How Did You Get This Number

I read about this book in a magazine and thought it would be a nice, relaxing read. It turned out to be that, and terrifically funny to boot.The book is a collection of essays that include the musings of a twentysomething on life in New York City, travel in and out of the U.S., family pets, and other subjects. The author is quite simply an incredible writer. She manages to be witty, hip, current, and laugh-out-loud hilarious, with just a touch of sweetness thrown in. There are a number of subtle and overt pop-culture references that are hidden like Easter Eggs throughout the text, so I found myself reading a paragraph and having to go back and read it again to get at all the nuances within.The only minor problem with this book was a few instances where the sentences sort of started to wander off and I got a little lost in her thought process, but this was a small issue in my opinion.I realize that I am gushing so much in this review that I probably sound like a friend of Ms. Crosley's or a plant of some kind. I'm not, though I can now be counted as a fan. I can't recommend this book highly enough. It was just wonderful from start to finish. I'm going to buy her other book immediately!

Whatever you do, please don't call her the next David Sedaris. I loathe when people begin a sentence with "The next ... " and fill it in with some vapid cultural comparison because they don't want to actually put in the time for an original review. They prefer instead to use empty comparisons as filler. Sloane Crosley is a talented writer. A funny writer. An insightful, snarky, intelligent writer, but she is NOT David Sedaris. There is only one of those.With that said, I enjoyed her new book of essays, "How Did You Get This Number". She writes about a random assortment of events in her life, but without tones of pretense or self-absorption. She's critical and snarky, but doesn't try to be endearing, which I appreciate. I hate reading any sort of story where it feels as though someone forced an event in her life, knowing the end result would produce a witty essay. Get over yourself.My favorite essay in "How Did You Get This Number" comes at the very end, with "Off the Back of a Truck", when the author writes about a failing relationship and her adventures in semi-illegal furniture acquisitions. It's touching, smart and cute without beating you over the head with its intentions. She's a wonderful writer with a keen eye and I can't wait for her third book.

I covet essay collections, and with this book Crosley delivers one that snaps, crackles and pops with the hilarious and strange, the I shitchu not and the heartachin' pieces of life.I'm unabashedly and ridiculously partial to those who bring the wry and witty repartee to everyday observations (i.e. stank taxis, the often incestuous nature of makin' friends & maybe mores in workplaces), but someone who experienced and exposed the agonizing anxiety of Girl Talk?! She essentially planted herself in a pot o' gold at the end of my Reading Rainbow with that mention alone."Off the Back of a Truck", "If You Sprinkle" and "An Abbreviated Gift of Tongues" compelled me to share this book with a friend with instructions to keep it swappin'. Her powers of observation are both subtle and supreme. The girl is funny and keen and sharp with the wordplay and this book is well worth the read.

I enjoyed this book. My only let-down was the book being falsely touted as a "comedy". The author has a nice sense of humor displayed in her word choices, however, my personal definition of "comedy book" is one that is written primarily to amuse. Maybe I'm judging too harshly. I have a habit of giving up on reading a book if by page one hundred I don't care what happens to the characters or how the story ends. I read this one through and through.

I loved this excellent story as it is world wide, the story of babies that are abandoned. I like the way that the writer was astonished at what happens to babies in China.Where are the English teachers in America, that an American cannot believe that babies are treated this way.Americans are too sugar coated with softness. In other countries there is a real world waiting to be explored.I am sorry but I wrote this review about the wrong book. The book was called " SILENT TEARS."

I was disappointed with this book. I read the author's first book and thought it was sophisticated and funny. In this one, the author's voice is cloying, self-absorbed, uninteresting, and too loud. I felt like I was getting hit over the head with her voice in these stories, yet didn't understand the point of them. It reminded me of when someone is telling an interesting story, but then gets sidetracked and goes on tangent after tangent. You never get to the punchline, and the story seems trailing and unfocused. In one of these stories, Crosley talks about growing up with a learning disability. It's almost as if she is handing over vivid descriptions from this experience that are interesting, but then again don't really lead the reader anywhere. When I reached the story about her childhood pets, I just could not read anymore, especially with section headers like The Dog or The Birds. Maybe this is endearing somehow, but it seemed kind of ridiculous and I was annoyed I purchased this book. I have tried to read this book at least a few different times, and just cannot not get into it, which is strange because I read her first book in one sitting. I wish I hadn't purchased it as an e-book, because now it's just sitting in my archive, but I don't want to delete it. If I had a hard copy then at least I could give it to someone else. Maybe I will find someone with an e-reader and pass it on that way. Usually a product's rating by Amazon stars don't fail me. I wonder if in her next book, Crosley will do a story based on her Amazon reviews. I would not doubt it, but I'm not going to read it.

Not nearly as much humour as expected, mostly crass, disconnected stories with no point. Unnecessary swearing and generally poor use of language.

You know what made me read Sloane Crosley's first book (which is called "I was told there'd be cake" and is, ultimately, much better than this one)? One of the glossy magazines referred to her as the new Carrier Bradshaw. Funny, sexy, and now a New Yorker.There is nothing much I can say about this book, which I finished today (one of my friends gave up after the first two essays). I would not recommend it as a book by a comedian or by a woman with a gorgeous sense of humour you can relate to. I don't think there are many people out there who would like to live in a house haunted by ghosts of suicidal prostitutes, or tell sad (almost verging on cruelty) stories about pet animals, or blow up a big deal out of the usage of tampons or pepper sprays. It might all sound good in Ms Crosley's mind, but not so exciting on the paper. The truly worth-reading essay is called "Light Pollution" (published in the Vice magazine some time ago), about the State of Alaska, which made me want to go and see it for myself even more than I wanted to before. But maybe it's just me.Maybe you will enjoy this book of, in my opinion, quite unsatisfactory collection of stories, which might have had a potential were they not so badly administered by Ms Crosley's language. It seems that she is much too proud of her vocabulary and tends to construct sentences bursting with words that you never hoped to see within one paragraph. The sentences themselves are too long to grasp for a book which is, let's face it, no Booker prize, but merely a beach holiday read. This book is trying hard to be a sophisticated beach read. So sophisticated, that by the time you finish the sentence (that feels as long as a paragraph), you are not quite sure what the storyteller tried to tell us and, frankly, was it worth the effort?Just when I was about to give up and braced myself for the last essay, not surprisingly called "Off the back of the truck", Sloane pulled a trick I haven't seen before. The story is not about furniture. The story is about relationships, deluded relationships and, to be more precise, break-ups. We have all been through at least one, but I haven't read a story so heartbreakingly real in describing all the break-up cycles you agonize through, all those questions, all those "time heals" mantras. That essay is one amazingly written piece of work of a broken heart. Brava, girl!Maybe you will find your own gem in this collection of stories. Maybe you will love the book. Good luck. I was left a bit disappointed.

Having enjoyed 'I was Told There'd be Cake' I was excited to read this one. I love Sloane's voice and narrative style. It was funny and full of her wit, but just didn't live up to her first book.

Alles ok,