147 books
—
141 voters
Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.
Start by marking “Single, Carefree, Mellow” as Want to Read:
Single, Carefree, Mellow
by
Single, Carefree, Mellow is that rare and wonderful thing: a debut that is superbly accomplished, endlessly entertaining, and laugh-out-loud funny.
Maya is in love with both her boyfriend and her boss. Sadie’s lover calls her as he drives to meet his wife at marriage counseling. Gwen pines for her roommate, a man who will hold her hand but then tells her that her palm is sw ...more
Maya is in love with both her boyfriend and her boss. Sadie’s lover calls her as he drives to meet his wife at marriage counseling. Gwen pines for her roommate, a man who will hold her hand but then tells her that her palm is sw ...more
Hardcover, 221 pages
Published
February 3rd 2015
by Knopf
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Reader Q&A
To ask other readers questions about
Single, Carefree, Mellow,
please sign up.
Be the first to ask a question about Single, Carefree, Mellow
Community Reviews
Showing 1-30

One of the most delightful and real and well-written story collections I've read in years. I can already imagine the complaints about this book—actually, I don't have to imagine, because I've heard them from my coworkers. "Too much adultery!" "I don't like any of the characters!" "I don't understand WHY Maya is cheating on her nice fiance!" "I hate it that the women admit that they're pretty and care about being pretty in the first place!" To all of those I would say, yep, it can be very uncomfo
...more

She held the thought of Marcus in her mind, like a Saint Christopher medal, or a dream catcher, or maybe just a hidden flask of whiskey in her purse--something that made survival possible.
Yes. This one was a real surprise for me (the good kind), since normally you would never catch me willingly picking up a collection of short stories by an unknown (to me) author. And the cover is bubblegum pink (another strike). And features a blurb about how it "gives women's interior lives the gravity they s ...more

3.5 stars. (Update: I'm rounding up to 4 because the stories are sticking with me over time.)
I'm sure someone else has already called this, and I am just inadvertently repeating it, but: Chick Lit as written by a suburbanized Dorothy Parker or Anita Loos (and please know these are writers I hold in very high regard). Hold on to that Dorothy Parker reference, as I will be returning to it when I discuss the book's redeeming qualities... after this brief message.
This is a book of short stories in w ...more

Single, Carefree, Mellow: Stories is a collection of short stories written by author: Katherine Heiny. I experienced this collection via audio, which was read by a full cast. The short stories are listed in order below, along with their narrators, individual ratings (based on my personal enjoyment), and a brief review. An average of the ratings below equals 2.63 stars, which I rounded up to 3 on goodreads. Many of these stories didn't leave much of an impression on me, or they left too much of a
...more

These are short stories about men and woman.
Topics include cheating, gossip, New York life, drinks at the Bar, A Young girl with the older man, A mother giving a birthday party for her child....
Bad relationships -sex - lovers -boyfriends -girlfriends -ex-wives....etc.
Here is short review of a few of the stories:
In "The Dive Bar", Sasha is a single woman who is dating a married man named Carson. Carson's wife, Anne, calls Sasha wanting to meet for a drink.
Sasha says to Anne, "Well, all my life ...more
Topics include cheating, gossip, New York life, drinks at the Bar, A Young girl with the older man, A mother giving a birthday party for her child....
Bad relationships -sex - lovers -boyfriends -girlfriends -ex-wives....etc.
Here is short review of a few of the stories:
In "The Dive Bar", Sasha is a single woman who is dating a married man named Carson. Carson's wife, Anne, calls Sasha wanting to meet for a drink.
Sasha says to Anne, "Well, all my life ...more

WOW. Just wow, wow, wow.
I expected basically nothing from this short story collection (never heard of the author before, hadn't heard any early buzz online) and it completely blew me away.
These are short stories in the vein of Melissa Banks' Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing--they are smart about relationships and beautifully written. They are FUNNY. I mean hilarious. I was giggling so hard while reading the bed shook. I highlighted so many passages with the hope of sharing here, but when I w ...more
I expected basically nothing from this short story collection (never heard of the author before, hadn't heard any early buzz online) and it completely blew me away.
These are short stories in the vein of Melissa Banks' Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing--they are smart about relationships and beautifully written. They are FUNNY. I mean hilarious. I was giggling so hard while reading the bed shook. I highlighted so many passages with the hope of sharing here, but when I w ...more

