so 2012 began in the best city in the world with a best friend, laughter and books. This is a good sign, I think.

front cover. 

I've worked in Brooklyn for over seven years and lived here for almost four.  I love this borough.  A lot. But, there are times when I miss living in Manhattan.  They usually happen when I'm leaving one of my best friend's apartments on the Upper West Side and I'm walking south on Central Park West with the park to my left and the lights of midtown ahead of me.  Said friend and I had what others (and who are we kidding, ourselves) might initially call a lame New Years, but laughing for hours is never lame.  And, lucky for me the laughing didn't end when I left her apartment at 1 am by myself.  Like I said, there is something about this city that makes me feel so grateful that I know it like the back of my hand.  Walking by myself on New Year's was almost poetic, observing the city silently with a smile, loving it and the great friends I have here. 

You might be wondering now why I'm writing about this on my blog about books.  Because when I rode the subway up to my friend's apartment I was reading Lit by Mary Karr, which I'm pretty excited about, but let's be honest.  It was New Year's Eve, and even though I was wearing a shiny shirt underneath my coat, I probably looked like a killjoy, incapable of smiling as I read a memoir about alcoholism (even though I had read 40 pages and felt accomplished, like my old reading self again, since it took me 5 weeks to read my last book).  

So, one of the shining moments of my New Year's Eve was when I walked into my friend's apartment and we exchanged books--I brought her my copy of Tina Fey's Bossypants and she handed me her copy of Mindy Kaling's Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) and we stood there silently reading the introductions, totally engrossed, and became conscious of how lame we probably looked.  Then we realized we didn't care and sat there and read all night.  Just kidding. We didn't do that.  We sat there and laughed all night.  And for this year, I can't imagine a better way to spend New Year's Eve.  

back cover. can't stop laughing. 

So, back to New York being poetic and riding the subway alone on the biggest party night in town.  I started Kaling's book and could not stop laughing all the way home.  It could have been a sad little moment, given that I was wearing jeans and flats while surrounded by glamorous, high heeled party-goers, but I was just too thankful for what I did have and for the laugh out loud humor and perspective of the book.  In a town where sometimes I feel like I'm a little too midwestern, it was so refreshing to read Kaling's not-typically-Hollywood perspective.  

Then I stayed up until 3 reading. Then I woke up and finished it this morning.  So all that to say, I had a great New Year's and you should immediately go out and buy this book.  No, seriously.