I Was Told There'd Be Cake: Essays

My grandson ordered it which shows why the Kindle should not have order possibilities on the first screen. Young kids can get to it and it is easy to slide to order. We never would have but did not discover it until I got the email saying I had ordered it.

By the humorous title, one would think that this was a very funny book. After all, the title sets the reader up with a certain expectation of the book's contents. It suggests that inside are stories about the ups and downs (but mostly downs) of this random author, and that her misery is our comedy. Unfortunately, you can't judge a book by it's cover (title). This collection of essays feels more like reading someone's well-written diary. The chapters aren't tied together; they each have a beginning and an end (although one whose subject matter had potential to be funny doesn't really have a satisfying conclusion).

I did manage to make my way through the entire book, though. I did not give up. But something tells me I probably should have. The chapters are all very readable, but they don't have that "wow" factor. I feel like someone told me over dinner their entire day's mundane events minute-by-minute while I couldn't wait for the check to come.

There are some good stand-alone quotes, but not enough of them. My favorite: "People are less quick to applaud as you grow older. Life starts out with everyone clapping when you take a poo and goes downhill from there."

If you're not bored with reality TV, then maybe this book is for you.

These essays are mostly humorous, ironic and relatable. No, I don't have a drawer full of plastic ponies in my kitchen, but I think most of us have "something" that we would not really want our loved ones to unearth if we met a sudden end. And how she disposed of the ponies is even funnier than their acquisition! Poor Sloane (with the unusual name) has has more than her share of odd workplace, roommate and social experiences, that is for sure. And her self-induced tale of woe on moving day is just laugh-out-loud funny. There are a lot of relatable experiences in this collection, even if you have never lived in New York. But I don't imagine she will be getting many calls to be a bridesmaid, however, after this book is out!

I read Sloane Crosley's second essay collection, "How Did You Get This Number?" three years ago and liked it, despite having been warned that "everybody" regards it as inferior to this, her first book. Now that I have read "I Was Told There'd Be Cake" and can compare the two, I see why history has judged it superior, though honestly the collections are in many regards similar and both are quite good.

Crosley is good at sentences with humorous twists, and unexpected metaphors (has anybody before ever compared tarts to animals that would fade to extinction on the jungle floor?). She's self-deprecating when appropriate and generally seems sincere. This collection is almost uniformly excellent, and profits from having been Crosley's first book in that she had a lifetime to develop the anecdotes that appear within. The second book followed only four years later, and almost inevitably wasn't going to have as much polish.

Both collections are "curated" well, which is to say that the individual stories are good but that they are also arranged well. In the case of "How Did You Get This Number," everything builds to a story called "Off the Back of a Truck," about men and honesty and possessions and loss. In "I Was Told There'd Be Cake," the pinnacle is "You On A Stick," a smart and funny and observant story about serving as bridesmaid for a nearly forgotten high school friend.

Crosley is clearly no flash in the pan; she's a gifted writer with a great career ahead of her.

I laughed out loud during the first 2 stories, and highly recommend them. However, the next 6 weren't entertaining or interesting. I skimmed over the one about her quest for a one night stand, then stopped altogether.

Even in the stories that have some good wit, like the one where she talks about using the game "Oregon Trail" as a means of killing off people she didn't like, they're not very good. She also has a story with a clever opening about "her first time" at 22 in the back of a taxi (losing her wallet). It was a story-telling technique like that that kept me pushing through, but I just had to stop.

The worst part of the book is that she uselessly imparts details that don't serve the story in any way. An example of this is in "The Good People of This Dimension," where she opens by saying how in 1978 her mom painted a portrait of herself holding an orb. She likes to think the orb was her, but her mom said it wasn't.

The reason the painting is brought up is because it soon falls on her head. The momentum of her false thought does nothing for readers. On that story, I was also left not understanding the ending. Was the guy dead? Did he go through the dimensional portal that's mentioned? Did she drop a steamy dump in his toilet and leave with his last half-roll of TP? If anyone can clue me in, I'd appreciate it.

Sloane Crosley ‘s memoir I Was Told There’d Be Cake is a delightful tale of the frantic and eccentric life of a New York native in her natural habitat. From the cynical retelling of tarts gone wrong to the parade of toy ponies from potential suitors and even tales of being the only Jew in a Christian summer camp, Crosley’s cynical and honest tone will keep the pages turning. This book is well suited for anyone who shares an interest in life’s quirkier nuances and enjoys a fresh spin on the tales of awkward happenstance common to everyday life.

