger model. And now they had matching bangs.”) In “Unlikely Leading Lady,” she muses on America’s fixation with the weight of actresses, (“Most women we see onscreen are either so thin that they’re walking clavicles or so huge that their only scenes involve them breaking furniture.”) And in “Soup Snakes,” Kaling spills some secrets on her relationship with her ex-boyfriend and close friend, B.J. Novak (“I will freely admit: my relationship with B.J. Novak is weird as hell.”)
 
Mindy turns the anxieties, the glamour, and the celebrations of her second coming-of-age into a laugh-out-loud funny collection of essays that anyone who’s ever been at a turning point in their life or career can relate to. And those who’ve never been at a turning point can skip to the parts where she talks about meeting Bradley Cooper.