Mini Review: One More Thing by B.J. Novak

If you love something, let it go. If you don't love something, definitely let it go. Basically, just drop everything. Who cares.

-from "If You Love Something" in One More Thing by B.J. Novak

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One More Thing is B.J. Novak's collection of funny and insightful short stories that will have you laughing out loud and considering things about human nature and the human condition. The lengths of the stories range from many pages to just a few sentences, but all of them contain a bizarre realism with ideas and themes that are just left-of-center but not too far to misunderstand.

I listened to the audio book in just one day and it was thoroughly entertaining. Most of the stories are read by Novak himself, but he also gets help from some friends which include Mindy Kaling, Rainn Wilson, Katy Perry and Lena Dunham. My favorite story was "Missed Connection", and it might be my favorite because it was read by Kaling and reminded me so much of her character on The Mindy Project. I also enjoyed the fractured fable "The Rematch" which explores what happened after the tortoise beat the hare in that infamous race. "I Never Wanted to Walk on the Moon" was another story I really enjoyed because it was so relatable (seriously, visiting the moon just sounds like no fun to me!).

Some of the longer stories were more difficult for me to maintain interest in because of my short-story attention span. This is no discredit to Novak's storytelling, but more a judgement on my part. It's just that when my brain is in short-story mode and the story goes on and on and on, I kind of tune out, especially with an audio book. I probably shouldn't admit this. ;)

Bottom Line: This is a wonderful collection of funny and insightful short stories and it is highly entertaining. I would even recommend this as a book club book because there are a lot of ideas to talk about. 4.5/5 stars.