Vonia's Reviews > One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories

Ashamedly, I am always stunned when a seemingly innocent actor/actress turns out to be quite the impressive individual with a stellar curriculum vitea. BJ Novak is one such actor. In my defense, the character I know him best as, The Office's gullible, awkward Ryan Howard, must have been played so well that I was, naturally, so easily led to believe otherwise. Other than his iconic character, he also wrote, directed, and produced for the show. He played roles in several wife-release films, the one most interesting to me being Inglorious Basterds alongside Brad Pitt. Notably, Novak is a Harvard alumni, having studied English and Spanish literature. Great trivia: http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/...

Back to the material at hand! He is funny. No doubt about it. Add his intellect, apparent in his writing, reflected in his wittiness, and you have some damn good stories. I love intelligent humor above any other. Novak has it.

Not to say he is anywhere near perfect. Out near the breasts like Steve Martin and Ellen DeGeneres, even Demetri Martin (personal favorites). Some of his stories did not have me laughing at all, even smiling. Maybe a share of them referenced things I did not understand. But others still simply were not funny, though I could see where he was going with it.

My personal favorite were: The Rematch (The Tortoise & The Rabbit), The Man Who Invented The Calendar, & The Girl That Gave Great Advice (She only nods, provides options, then whichever the recurve of said advice hold onto, she had the right words to further encourage it, has specific head tilted/angles, etcetera).

Interesting ideas, concepts, stories that were not necessarily humorous: Wikipedia Brown & The Case of The Missing Bicycle, The Thing by John Grisham (Quitr accurate, referencing how all his titles are the same), A Great Problem To Have (Regarding the story behind the creator of the grade school arithmetic ? that discusses two trains meeting, traveling @ the same speed), Sophia (An A.I. Lover the protagonist returns for having feelings).

Another favorite, although not quite one of the stories, is the discussion questions. Awesomely amusing!