hlparis's review against another edition
3.0
3.8 I enjoyed listening to this writing, even if I wasn’t in love with every essay. I needed something a little lighter to break the serious tone most of my reading life included.
In this collection, I think my favorite is the section about a man named Ben. The observations are point on, especially later in the piece.
While I don’t consider this a laugh out loud book, I still was amused and even surprised at times. I would read another of her books. If you’re considering reading this, first compute your degree of fondness for sarcasm. It’s high on the spectrum.
In this collection, I think my favorite is the section about a man named Ben. The observations are point on, especially later in the piece.
While I don’t consider this a laugh out loud book, I still was amused and even surprised at times. I would read another of her books. If you’re considering reading this, first compute your degree of fondness for sarcasm. It’s high on the spectrum.
melanieapril's review against another edition
3.0
I finally got around to finishing the last twenty minutes of this audiobook after listening to most of it in early January, and I think it's telling that I remember almost none of the essays except for the one in which the author laments her spatial reasoning disability. The book is amusing enough for a long car ride but nothing special.
fierkej's review against another edition
3.0
I’m a memoir junkie, but I found myself skipping over the many sections, esp those related to travel. Her essays about childhood and relationships were the most engaging.
ladyeremite's review against another edition
3.0
Despite apparently dividing the crowd of reviewers on this site, Crosley's book left me deeply ambivalent. On one hand, I found it easy and quick to read, generally funny (if not necessarily laugh-out-loud funny all the time, and verging towards precious at many others) and very relatable. On the other hand, its relatability was, for me, its most ambivalent aspect. Perhaps I'm a bit old-fashioned; as someone around the author's age, I feel that if one is going to write two books of one's own memoirs by the time one is 33, one really should have done or thought something extraordinary. With the exception of her early learning disability, Crosley seems to have stuck remarkably close to the Prescribed Narrative of the bright twentysomething upper middle-class liberal arts schools graduate in the humanities. As such, her reflections on places (most notably life in New York and Paris) exude a kind of immaturity-masquerading as sophistication, unable to convey any kind of freshness to warn stereotypes. Frankly, I can get the same kind of humor, handled with almost as much skill, from many of my friends (also drawn disproportionately from the ranks of bright twentysomething upper middle-class liberal arts school graduates in the humanities) and from a variety of online blog written by and targeting such an audience. Had these essays come from those sources, I would have found them extremely congenial. Perhaps part of me still holds to the idea that The Printed Word should be somehow different, sacrosanct, preserved for people who genuinely have something to say that will last through time. Perhaps I need to adapt to the idea that the relatively typical life trajectory of the upper-middle-class twentysomething with literary ambitions is a subject of intense and timeless interest when cleverly explored. But, seriously, the line between navel-gazing and genuine reflection seems to have become very blurry these past few decades.
On the plus side, this collection did spark an intense desire to visit Alaska!
On the plus side, this collection did spark an intense desire to visit Alaska!
plaidpladd's review against another edition
3.0
Like every essay collection ever written, some of these were instantly forgettable and some were really good so it's always hard to review. I think I liked the one about ineptly visiting Paris the best just because it was very #relatable to me personally.
servemethesky's review against another edition
3.0
After my love affair with [b:I Was Told There'd Be Cake|2195289|I Was Told There'd Be Cake|Sloane Crosley|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255587590s/2195289.jpg|2201026], which led me to believe I would name my firstborn Sloane, her second book fell flat for me.
I loved every second of [b:I Was Told There'd Be Cake|2195289|I Was Told There'd Be Cake|Sloane Crosley|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255587590s/2195289.jpg|2201026]. Consequently, I raced through [b:How Did You Get This Number|7091863|How Did You Get This Number|Sloane Crosley|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1275621968s/7091863.jpg|7348202], desperately hoping to find that unnameable factor I so loved. I never did- not in any of her 9 essays.
