The blurb in the June '08 Goodreads newsletter described this as "evocative of David Sedaris and Sarah Vowell"... a statement like that is guaranteed to grab the attention of all die-hard This American Life fans.

Great book. It was smart, witty, and full of dry humor (which isn't for everyone). I accidentally left it at my parents house after visiting one weekend. Later, my mother called me - unable to speak she was laughing so hard - because the book reminded her so much of me. ( )

Wonderful essays. It's blurbed as being like Sedaris and Vowell. It is, in that it's urban, smart, and witty. I'd say she's a bit more personal than Vowell, who keeps falling in love with Puritans or presidents. The title sounds like fluff, but she's harder on herself than that -- this isn't a cupcake book. That said, it is very funny. Like it a lot. ( )

This book was interesting. I kept waiting for it to make me laugh out loud, like David Sedaris or Laurie Notaro, but it was more of a quietly clever read.

Sloan Crosley is definitely a talented writer, and I think if my expectations had been more realistic going into this book I would have given it a 4.5. Her essays were clever and there are several turns of phrase that were impressive. But it also felt a little like listening in on one of her therapy sessions.

I would recommend this book to anyone in their mid 20's. Or anyone trying to relate to young women in their mid 20's. I know that's kind of a generic recommdation, but I think that's the target group for this book. ( )

The author tells of her own growing pains and relationships with family and friends as she enters the world of business. ( )

It's not just that these essays are narcissistic in the sense of being mind-numbingly self-focused, they're also, to be frank, pointless. The successful modern essayist tells us a story about their life that ends up opening our eyes to something about our own. Sloane crosley's stories never came close to leaving her own self-centered bubble, and not even very interestingly then. I gave it two stars rather than one because she does write well, in the sense of having a clever turn of phrase and good grammar skills. But I heartily recommend *not* reading this; it wasn't worth the two days it took me to get through it. ( )

Sloane Crosley can certainly turn a phrase, and since we're so close in age we share some experiences, making these short stories easy to read. Unfortunately they a little too easy to read -- nothing new to learn, no challenges to any of my currently held perceptions, no suspense, growth, or tension to be had. The essays are also so self-focused (and not in an entertaining Woody Allen or David Sedaris manner) that I started to feel like I was reading someone's blog, and then I wandered off to the read the blog of someone I actually knew, and the book gradually made its way to the "return to library" pile without any intervention from me. ( )

uneven some stories great others really awful. Didn't finish. ( )

I couldn't get through this. The first story was hilarious. It was worth 2 stars on its own. Maybe I should have soldiered on and read the third selection. Oh well. Too many books to read, too little time. ( )

http://www.fnordinc.com/2009/06-15/bo...

“I was told there’d be cake”

Sloane Crosley.. we had such high hopes for you.

reading your pony story in radar, it seemed that reading your book was an awesome idea. if something makes you smile that much and it is only a single chapter from a book.. the rest MUST be excellent… right?

no. couldn’t have been more wrong.

when this book was first purchased, i was very pleased to read the pony story again. i imagined with horror the looks your family would give, when stumbling across your plastic pony corral in the kitchen drawer.

chapter 2 and three were some of the most unappealing collections of vowels and consonants i have read in ages. frankly, your book bored me so much, that after three chapters, i put it down and decided to forget about it, altogether.

something like a year has gone past. i felt a bit bad for you. on a sad and pathetic whim, i said “give sloane another chance.. she did make you laugh once.. perhaps she could do it again” i have been wrong in the past. i have read part of a book, been bored, picked it back up and had a better experience with a different mind set.

this was not the case with “i was told there’d be cake”. every single chapter was filled with bland anecdotes and sprawling in-effective prose. each story waddles back and forth like a drunken semi-retarded penguin, straying from topic to topic in a shoot from the hip manner.. but with a drunken semi-retarded penguin instead of a cowboy.. heh.. waddle… you are left staring at the pages wishing you had SOMETHING else to do. it took me two weeks to drag my ass through this book, opting to talk to strangers on public transit in an effort to distract myself..

this book is “too shy” by kajagoogoo.. the first chapter is sloane’s one hit wonder. everything else in between front and back cover is nothing but filler hoping beyond hope to become a cult hit or the elusive and desired “deep cut”..