The best description I can think of for Sloane Crosley is that she is the female David Sedaris--and that is meant as a compliment as I'm a huge Sedaris fan. This book is a collection of essays on a variety of topics ranging from the perils of having an unusual name, the pitfalls of volunteering, moving mishaps, having a boss from hell, and the horrors of being a bridesmaid. Although I suspect we have little in common--being at least 20 years apart in age and growing up in wildly different environments (Crosley was raised in Westchester, New York and currently lives in New York City)--I found myself laughing and relating to so much of what she wrote about. (Not the quest to find a one night stand though, thank you very much!) I found her writing assured, and there was enough chuckles per page that I was never bored. Perhaps the best way to give you a feel for her writing is to share some excerpts:

On volunteering: I took my volunteerism as seriously as someone like myself could. I knew my motivation was rooted in boredom; I wouldn't stick with it if it wasn't relatively easy. This narrowed the field considerably. Clearly orcas were out of the question, as were the disabled, women in need of JCPenney suits, the ozone layer, lead-paint prevention, historical landmarks, and anything involving a ladle.

On agreeing to be a bridesmaid: The subplot of modern marriage assumes that a wedding is the crown jewel of any best friendship, a time when otherwise rational women are legally permitted to misplace their minds and treat their friends like heel-skin-shaving employees. This is something we tolerate in our closest pals, but I had barely spoken to this woman in a decade....I had no choice but to respond not only with a "yes," but with a "yes, I'd be honored." On one tacit condition. There was an unspoken understanding that I would be standing up there with her as a one-time favor. In an effort to mask her apparent lack of sociability as an adult, that evening the role of "old friend" would be played by yours truly. Like the best man's polyester-blend tux, I was a rental.

On making tarts: First you have to understand how to bake a successful dessert tart. Most baking, even complicated baking that results in caramelized pine nuts or perfect chocolate and vanilla swirls, consists of adding dry ingredients to wet. Any cookbook worth its weight in sugar will encourage you to experiment. Add craisins! Dally in dates! Go nuts! Perfection is to be found in the imperfect! Except with tarts. Unless you are professional, you will find the tart to be a high-maintenance, unforgiving whistle-blower of a pastry. If they could sprout sexual organs and mate, they'd go extinct on the jungle floor. Chocolate chip cookies, impossible to [...] up, would breed like deer.

If you are a fan of autobiographical essays with a humorous slant, this collection is a must. Of course I'm filled with seething resentment that someone this young could be so funny and write so well. But I am a bit biased as my dream is to be a writer of humorous essays just like Sloane. So I consider her my competition. Game on, Sloane! Game on!

There are some really funny moments in the book and a few memorable turns of phrase--I liked the observation on the masturbatory nature of the Oregon Trail, for example. However, in that same essay, I also noticed a pretty big editing error--while throughout she describes "fording the river" (using the well-known phrasing of the computer game), by the essay's punchline she is "forging" the river. Editing throughout is quite sloppy--numerous other errors like this, but a lot of work still remained to be done in terms of pacing and paring down wordiness.

The voice in this book is inconsistent--at times, it tries too hard to be self-consciously funny, and at others, it descends into narcissism or self-deprecation and then really has to work to become likable. There is, as I think others have noted, little self-awareness.

All that said, I did want to like this book, and I found enough to like that I read through until the end. Claiming that she is in the same league as Parker or Sedaris is setting readers up for disappointment and doing those authors a disservice. Instead, I think if Crosley continues to work at her craft and finds a good editor to work with her promising material, her essays could be great.

So you have Sara Vowell, Fran Lebowitz, Nora Ephron, Calvin Trillin, and maybe even Chelsea Handler. A couple of them are funnier, sharper and/or more perceptive than Thurber, even on his best days. Well, I don't know where in the rankings of these writers I'd put Crosley, but she certainly belongs at the same table, or at least the same dining room. So, if you're casting about for another starter, (or don't quite get the supposed wonderfulness of Sedaris), Crosley's rueful and self-deprecating essays might be a nice choice.

Seriously. That's exactly how these stories came off to me. And if you're moderately intelligent and have ever read or written the dreaded college admissions essay, I think you know what I mean. I get the distinct feeling that the ideas for these stories were brainstormed from an essay question like "What's the most interesting thing you've done lately?" or "Tell us about a mistake you made and what you learned from it".

