One More Thing: Stories and other Stories Book Review

Title: One More Thing: Stories and other Stories
Author: B.J. Novak
Genre: Flash Fiction
Format: Hardcover
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B.J. Novak's One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories is an endlessly entertaining, surprisingly sensitive, and startlingly original debut collection that signals the arrival of a welcome new voice to American fiction.

In One More Thing, a boy wins a $100,000 prize in a box of Frosted Flakes - only to discover that claiming the winnings may unravel his family.  A woman sets out to seduce motivational speaker Tony Robbins - turning for help to the famed motivator himself.  A school principal unveils a bold plan to permanently abolish arithmetic.  An acclaimed ambulance driver seeks the courage to follow his heart and throw it all away to be a singer-songwriter...
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I assumed I was picking up a memoir.  That is generally what I assume when I pick up a book written by a celebrity (which is obviously a mistake since the assumption has led me wrong quite a few times).  OMT is actually a collection of short stories and flash fiction.  The stories range from just a few lines to 30-or-so pages long.

Once I realized I was reading flash fiction, I expected the stories to have a sense of humor reminiscent of The Office but it was nothing like that.  The stories aren't laugh out loud funny, they are a one-sided smile and quick breath out the nose funny (go ahead, do it and  you'll understand what I mean).  The majority of the stories have a dark, clever, sarcastic, and cynical sense of humor.   B.J. Novak is obviously brilliant and funny but his sense of humor is not for everybody.

I personally like B.J.'s dark and sarcastic sense of humor a lot but his flash is weird, really weird.  If you like dry, sarcastic, and sometimes twisted humor, you will like this book.  If you are looking for something light & funny, look elsewhere.  This is the perfect book to read if you don't want to get emotionally invested in a novel but still want to read a work of fiction.  It was perfect for me during college finals because a short burst of dark humor was the perfect distraction from monotonous studying.

I liked OMT 3 stars worth but it deserves 4 stars.  How about 3.7 stars?  That seems right somehow.