in my view, you failed.

what you did well? you market things.. you book was pushed in a phenomenal manner. marketing is definitely your thing.. i have heard so many people talking about their interest in your collection of essays. unfortunately, none of them had read it before spouting off about it.

the thing i regret the most is the awful feeling i get when people i know are found with this in there hands and the disappointed look in their eyes.

leave the writing to the monkeys who are recreating Shakespeare on typewriters ( )

Crosley wrote about experiences or ideas that we can all find similarities to in our own lives or make connections to other things. However, one thing that definitely drove me nuts was how the author tended to jump around and move between various topics within one essay - sometimes being completely unrelated. Despite that, as someone who doesn't read very much non-fiction, It was one that I actually came to enjoy! Two of my favorite essays were "One Night Bounce" and
"Pony Problem." ( )

I'm never sure what to expect when I read non-fiction. Sometimes it can be extremely dry, sometimes it can be warm and sometimes it can be a lot of fun. In the book, I Was Told There'd Be Cake, Sloane Crosley shares moments in her life through a series of essays.

I enjoyed the book for the most part. I read it fairly quickly and read some of it out loud to various friends and family. The author does not portray herself as a warm and fuzzy person which caused the stories to lack emotion. I'm sure that she is a perfectly nice person but I found myself wondering how she really felt in the situations she described. That was lacking for me.

I also was looking for more of a timeline but since these were essays on her life, and not a straight memoir, I understood the reason for it. I'm just a very linear person. All in all, it's a good read. I recommend it to those who enjoy reading David Sedaris or Jen Lancaster. I find Ms. Crosley to fit between the two. Not as jaded as Sedaris and not as funny as Lancaster. ( )

CURRENTLY READING ( )

Good book of essays by New Yorker Sloane Crosley. Not many laugh out loud moments, but it was a funny read. ( )

Funny and wry. Makes me wish that I had figured out a way to write about my relatively normal Westchester upbringing and career in book publishing. Now that's been done. Sigh. ( )

If you're making an "authors to watch" list, I sincerely hope you add Sloane Crosley to it. I picked this up on a whim as a result of a Borders "buy one get one half off" deal. It was certainly worth the purchase, because what I received was an introduction to a delightful new voice. At first, I thought of her as somewhat reminiscent of David Sedaris (only in the form of a twenty-something straight female living in New York), but she didn't seem to be cannibalizing family and friends to the degree that Sedaris does. Of course, then I kept reading and found that she does, indeed, draw heavily on her family and friends, but not quite in the same way. Perhaps we should give her time on that one, though.

By far, my favorite story was the very first one, "The Pony Problem," in which Crosley touches upon a fear that I myself have felt. (Indeed, the book is full of moments that feel familiar, but then, I'm also a twenty-something straight female living in New York.) She describes the fear that many New Yorkers have (though really, I don't see why it should be such a New York thing) of leaving our apartments in disarray because there is the chance that we could wind up dead... thus leaving our friends and family with this visual of our messy, cluttered apartment. But it's more than that. Everyone has something stashed in their apartment that they might not want a parent to find. (See the TV show Coupling for the definition of "porn buddy.") And for Sloane Crosley, this comes in the form of a drawer full of plastic ponies. During the course of her adult life, she has acquired several plastic ponies as a result of a nervous tic like joke that she makes, and her significant others misinterpret it as a unique joke between them... except it happens with every single one.

Also delightful in all its painful glory is "The Ursula Cookie" where Crosley talks about her time as an assistant in terms of an abusive relationship. And if that's not enough, it gets even worse when in one of those "it seemed like a good idea at the time" moments, she bakes and decorates a cookie to look like her boss's head... and makes a present of it.

I found Crosley to be delightfully funny and quite enchanting. I shall be recommending this as a quick read to many of my girlfriends... or perhaps I'll simply save it and give it to everyone for their birthdays. ( )

Obviously, I couldn’t resist to a book with “cake” in the title!

This collection of essays presents with humor various moments in the life of the author, from her first job to her conception of sex as a kid. When a book makes me laugh out loud, it’s usually a good sign, and this book succeeded on this point. I laughed many times, some times at the events, sometimes because I could relate so easily to them.

