This book feels erratic. The stories and scenes are interesting, but it's like having a conversation with your most hyper, gossipy friend who you haven't seen in years. It skips and hops from story to story, detail to detail, at an overwhelming speed. This odd pacing made it less enjoyable to read. That kind of pacing should not be sustained but used intentionally.

<I>Single, Carefree, Mellow</I> has been sitting in my TBR pile for an embarrassingly long time. I was expecting a book from the library within a couple of days, so I didn't want to start anything that couldn't easily be interrupted. Then I realized this little gem, patiently waiting to be read, was a collection of 11 short stories and knew that was exactly what I needed.

While the collection started off interestingly enough, then stories started to get a bit more awkward and slightly depressing. I can't decide if it's a good thing that they were short so that they would be finished quick. Or if they should have been longer to help with the flow of the story, but would the writing have actually developed better?

Needless to say, this did the job to fill the void while I waited for other books to come in. But I probably wouldn't have picked it up on my own and devoured it.

Another collection of short stories and I am growing to love these in the middle of long, heavy novels. There were a few of the stories in this book that had the same characters and as an amateur short story collection reader I am not used to repeat characters that are intermixed with other short stories.

On that note, I loved Maya's stories. I wouldn't mind a full novel that took those stories and flushed out the rest of her story.

After finishing the collection I did read some reviews and I agree that there were quite a few books about cheating spouses and they got a little old, I wish that there had been a little more variety in the topic of stories. I wouldn't have minded the theme of the stories if I hadn't read them back to back.

Final thought - I loved her writing, so I would be open to reading more of Katherine Heiny.