In these essays, Sloane Crosley comes off as a uber literate, semi-quirky suburban girl mining her youth for interesting, unique anecdotes and, coming up short, spinning a few mildly offbeat incidents into super hilarious wacky madcap adventures. Most of the stories had build ups that seemed to promise hilarious climaxes, but most of them fizzled out in the end ("I let the butterfly go!", "I did something my boss found sort of weird and then I quit!", "I called the cops and they sort of bothered my neighbor!").

Now, spinning hilarity out of relative normalcy can certainly still entertain, but only if the writer has an engaging voice and peppers the narrative with well-placed details. Which Crosley does..sort of..It's not that she's a bad writer; on the contrary, she's clearly quite a talented one. Her real problem is that she flexes those impressive writerly muscles way too much, which makes her narratives sound unnecessarily scholarly and impersonal, two things you don't want in humor writing. Again, this is something you see a lot with college admissions essays: a writer is witty and talented and wants to prove this to the reader, so she carefully crafts a 500 word piece that she meticulously grooms until all the life has been sucked out of it. The essay of this hypothetical 17 year old, like those of Crosley's, is technically a good piece of writing, and it IS amusing, but only in a "Oh yeah, I see why that would be funny" kind of way. While I appreciated Crosley's comedic efforts, I didn't crack a genuine smile once while reading IWTTBC, and sometimes I would get so bored with her wooden prose that I'd start to skim pages.

To be clear: I think Sloane Crosley has a lot of potential. She just needs to trust that she's funny and interesting and not try so damn hard to prove it to the readers. Right now she's kind of the Gene Shalit of memoirists. And to be fair, these stories have probably served her well at dinner parties. But in book form? Not so much.

This book amused me. With the exception of one rambly essay that lost its own point long before the end, each essay has a high dose of humor, mainly self-deprecating and earnest. One was stuffed so full of puns it went from funny to annoying. But there were both the standard "my family is so wacky" ones and the "here's something real and poignant and wise, wrapped in a brocade of funny".

Overall, it's a quick read that I think most people in their 30s can relate to (I'm guessing especially if you live in NYC). Sloane Crosley comes across as the kind of gal you'd be friends with, out of mutual understand that friendship at this age means an email once a year, if nothing else.

Actually, her observations about life at this age (while not overtly about life at this age) were painfully honest and very relatable. So although I wasn't entertained enough to give it a full A rating, it's a good book to gift your girlfriends.

Sometimes I'm so grateful to the internet, because as I read this book I was so deeply annoyed I really needed an outlet to say that I didn't enjoy it. Thank you, the store!

The comparisons to Sarah Vowell and David Sedaris are red herrings. I love those authors, and these essays have a very different feel, of someone who is attempting to be clever and adorable, but doesn't have the fundamental compassion and insight about life that make for a great humorist. Sometimes, when humorists are off the mark, they instead really get under your skin, because they essentially wasting your time by demanding your attention and then repaying you by telling you about their junk drawer and that time they locked their keys in their apartment while moving. I kind of feel like the author owes me a drink for my kindness in indulging these stories.

My coworker told me about this book. She said she was reading it and it was hilarious. I borrowed a copy from the library, downloading it on to my Kindle, and I 100% agree with her! This book is good for a laugh. If you are looking for some light reading, definitely consider this book. The author is clever as she reflects on various life experiences. I've never met Sloane Crosley, but I like her.

It seems that there is no denying the existential reality that we are all ultimately alone, and try as hard and we might, it's impossible to get another to really get us. Perhaps there are two basic choices to approaching this dilemma. We could drive ourselves crazy in trying to be known and fully understood by the world (and lose ourselves in the process). Or, we can just do the best we can in being upfront about our idiosyncrasies, and along the way, understand ourselves more/make others laugh/get a book deal out of it. Sloane's essays are not only funny, entertaining, refreshingly-off-the-beaten-path, and uncannily hard to forget, but they also seem to model a solution to the existential dilemma of never being fully known: unapologetically embracing our idiosyncrasies.

If you have American kids -- or may have them someday -- did you ever think of raising them in an interesting foreign country so they could come back as teens with a high coolness quotient? No? Would you send a Jewish ten-year-old to a Christian summer camp? and if you did, would you be surprised to hear that she played Mary in the "Christmas in July" pageant after the blond Girl from Darien was hobbled by a broken toe? Is there a collection of anything in your kitchen drawers, let's say toy ponies for example, that you worry about your mother finding if you die unexpectedly? and if so, would you dispose of them on a Brooklyn-bound subway train? Have you ever locked yourself out on moving day, from both old AND new apartments, requiring two expensive calls to the same sarcastic locksmith?

