When Sloane Crosley learned that Steve Martin had offered to write a blurb for her latest book, she felt as if “somebody was pranking me. I read it again and again — not out of vanity but disbelief.’’

In “Look Alive Out There,’’ Crosley’s third collection of essays, she writes about everything from advanced reproductive technology to dealing with the neighbor from hell: the kind of off-kilter situations that are much funnier to read about than, presumably, to live through. Like the humor writers she admires — from Dorothy Parker to David Sedaris — Crosley’s work is the result of a keen eye and startling honesty. “I walk around with a sort of mix of lighthearted wonder and deep weariness about the world,’’ she said. “Somehow the Venn diagram of that is where the essays live.’’

Crosley is aware that recent events may have made many readers more world weary than ever. “I handed this book in the day after the election in 2016,’’ she said, “with a little note saying, ‘Today will not be the worst day. Today will now be the day I handed my book in.’ ’’

She rejects the notion that humor must, in a time of turmoil, choose between escapism and hardcore political satire. “You’re still allowed your scowling and your skepticism and your hilarious daily infractions,’’ Crosley said. “You’re allowed to be annoyed about other things. It’s part of being human.’’

Asking us to notice what it feels like to be human is what makes humor work, and it’s also why writing that’s funny can be sad at the same time. While reading aloud for the audiobook edition, Crosley found that her voice “cracked a little bit’’ when she got to the book’s final essay, in which she writes about freezing her eggs. “They asked me if I wanted to do it again,’’ she said, “and I told them to leave it in.’’

Crosley will read at 7 p.m. Monday at Harvard Book Store.

Kate Tuttle, president of the National Book Critics Circle, can be reached at kate.tuttle@gmail.com.