Top Ten Tuesday: April 19
Ten Books That Will Make You Laugh (or at least chuckle)
(Top Ten Tuesday concept and topic thanks to The Broke and the Bookish)
The Hitchhiker’s Guide series by Douglas Adams
The ultimate funny book. If you don’t laugh your way through these, we can’t be friends.
Emma by Jane Austen
All of Austen’s works are essentially comedies. Some are lighter and funnier than others, but Emma wins for the best use of free indirect discourse to make us laugh at Emma’s cluelessness (see what I did there?). It's also the novel that contains both Miss Bates and Mrs. Elton, two of the most ridiculous—yet believable—characters I’ve ever seen in print.
Texts from Jane Eyre by Mallory Ortberg
Ortberg takes literary figures, real and imagined, and creates a series of text conversations that capture each character perfectly. The humor is wry and so sharp you could cut yourself. It gives you the kind of chuckles that come from being in with the inside joke.
Dad is Fat by Jim Gaffigan
Jim Gaffigan is one of my favorite comedians. Dad is Fat is mostly about adventures in marriage and trying to survive five (six? I forget) children. Cutesy family comedy is not usually my style, but Gaffigan nails it with his delivery.
Adulthood is a Myth by Sarah Andersen
Maybe not laugh out loud funny, but if you’ve ever been young and anxious, Andersen’s cartoons will make you chuckle in recognition.
Moranththology by Caitlin Moran
Caitlin Moran is not “classy” and that’s why I like her. She has a great eye for absurdity and a loud, unapologetic style that makes you laugh while you cringe at the embarrassing things she (constantly) does.
Bitch in a Bonnet by Robert Rodi
Rodi captures all of the meanest, sharpest edges of Jane Austen’s writing and adds plenty of his own snark in this book dedicated to “reclaiming Jane Austen from the stiffs, the snobs, the simps and the saps.”
Rat Queens series of comics by Kurtis J. Wiebe
This series about a fearsome foursome of badass lady mercenaries manages to be hilarious and unapologetically adult without sacrificing character for laughs.
The Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger
It’s touted as steampunk adventure, which is true, but at it’s heart it’s a British comedy of manners that just happens to be populated with vampires, werewolves, and steam-powered whatsits.
The Bertie & Jeeves novels and stories by PG Wodehouse
The Classic of Classics in 20th century British comedy. Just like with Hitchhiker’s Guide, I can’t deal with anyone who doesn’t laugh at Bertie Wooster and his faithful Jeeves.