No? Then you're not like Sloane Crosley, the twenty-something author of I Was Told There'd Be Cake. This little book of wildly assorted essays is a kind of cubist blueprint for the young, well-off, well-educated New York woman. Crosley's writing is irreverent about her family ("I have never met two people more afraid of their house burning down than my parents") and particularly about her (we hope) well-disguised friends. She says of a pair of dinner guests: "Because there are no more hippies, you don't call them hippies. (But if you ever saw two people on a beach, gorging themselves on whole-wheat burritos and pot, picking sand out of each other's toes, and diving into the water naked, that would be them.)"

You may wonder whether you care about Sloane Crosley's observations on her short life to date. That's one question I can't answer for you. I will tell you that while her experiences may be alien to anything you have ever done, thought or felt, the girl can write intelligently and with great humor; there are unifying principles in the human existence and she catalogs a subset of them very well . We're bound to hear more from this young writer, and if she brings her sardonic wit to deeper subjects it will be very well worth reading. This book was an entertaining look at her world. One star off for the essay format, as I believe her book would have been better served by a more linear memoir format.

Linda Bulger, 2008

I agree with the other reviews. She uses language very well, and makes some unexpected connections between things that made me smile. However, in terms of the big picture, she misses the mark and the whole book comes across as a bunch of glib whining. She has a young voice that is self-obsessed, judgmental and trying too hard. The book lacks charm and grace, but does have a few laughs. It's always irritating to listen to privileged people complaining about their neurotic imaginings. The book has the tone that she's very above the events of her own life, so why would I want to read about it?

I have to agree with some of the other comments - this book is good but not great. It made me smile but it didn't make me laugh out loud. Maybe my expectations are high - I enjoy most of David Sedaris's books and loved Mindy Kaling's memoirs and essays, but following Sloane through her life in NYC didn't have the same vibe. When hearing about her pushy boss I was intrigued, but I also felt a bit like an outsider to the world she was describing. Don't get me wrong the book isn't bad - there are laughable moments and experiences that the author details, this just isn't my favotire.

Comparisons to David Sedaris' work are inevitable, so I won't try to avoid them in this review. Each chapter is a humorous essay drawing from the author's life. Like Sedaris, the author writes in a somewhat sarcastic style, and the humor tends to be dry with some occasional slapstick. Although I did laugh out loud at a few of the pieces, the humor level varied too much for my taste from chapter to chapter. In fairness, Crosley is at a distinct disadvantage versus Sedaris because her family is not nearly as funny (e.g. Amy Sedaris). Given what she has to work with, not a bad effort.

I grabbed this book because the first chapter in the preview was hilarious. Keep in mind that this is as funny as it gets. So I give it 2 stars rather than 1. As we progress through the short stories, the attempt at self-deprecating humor fails. The author comes across as a shallow, self-involved and utterly unlikable character. A bit past midway, I found myself feeling glad for her misfortune and wishing she would just go away. She did go away when I finally gave up on the book. And did I mention the writing is just bad? If there's anything good I can say here, other than the first story, it's that even bad books get published. I guess there's hope for a bunch of mediocre and bad writers out there--someone will read your crap.

I grabbed this book because the first chapter in the preview was hilarious. Keep in mind that this is as funny as it gets. So I give it 2 stars rather than 1. As we progress through the short stories, the attempt at self-deprecating humor fails. The author comes across as a shallow, self-involved and utterly unlikable character. A bit past midway, I found myself feeling glad for her misfortune and wishing she would just go away. She did go away when I finally gave up on the book. And did I mention the writing is just bad? If there's anything good I can say here, other than the first story, it's that even bad books get published. I guess there's hope for a bunch of mediocre and bad writers out there--someone will read your crap.

I enjoyed this book of essays - funny, witty and well-written and seemingly non-fiction, they were quite entertaining. Perhaps not as funny as the King of the Essay, David Sedaris, but it was certainly still laugh-out-loud funny. It's a fun, easy read that definitely would appeal to fans of Sedaris and Burroughs. The only downside? It may make you want to start re-reading your favorite collection of essay once you have finished this one. I would definitely be interested to see what Crosley writes next!

Sloane Crosley reminds me of a female David Sedaris. She's funny, in the biting sense, and her stories really provoked a full-body laugh. Having just moved into the city, myself, and working in the publishing world, I feel a real connection to the hilarity behind Sloane's tales, and hope I have a less-rocky, albeit just as adventurous journey.