This is the kind of book where I involuntarily make noises and can’t help gushing out loud during reading. It is evoking a serious, audible reaction from me. All of the tales are about women in various states of love and relationships (and so far none of them are single…): unrequited, long-term, other woman, online, and platonic but wanting more. They are darkly funny and incredibly intuitive. I read sentences and paragraphs that so perfectly sum up feelings I did not know how to describe. I’m i
...more

Every story, every single one, included some level of adultery. I could've handled one, maybe two, but 300+ pages of stories where the main character is somehow a participant in adultery, whether the cheater or the person the married person is cheating with, was too much. I started thinking, "Is adultery this common? Does everyone do it? Am I overreacting?" Because no one in the book, not in any of the stories, appeared to have any moral or ethical objections to the practice. Moreover, no one, s
...more

Originally reviewed on One More Page...
[I received a copy of Single, Carefree, Mellow from its Canadian publisher HarperCollins Canada. This does not affect my opinion of the book]
When I opened the package containing Katherine Heiny’s first book Single, Carefree, Mellow, I instantly knew that it was the perfect read for Valentine’s Day and that I would want to devour it for the occasion. (Never mind the fact that I actually had a Valentine’s date.) The novel has been blurbed by Lena Dunham, who ...more
[I received a copy of Single, Carefree, Mellow from its Canadian publisher HarperCollins Canada. This does not affect my opinion of the book]
When I opened the package containing Katherine Heiny’s first book Single, Carefree, Mellow, I instantly knew that it was the perfect read for Valentine’s Day and that I would want to devour it for the occasion. (Never mind the fact that I actually had a Valentine’s date.) The novel has been blurbed by Lena Dunham, who ...more

I found this collection of stories a bit uneven, but mostly good. Heiny does a lot of changing perspective (she uses first, second, and third person here) and even with a unified theme of adultery running throughout much of the collection and some very strong stories, I thought that read a bit gimmicky, trying to tell stories from so many different perspectives and styles. But I hate both list formats ("Thoughts of a Bridesmaid," my least favorite story) and second person ("That Dance You Do") -
...more

Dec 29, 2018
Ylenia
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2018-reads,
owned-read
One of the best collections I’ve read in a while.
Faves: How To Give the Wrong Impression, Blue Heroin Bridge, Dark Matter.
Faves: How To Give the Wrong Impression, Blue Heroin Bridge, Dark Matter.

Every so often (and by that I mean very rarely) a book enters your life which seems to meet some deeply-subconscious, previously buried-but-intrinsic need; it seems to answer the big questions you’ve been pondering, it consumes your everyday thoughts, it gives you characters to aspire to, you feel that little bit cooler just for having it’s witty presence in your bag. You find yourself wanting to read great chunks aloud to anyone who will listen (in this case, interrupting the fiance as he strug
...more

Heiny's collection of short stories is a series of discontent, for the characters. Rather than a spot of sunshine on happy go lucky guys and gals she gives us a more cynical look into relationships, forbidden or otherwise. Personally, I prefer the writers that expose the ugly side of our messy emotions and terrible choices. Apathetic women and mindless men inhabit the stories, in one a teen is having a slummy relationship with her history teacher, and the sexy cliché is more of a stinky hotel an
...more

debut short stories, smart, info full, dialogy, linked stories, of women controlling their own sex lives, their own lives, and for good or bad, having lots of sex with lots of people, and/or thinking about it anyway. also illustrates just what a small town nyc is. author heiny's modernism reminds me of barthelme's novel of a south texas 'retirement' community. no really, it does. There Must Be Some Mistake: A Novel
her relations of sexy pre-sex communications sets a standard cyrano would have a h ...more
her relations of sexy pre-sex communications sets a standard cyrano would have a h ...more

3.5 stars but upgraded because it's funny. Very funny. I like funny. It should be retitled 'Married (or about to be), Careful (although not that careful), mellow-ish'. Wouldn't be quite as snappy, but more accurate as these stories are all about conducting affairs and not feeling that bad about it. The stories are beautifully brought together, satisfying, quite insightful, and as I say, funny, if a tiny bit glib.

