Reviews

How Did You Get This Number: Essays, by Sloane Crosley

whatkathrynreads_'s review

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funny lighthearted reflective

4.0

mmouse1977's review

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funny lighthearted medium-paced

2.25

rowiash's review

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funny reflective medium-paced

4.0

I remember loving “I Was Told There’d Be Cake,” so I hunted down more of the author’s work and soon realized that I’d listened to the first hour or so of this audiobook before. How did I let it get away from me? Who can say. More witty slice-of-life goodness, like retreating into the kitchen with an old friend at a party to catch up, refill drinks, and see who has accumulated the craziest stories.

newbatteri's review

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2.0

I am aware that my patience for white, privileged writers is very short now but yiiiiikes, does this lady like to drop random racist nuggets about various Asian ethnic groups. From making fun of delivery people (they're foreigners, all of them), to Chinese names, to the conditions of a hostel being similar to the country of Thailand, it's all there and winking at you like you're somehow in on her joke (joke being that she's not actually racist so this isn't racist!).

Aside from that, most of the writing is overwrought and the endings terrible if not downright nonexistent. When you set yourself to write "humor," chances are you, the reader will laugh. I don't remember even grinning or smirking once. Mostly, I was just trying to see how much longer of this "woe is me, I'm a white lady in publishing" I could take.

Or perhaps I yearn for essays that actually delve deeper into, say, feelings outside of mild annoyance that your trip to Alaska/Portugal/Paris wasn't as good as you would have hoped.

The one thing I got out of this: I need to fucking publish my own essays. The world needs less white whine, after all.
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