When I started reading “I was told there’d be cake”, I was left uncertain about the first few essays. Fortunately though, I found many essays to be funny enough to keep reading. Certain topics are typical of this kind of books: (unsuccesful) attempts at one-night stands, childhood summers in religious camps, etc. Fortunately, there are also more original essays, like “Smell this” where she finds out someone left “a perfect, cherry-sized turd” on her bathroom carpet, or “You on a stick”, where she is invited to a friend’s wedding she hasn’t seen in years. Finally, I had a special appreciation for “Lay like brocoli”, an essay that tells us her journey to the vegan world, anc back.

The book is a quick read and overall very enjoyable. I enjoyed it enough to give it a 4 stars rating, but I though it lacked a little something. I wish the essays would go a little deeper. Often, I felt like the last sentence was meant to explain to the reader what the whole essay meant to her, while I wish this could have been included more in the story. ( )

At times while I was reading this I simply could not contain myself and laughed out loud. As the bulk of my reading is done on public transportation, I was gauked at quite a few times...but I didn't care. I grabbed this book one day on my way out the door...I had no idea what it was, what a plesant surprise it turned out to be. ( )

This collection of essays is uneven—laugh-out-loud funny at times, at others dull. ( )

I just loved this collection of essays, probably because Crowley is close to my own age and writes about experiences I could easily relate to. My favorite essay was the one she wrote about Oregon Trail, a classic computer game most of my generation grew up playing in middle school. Crowley has a lot of spunk and wit that comes out in her writing and I thoroughly enjoyed her insights. ( )

Oh, how I expected to like this book. Maybe that was part of my problem with it.

When a book is built upon the everyday experiences of a narrator, the reader had better like the narrator, or at least feel connected to one of the characters. Unfortunately, sympathetic characters are about as scarce as New York City references are plentiful in Crosley's essays.

Crosley is certainly a talented writer and there were many nice moments throughout this collection. I felt that her essay about failed volunteering, "Sign Language for Infidels," particularly resonated with me. As someone of the same generation of the author I also enjoyed the many early '90s references and the fact that there was an entire essay devoted to the Oregon Trail -- which was the introduction to computer time-wasting for many of today's young professionals.

But, aside from these references to the touchstones of my generation, the narrator was very difficult for this reader to relate to. For this West Coaster, it was exhausting to read again and again about why New Yorkers are different than any other people (I'm fairly certain that imagining -- and fearing -- your loved ones sifting through your belongings after your untimely death is a daydream not exclusive to residents of the Big Apple).

It's even more exhausting to follow a narrator who seems to meander through life uncertainly and unconnected to those around her. I suppose I wanted more for the Sloane in the essays -- I wanted her to find some relationship that meant something to her. I wanted her to find anything that meant something to her. When those rare moments happened, I was charmed. When they more often didn't -- I felt I was left wanting.

In all, a collection of somewhat deadened essays by a smart and witty writer. ( )

Essays of a self absorbed YUPPY ( )

Didn't like; didn't finish. Not as entertaining as I'd expected. ( )

Finish a thought already!!
I so wanted to like this book. I am an obsessive fan of David Sedaris and when I read in one of the critics’ comments that she is comparable to his writing style I thought for sure I had a winner. Furthermore, one of my dearest friends told me that when she read this book, it was my voice she had pictured in her head. Perfect! Let the laughing begin.
Wrong.
With the exception of a few snigger-worthy moments, this book is just a compilation of endless brain tangents. She’ll start the telling of one story and just as you think it’s going to amount to something, she completely digresses into some random musing. What you end up with is a series of diluted, and truthfully, very boring self deprecating yarns.
Very disappointing.
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Suggested With: A Long Island Ice Tea (it’s in line with the constant references to New York and it’ll help you find humor in the mundane) ( )

Very, very funny. Crosley lives in New York and tells, in a series of essays, what it's like to be a young woman (born 1978) living in the culture of that city. Hers is a fresh voice. She covers a variety of topics, but my favorite involved the day she moved (and was locked out twice), and her participation in the wedding of a friend she hardly knew. Oh yes! And the investigation that ensued when a dinner guest left a surprise on her bathroom floor. ( )