How Did You Get This Number

Flower do you need a laugh?


I can help with that. Read How Did You Get This Number. You will laugh my friend. There the problem is solved. What a nice friend I am. Anything else I can do for you? Want me to explain nuclear fission? Why my sister cannot apologize? Finish up a few lingering trigonometry problems?

Laughing through author Sloane Crosley's embarrassments, adventures and complaints is such a load off for the rest of us. Now we can relax about public mishaps, venting inappropriately about friends and family, our wondering at the strangeness of the world and the general humiliations of life. Crosley has surveyed/survived the territory and has taken it all on the chin for you and me. She has taken the pressure off. What a pal.

Crosley's previous collection of essays, I Was Told There Would Be Cake is a tough act to follow but How Did You Get This Number does the job. I don't usually read books that people tell me will make me laugh because in my experience they almost never make me smile let alone laugh. No so with both of these collections. Not only is Crosley funny and a good writer but she's friendly too. There are no snotty pretensions here. She isn't looking at the world from a self centered hipster view point. Reading Number was like getting to be Rhoda while Mary tells you about her day. There is a chunk and a half of things you are going to laugh at and some sweetness and understanding that you will savor.

One more thing. Often you see the word 'wry' flung about when essays are described with the same abandon that the word 'multi-layered' is used when describing a novel you can read either (but I hope both) of Crosley's books with out fear of wry.

Happier.