Like many other reviewers here, I was excited to read this book as Crosley's style had been compared to that of David Sedaris. I don't know know who's doing the comparing here, but they're dead wrong. Obviously Ms. Crosley believes it though, because she thinks she's hysterical. On the positive side, it's a great title for a book and the cover is pretty. With all the praise this title has been given, you probably won't believe me. But do yourself a favor and get it from the library--where it's easy to return.

This book was certainly good enough to finish, and at times it was very funny, but all in all it didn't pull me in the way a great book and voice does. One of the issues I had with it was that the essays were rather unfocused, covering so many topics at once that they often became like several essays in one, making the main topic and point of the essay nearly unidentifiable at times without looking at the title. This book was being recommended on the store along with David Sedaris and Chelsea Handler, and although generally well written and at times funny and insightful, it just isn't in the same category as those humorists. Perhaps if I had found it, not expecting it to be as funny as the authors it was associated it, I might have enjoyed it more. I also agree with one reviewer that although this book has very funny parts, it is not a "funny" book in general, and that is partly what I was expecting. The writing is good but needs polish. Let's she what she comes up with for her next book.

Sloane Crosley comes across as a very self-satisfied, spoiled, and judgmental. She's impossible to relate to and profoundly unlikeable.

As a writer, she's amatuerish to put it mildly. Unlike most of the people who gave this a low rating, I didn't go into this expecting for it to be funny, I only expected it to have some substance, skill or insight, which it did not.

This book of essays is not literary, it is nothing more than an unintentional example of how alienated, coddled and intellectually shallow our privileged youth are. She makes me embarrassed for my generation.

Well written, engaging stories that can leave you in stitches at times. This book was an amazing read! It was exactly the type of book I had been wanting to read, a memoir that wasn't depressing! Technically it is short stories, not a memoir, but it has a memoir feel to it. I skipped around in the book, reading different stories out of order. You don't have to read from one cover to the other. I have loaned the book to 3 friends already and they all loved it. If you like Janet Evanovich and her humorous interludes you will probably like this book.

Read this book!

After reading the chapter about working in publishing, I had hope but finished the book for lack of anything else available to read at the time. Maybe I know enough people that have followed a similar trajectory to her life that none of it was particularly interesting. Telling stories that put you in a less than perfect light aren't automatically funny. Maybe she'll be funnier when she has some distance from the time periods she writes about.

It would be interesting to find out the demographics of the people giving this book bad to moderate reviews. I'm guessing that most of them are not from the same generation as Sloane Crosley. So it's understandable if they cannot relate to her and the life experiences described in her essays. But just because THEY can't relate, doesn't mean this is a bad book or that Ms. Crosley is a bad writer, and it certainly doesn't mean that people should be leaving bad reviews. Ms. Crosley is not writing to that audience anyway.

If you DO happen to come from the same generation and background as the author (like myself), or just happen to have an appreciation for intelligent and witty writing, then I think you will find this book to be an incredibly engaging and interesting read far above the usual chick-lit fare. While I do agree that there were parts of the book I was expecting to be funnier, the chapters that did have me laughing outloud more than made up for it (The Ursula Cookie, You On A Stick, and Smell This -- to name a few). This book is definitely worth your time.

A female David Sedaris ? Nah, but pretty close. Written in the same vein as Sedaris, Crosley reflects on everything from her plastic pony collection to health scares. I was laughing throughout and could relate to a lot of what she had written. This is a good, mindless, "I need a laugh" book that will appeal to women.

The description grabbed my interest. Light, funny reading - this should be good, right?

Wrong. The prose itself is very good, but that couldn't save this book. There's a lot of boredom, whining, and pathetic bizarre situations. Instead of laughing, every few pages I thought "Why would anyone do that!?"

I got halfway through, not relating to anything, and not laughing at anything either. Never finished it.

I enjoyed some of these biographical stories more than others. Perhaps it was just the ones I could related to more? But, then again, a great short story draws you in no matter what the subject matter. Enjoyable, but, not my favorite anthology.

I created a disturbance on a flight from Minneapolis to Anchorage while reading this book. Laughed so hard and loud, then dissolved into sobs of laughter. Had intended for the book to last the duration of the Alaskan trip, but finished it far too early; could not put it down. Funny, hilarious, touching...name it, it's there. A wonderful read!

There are not enough funny essay collections like this one. If you like David Sedaris or Chelsea Handler or David Rakoff..then you will find something to enjoy in this book. There is an essay on the tedium of being a bridesmaid that had me literally laughing out loud. I have read and re-read it to myself and others. Still ridiculously funny. That single piece is worth the price of the book. The additional pieces are just added icing to the cake. I will look out for anything else Sloane Crosley writes.

