One More Thing

One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories by B.J. Novak is a sassy debut collection of short stories that will confront the reader with what feels like a slap in the face—a narrative that will obliterate the ideas readers have about the convention of the short story format.

This wallop of a book doesn’t tease or hint at readers with a subtlety of what needs to be unwrapped or revealed through a number of paragraphs or pages. The stories in this book will flash themselves buck naked screaming, You see this?!? This is a story. You didn’t think so, but it is.

But, it isn’t an unintelligible collection that brags plus points for feigning surprise or unconformity. Underneath the antics of its narrative, which doesn’t pull you in, but show more rather grabs your full attention right off the first few lines and will keep you hooked until the close of the short; there is an incredibly intelligent and wry humour that will make you laugh at the truth and audacity of its claims.

To read the rest of this review, you're more than welcome to visit my blog, The Bibliotaphe Closet at: http://zaraalexis.wordpress.com

- Zara show less

So clever, that’s what I kept thinking over and over again and I read this collection of short stories. I knew who Novak was and so I was curious about his book and the sense of humor behind it did not disappoint. The topics are wide, everything from a bit about Wikipedia Brown (as opposed to Encyclopedia Brown) and a rematch between the famous tortoise and the hare.

Some of the stories work better than others, which is almost inevitably the case with collections like these. But I was surprised by the sheer number of ones that really cracked me up.

The stories cover such a variety of subjects that there’s no chance for them to feel repetitive. There’s an invention gone wrong in Vegas, an ambulance driver who chases his dreams, show more stealing writers, the only way to get closure, dating a war lord, concerts in heaven, receiving constructive criticism, and even an update on where Elvis has been. Some of them feel more like an idea than a fleshed out story, but there’s enough meat there to carry the book. Some are just short little gems, other are more elaborate, funny, or poignant.

BOTTOM LINE: The collection shows Novak’s skills as both a comedy writer and short story writer. I’d highly recommend for fans of David Sedaris. show less

In this collection of (very) short stories, B.J. Novak -- formerly a writer, producer, and actor on the US version of "The Office" -- uses his comedic imagination to ask a variety of hypothetical questions. What if the hare who lost the fabled race to the tortoise became obsessed with thoughts of a rematch? What if the handsome man you met in a bar turned out to be a brutally violent African warlord? What if you could literally hold a mirror up to Earth? And what if Chris Hansen, of "To Catch a Predator" fame, were forced to go to a Justin Bieber concert at the insistence of his tween daughter? Novak answers these questions and many more in his debut collection of funny, dark, ridiculous, and often poignant stories.

The first thing to show more say about these stories is that most of them are very short, some no more than a page or two. So most of the stories don't have time to delve deeply into plot or character; rather, they focus sharply on a single joke or idea (see, for example, "The Comedy Central Roast of Nelson Mandela" or "The Market Was Down"). In that sense, it's easy to see the influence of Novak's TV background. However, even if you aren't a fan of "The Office" or its style of comedy, you should still find plenty to enjoy in this book! I was very impressed by how smart Novak obviously is; clever wordplay and literary allusions abound. Several of the stories are laugh-out-loud funny, but the comedy is often followed by a swift stab to the gut. One story in particular, "The Ghost of Mark Twain," gave me chills. Overall, I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked up this book, but I was very pleasantly surprised!

I was fortunate to be able to attend a book signing with Novak at which he read a few of the stories out loud. Having heard the stories in his own voice, I would strongly recommend the audiobook to those of you who enjoy that format. Apparently Novak reads many of the stories himself, although there are some "special guest appearances" by other actors such as Mindy Kaling and Lena Dunham. show less

Have you ever wondered if one could make a decent living spilling coffee? Or if Frank Sinatra made it into heaven? Or why those “Elvis is alive” sightings suddenly stopped? B.J. Novak has pondered these things and come up with some possible answers in this delightful collection of stories. Nothing is sacred to his brand of humor: Comedy Central roasts Nelson Mandela and Confucius can’t say anything without it being noted by his scribe. The fellow who devised the world’s most famous math word problem and another guy who invented the calendar have their stories. A school principal proposes a drastic curriculum change.

But wait! There’s more! Cristo designs a roller coaster, Johnny Depp performs a daring act for a tourist bus, show more John Grisham has a title crisis, and on it goes. Dating, family trips, closure, sex robots, friendship, the gifted all get their turn.

How does Novak get so much into one book? Some of the stories are short, some are shorter and some are very short. The language is tight and economical. Most of the stories are stand-alone but some contain references to previous stories and at least one relies on your having read an earlier story for the punchline. So it's best not to skip around.

This is Novak’s debut story collection, but he has a resume that explains why he is so good at this form. Besides writing, directing, producing, and acting for the TV show “The Office,” he also has a background as a standup comedian.

One More Thing is an excellent collection, I highly recommend it.

The copy I read was from a local public library. show less

audiobook narrated by B.J. Novak, Lena Dunham, Jenna Fischer, Mindy Kaling, Julianne Moore, Carey Mulligan, Katy Perry, Jason Schwartzman, Emma Thompson, and Rainn Wilson -

An extremely impressive collection of short stories. Some of them are only a few sentences long, while others are long and complex and nuanced. There are 64 stories; too many for me to review here individually like I usually do with short story collections.

There wasn't a single story that I disliked here. They are all interesting and innovative and funny, just as I've come to expect from Novak. I'm very familiar with his work writing, directing, and acting in The Office, but this amazing collection of stories is where he really puts his Harvard English degree to show more work. It's even hard to pick a favorite story because they are so different. I've been sitting here for more than 20 minutes looking through all the titles and thinking about how much I loved each of them. So I'm just going to pick one randomly!

If I had a Nickel: If I had a nickel for every time I spilled a cup of coffee, what would it take to actually make a profit?

The narration of this audiobook is excellent. Novak has a nice voice, but a lot of his stories have women in them or multiple characters having a conversation, and so he brought in several of his very talented friends to help him out. It was a real pleasure to listen to.

If you like weird/funny/insightful short stories, I highly recommend this collection. show less

I would give it 3 1/2 stars. I liked it. It was fun. Some of the stories made me smile, and even laugh.

My overall impression is that B. J. Novak is really good at encountering a common idiom, phrase, or cultural/literary touchstone, and either questioning its apparent meaning, or extrapolating its literal meaning to the absurd conclusion. This is a bad, clumsy description of my impression. But with most of these stories, after starting, you don't have to go far before you can clearly recognize the genesis of the story. Whether it's revisiting the Tortoise and the Hare, or a rumination on the common motorist's epithet "Pick a lane!," once you're there, the impression is that you get where he's coming from, and it's very clever.

Clever is show more probably the primary adjective that I would use to describe everything here: the humor, the tone, the concept, the writing in general. It's clever and sometimes delightful.

Recommended for casual humorous reading. Many of the stories are quite short.

One of my favorites is a short poem, which, in a perfect rendition by Emma Thompson, elicited a charmed guffaw from me:

The Literalist's Love Poem

Roses are rose.
Violets are violet.
I love you. show less

I picked this book because it got good reviews and I was aware of Novak from the The Office. It turns out this was a collection of very inventive, quirky, and humorous pieces. Some of them didn't work but for the most part they were very creative. The opening story is about a rematch between the tortoise and the hare and it sets the tone for the whole book . There is one story about an African war lord going on a blind date set up through online dating that is hilarious. If this appeals to you then read this book!!!