Though her style is fun and engaging, this time it often felt self-indulgent and whiny. Your middle school friend was mean? Your pet sting ray died because he devoured a gold necklace you dropped in his tank? You lied in confession in Notre Dame and feel badly? For some reason, I don't care.
I also found Sloane to be remarkably shallow here. In "Take a Stab at It," she talks about fulcrum moments: those moments when your whole life swings into focus, rendering everything clear and new. A cool concept. Turns out Sloane's fulcrum moment was seeing a pretty table in a prospective apartment.
My mind briefly caught on her musings on vacation coming from the verb "vacating." I had never thought of it that way. Unfortunately, Sloane doesn't dwell on this idea.
Her essay "It's Always Home You Miss" captures the people of New York
City excellently, but it didn't make me like them. Likewise, her portrait of Alaska in "Light Pollution" is smart, but doesn't make me like Sloane.
While other reviewers hyped up "Off the Back of a Truck" as one of the best pieces, I was disappointed in this essay. Again, Sloane comes across as self-absorbed. Best quote of the book was here, though: "My heart shuffled past my spine, out my back, and melted into the carpet."
As such a huge fan of her first collection, I really wanted to like her second. Though I can't put my finger on it, something was definitely missing.
The one thing I will take away from having read this is her concept of the best day and worst day of our lives. I haven't had either of mine yet, and that is promising.
I loved every second of [b:I Was Told There'd Be Cake|2195289|I Was Told There'd Be Cake|Sloane Crosley|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255587590s/2195289.jpg|2201026]. Consequently, I raced through [b:How Did You Get This Number|7091863|How Did You Get This Number|Sloane Crosley|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1275621968s/7091863.jpg|7348202], desperately hoping to find that unnameable factor I so loved. I never did- not in any of her 9 essays.
Though her style is fun and engaging, this time it often felt self-indulgent and whiny. Your middle school friend was mean? Your pet sting ray died because he devoured a gold necklace you dropped in his tank? You lied in confession in Notre Dame and feel badly? For some reason, I don't care.
I also found Sloane to be remarkably shallow here. In "Take a Stab at It," she talks about fulcrum moments: those moments when your whole life swings into focus, rendering everything clear and new. A cool concept. Turns out Sloane's fulcrum moment was seeing a pretty table in a prospective apartment.
My mind briefly caught on her musings on vacation coming from the verb "vacating." I had never thought of it that way. Unfortunately, Sloane doesn't dwell on this idea.
Her essay "It's Always Home You Miss" captures the people of New York
City excellently, but it didn't make me like them. Likewise, her portrait of Alaska in "Light Pollution" is smart, but doesn't make me like Sloane.
While other reviewers hyped up "Off the Back of a Truck" as one of the best pieces, I was disappointed in this essay. Again, Sloane comes across as self-absorbed. Best quote of the book was here, though: "My heart shuffled past my spine, out my back, and melted into the carpet."
As such a huge fan of her first collection, I really wanted to like her second. Though I can't put my finger on it, something was definitely missing.
The one thing I will take away from having read this is her concept of the best day and worst day of our lives. I haven't had either of mine yet, and that is promising.
julibug86's review against another edition
1.0
Not as good as her first and I didn't like her first. Don't ask why I punish myself.
leleroulant's review against another edition
2.0
I received an advance copy of this from Goodreads. I did not find it hilarious, only mildly amusing. It is certainly readable but not engrossing enough to stick with it all the way.
lola425's review against another edition
3.0
As expected. I like Crosley's style, but feel like it has been done to death.
cozylittlebrownhouse's review against another edition
4.0
I haven't yet read, [b:I Was Told There'd Be Cake|2195289|I Was Told There'd Be Cake|Sloane Crosley|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255587590s/2195289.jpg|2201026] but I definitely will now having experienced the witty and smart essays in How Did You Get This Number, a fun romp through a variety of life's special (and not-so-special) moments. Very entertaining!