Having been a Goodreads member since 2008 has given me the tendency to consider how many stars I'm going to rate a book even while I'm still reading it. For Single, Carefree, Mellow, I spent the majority of the time convinced I would give the book five stars.
But then I finished it and started thinking about my review and imagined dropping it down to four stars, almost exclusively because of all the affairs. But I won't - I'm going to keep it at five stars, despite all the affairs and here are th ...more
But then I finished it and started thinking about my review and imagined dropping it down to four stars, almost exclusively because of all the affairs. But I won't - I'm going to keep it at five stars, despite all the affairs and here are th ...more

I found this to be a delightful and impactful read. Heiny excels at mixing humor and pathos. Here's one of my favorite parts. I think it illustrates the tone of the book perfectly:
In the days right after Josie and Billy had sex for the fourth and last time, Chicken Pox called to tell her that Diet Coke was on sale at the supermarket, two packs for ten dollars, and this put Josie in such a black mood that she lied and told Chicken Pox that she got a better deal at the supermarket way outside of t ...more
In the days right after Josie and Billy had sex for the fourth and last time, Chicken Pox called to tell her that Diet Coke was on sale at the supermarket, two packs for ten dollars, and this put Josie in such a black mood that she lied and told Chicken Pox that she got a better deal at the supermarket way outside of t ...more

People in various stages of infidelity populate the short stories collected in Katherine Heiny's Single, Carefree, Mellow. Heiny's storytelling doesn't look at the moment an affair begins or when it ends but instead delves into various characters (both men and women) at different points of being unfaithful.
One woman finds herself contemplating the end of a relationship in relation to the death of a beloved pet. Another finds herself being cheating partner finding someone new and becoming more i ...more
One woman finds herself contemplating the end of a relationship in relation to the death of a beloved pet. Another finds herself being cheating partner finding someone new and becoming more i ...more

Hum where to start, the synopsis sounded so promising with this book of short stories, which was all about betrayal, future tragedy. The synopsis sounded so entertaining. However I didn't feel the book delivered the emotional feelings in order to have made it successful, it left me feeling flat, there was just to many roads travelled and not in any real reason, it felt detached.
My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher HarpersPress/4th Estate/The Friday Project for the digital copy to review.
My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher HarpersPress/4th Estate/The Friday Project for the digital copy to review.

I read Standard Deviation at the beginning of this year and I completely loved it. In fact it is one of my favourite books of this year.
I picked this one up because I wanted to read more from this author. This book is collection of short stories and infidelity is the underlying theme in most (or all) of them. How women feel being the other one. And I liked all the stories - everything was so well written. But I did not understand the ending of most of the stories and I felt that they ended abru ...more
I picked this one up because I wanted to read more from this author. This book is collection of short stories and infidelity is the underlying theme in most (or all) of them. How women feel being the other one. And I liked all the stories - everything was so well written. But I did not understand the ending of most of the stories and I felt that they ended abru ...more
topics | posts | views | last activity | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Gaithersburg Book...: 2015 Author Katherine Heiny on You Tube | 1 | 2 | Feb 10, 2017 01:09PM | |
2015 Reading Chal...: Single, Carefree, Mellow by Katherine Heiny | 1 | 19 | May 12, 2015 09:13PM |
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“Josie thinks that the problem with being a writer is that you miss a lot of your life wondering if the things that happen to you are good enough to use in a story, and most of the time they’re not and you have to make shit up anyway.”
—
2 likes
“You take Boris’s hand as he bounds along on his long legs, your signal that he has to either slow down or pull you along. He tucks both your hand and his hand into the pocket of his jacket. You look up at his face out of the corner of your eye. In the cold, you watch him breathe perfect plumes of white that match the sheepskin lining of his jacket. You think how happy you would be if Boris thought you were half as beautiful as you think he is at this moment. You walk this way for a few minutes.”
—
1 likes
More quotes…