How Did You Get This Number (2010)

Sloane Crosley's follow-up to 2008's I Was Told There'd Be Cake offers up more of her singular optimism and wit. From her language-barrier adventures with Portuguese clowns to the absurdity of confessing, as a Jew, in Paris' Notre Dame, Crosley writes with such buoyancy that it's easy to forgive the collection's weaker pieces. (Her musings on the pets of her youth make for a saggy middle.) In How Did You Get This Number self-deprecating humor is her weapon of choice, but Crosley's final essay, ''Off the Back of a Truck,'' in which she interconnects a painful breakup with the purchase of stolen furniture, shows a depth that's every bit as enjoyable as the full-on belly laughs. B+

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