[Novella Review] Minivans and Baseball by Rook Winters

Minivans and Baseball is a free companion to Winter’s novel Cubicleland. I picked this one up and meant to read it immediately afterward, but life got in the way…

Feel free to check out my review of Cubicleland here!

The author wrote this novella as a standalone piece, but it is also perfect to read after you have read the novel to learn more about the characters from the main story.

Let’s dive into my review!

My thoughts on Minivans and Baseball by Rook Winters

This story centers on Bill, a family man that is going through a tough time. He’s injured his back recently and the pain is still causing some issues. He and his wife are having trouble with their financials, which is causing some stress. Bill is also struggling to come to terms with letting go of his past and what his life could have been so he can be happy with what he does have currently.

I loved this novella so much! In just a short time, we really got to know the character. I really felt for him as he held a job in customer service. My full-time job is all about talking to store owners or their head of marketing, and I’ve had another job where I had to handle all the calls for people unsubscribing to a newspaper (which was way more stressful than it sounds). When Bill said he liked his work, but that there were definitely some stressful situations that arise, some rude people, and a handful of really bad apples, that really hit the nail on the head…

“Bill spends the next few hours dealing with customer support cases by email and phone. He decides to handle one last support ticket before starting his lunch break. He calls the contact number listed with the ticket and introduces himself. The man on the other end of the line unleashes a string of insults and profanity so thoroughly colorful that Bill isn’t sure what all the words mean when strung together that way.”

So from my experience, I really loved the bit where Bill flew off the handle and gave it right back to someone who was being a douche. Of course, it wasn’t professional… but it was still quite refreshing!

In this tale, we also got to see Bill learning some very important things. The section with his call to counseling was very powerful. I’m so glad to see that included.

“Do I really define myself by what I’ve lost?”

Everyone could use some counseling every now and then, and to see it pop up more and more in the things I’m reading and watching is wonderful.

My Final Thoughts on Minivans and Baseball

This was such a great novella! I will definitely be reading this again from time to time, especially when I re-read the full length novel, Cubicleland, again!

Thanks for reading!
If you enjoy humorous, every-day-life styled fiction, you gotta check out the full length novel and novella.

Snag a copy through your local bookstore or feel free to use my Amazon affiliate link:

---