Dunder Mifflin Tiff? As If! The Office BFFs Put it all Down on Paper

What if The Office's Pam and Angela were best friends?  What if, instead of reluctant colleagues who tolerated each other at best and gossiped about each other at worst, they supported each other like sisters?  Surprise! (Or maybe not, as I'm always the last one to the office holiday party.)  In real life, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey are each other's ride-or-die, as chronicled in their popular Office Ladies podcast and now in their book, The Office BFFs.

Weathering work, family, and other woes, Jen and Ange have a friendship that transcends sitcom seasons.  They're so in sync that they've even broken their toes at each other's houses (accidentally, of course, not as part of some weird friends-to-the-end blood oath).  I loved reading about their memories and anecdotes.  Also, it was fun to find out that Angela Kinsey is nothing like the sour and rigid Angela Martin.  She's warm, bubbly, and irreverent -- and clearly an amazing actor!

Still, it's these reflections from Jenna that are my favorite parts of the book:

"Pam's dreams are not extraordinary.  She wants to marry the man she loves, have a family, and feel creatively expressed in her work.  In the end, she gets all three.  It's not lost on me that the series ends when Pam's dreams come true.  The documentary doesn't stop when Michael leaves.  They keep filming.  I like to think that's because they might have been following Pam all along." (223)

Her words go hand in hand with Pam's last words in the finale:

"I thought it was weird when you picked us to make a documentary.  But all in all . . . I think an ordinary paper company like Dunder Mifflin was a great subject for a documentary.  There's a lot of beauty in ordinary things.  Isn't that kind of the point?" (299)

So yeah, The Office BFFs is a sweet, poignant read.  

And now I just may have to become a podcast person.