I bought this book based on a recommendation by two coworkers. They compared her to David Sedaris and since I'm such a Sedaris fan, I thought "why not?" But Sloane Crosley isn't on the same playing field as Sedaris. Some of the stories were funny, but I wasn't left in stitches. I appreciate her writing style enough, but am frankly a bit tired of the "suburban girl takes on Manhattan (or another big city)" theme. It wasn't a total waste of time, and I can see that she may be a humor-writing force in the future... but I'm not yet convinced. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt for now.

This book is just awful. Yes, it is "well written" - clear descriptions, vivid characters - but the content is nothing less than horrifying. I read this book because I live in the area where many of the stories take place. I am embarrassed for the author. I think she just does not know any better, but her stories are crass and cruel. She tears apart the wedding of a "friend" of hers with no apology for her meanness. Don't expect clever observations or sweet memories in this book - just trashy recollections of a selfish, poorly raised young lady. She went for an interview - and got a job on September 12, 2001 IN NEW YORK CITY and defends herself by saying that "we didn't know until later how bad things were"! I am sure she is being truthful here. In Ms. Crosley's selfish world, the deaths of over 3,000 people in your own city would be meaningless as long as her life was not disrupted. As I read the book I wondered how the heck a publisher ever agreed to print this. I can only conclude that it must have been a favor owed to the author's family. Sad. There are so many wonderful authors writing creative stories about their lives, this stuff is just garbage (glad I borrowed it from the library instead of adding to the books' sales numbers!) Please do not compare this author to the imaginative folks named in other reviews (I don't even want to put their names in a review about Sloane Crosley) who write warm, loving and humorous tales about their lives....

This book was entertaining and kept my attention, but not actually funny. Maybe you have to live in New York City to get most of the jokes. She talks mostly about New York and her frustration and love of it. I did like the chapter about the Oregon Trail, but that was the only chapter where I was actually laughing.

If you spent your post-collegiate years in any major US city, you already lived through your own versions of most of Sloane Crosley's stories. Crosley picks a series of familiar and tedious premises and wraps them in her occasionally witty, but mostly not very incisive prose. Is this what passes for humor these days? Crosley comes across as your standard educated, privileged white kid trying to convince the reader that her life is more interesting than it is. This book has all the edge of plastic cutlery.

Entertaining yet flat, that's what I call Sloane Crosley's "I was told there'd be Cake." With an obvious knack for essays Crosley would've served her skills better with less forced humor and more depth through actual writing. Her style reminds me of the typical Vogue magazine column; good enough to sit through a visit at the hair salon -- not good enough for its own book.

Rebecca Lerwill is the ward-winning author of Relocating Mia and The Acronym - White Nights of St. Petersburg
Her reviews can be read on the store, Goodreads, Authorsden and Facebook.

Some writers can pull off self-indulgent storytelling; not this one. I don't understand why this book has gotten so much acclaim - it's not particularly well-written, it doesn't demonstrate an interesting voice, and the stories themselves are not engaging. I don't usually bother to write negative reviews, but to save someone else similar disappointment, I suggest maybe reading the first story - or at least a few pages - to see if you like the writing before you actually buy the book.

I quit on this early on - during the camp sequence. It just was not funny and rather whiny and very egocentric. Sarah Vowell in contrast puts a hilarious spin on interesting topics, which actually become informative. As does Bill Bryson, to name another. This book was really boring and I don't expect I'll try another.

Sloane Crosley is like a literary Tracy Ullman: Her ideas probably sound better in her head than they do in the presentation. It's not that she's a bad writer, but the stories are a little pedestrian. She thinks she's a female David Sedaris, but, well, she's not. Except for the pony story and a hilarious piece called "You On a Stick", most of the stories are just okay. Not bad, but certainly not great.

A friend loaned me this book, and I enjoyed every chapter. Sloane distills some topics with great insight. Her chapter on losing your wallet in New York and being a bride's maid were right on. The first chapter is by far the best, but the whole book is worth reading.

Life of a twenty-something in contemporary New York City must be a moveable feast, for there appear to be a plethora of books of non-fiction detailing all of the odd, amusing and not so amusing incidents of that way of life. I found it amazing that the author had so many different roommates, all of them male, and they almost were non-entities in the book. The incidents were chuckle-causing, and even though I'm way beyond the age of the author, I did enjoy the book very much, and perhaps with a bit of envy for a life I never led!