I Did Everything Right, Right? Books in Order

I Did Everything Right, Right? is Mindy Kaling's collection of six short personal essays about adulthood refusing to follow the expected script. The pieces draw on parenting, life in Los Angeles, public image and ordinary inconveniences that become much larger in the telling. They share a comic perspective rather than a continuing fictional plot, so readers can choose an individual subject or move through the whole collection for a broader picture of the worries and pleasures occupying her attention.

Grand Theft Auto turns a stolen car into an unexpectedly personal mission. Kaling tracks it through South Los Angeles using a phone app, determined to recover something she doesn't even consider especially attractive. The setup puts her principles beside the uncomfortable fact that she is frightened and poorly prepared for the adventure. Celebrity status doesn't make the situation less absurd; it gives her another reason to question why she is doing this herself.

Other essays look at expectations attached to being a parent. Acceptance concerns the competitive world of private preschool admissions in Los Angeles, where the process can feel like an evaluation of the parents too. Well, We All Hate Skiing follows a family trip to Vail, undertaken partly to give her children an experience she missed when she was young. The holiday's expense and discomfort become a way to question whether an activity is enjoyable or merely something successful families are expected to enjoy.

Doing the approved thing doesn't guarantee having a good time.

An Update on My Eyes brings that uncertainty down to the practical details of getting older. Trouble reading everyday text leads to an eye appointment and new responsibilities for looking after her body. The humour comes from a familiar mismatch: a person may feel capable in major areas of life while being surprised by a basic change in what she can comfortably see. Adulthood keeps adding small tasks without asking whether there is room for them.

Clothing and appearance connect The Devil Pulled Prada and The Chanel Sale to the collection's wider concern with approval. A professional rejection by a stylist and the appeal of luxury shopping offer different routes into thinking about status and self-worth. The essays move between the unusual circumstances of entertainment-industry life and feelings that don't require fame to recognise: wanting to look right, wanting a bargain and wondering how much power another person's judgment should have.

Each essay is designed to be read or heard in one sitting, making the collection suited to short visits as well as a continuous read. There is no essential plot order, and the subjects provide natural starting points according to interest. Together, the pieces treat maturity as an ongoing negotiation between ambition, embarrassment, family affection and the discovery that even a carefully planned life will produce situations no one has rehearsed.