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Topic: Recommendations for Funny Books?  (Read 7031 times)

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Recommendations for Funny Books?
« on: June 20, 2009, 10:57:18 PM »
I need some funny books and have read all the books by my favourite funny authors. I want something with an actual storyline. Any recommendations?

Authors I love that are humorous and have read all their books:
Marian Keyes (except for her most recent one, which is about death, so is out)
Sophie Kinsella (and all her books as Madeleine Wickham)
Carl Hiassen
Wendy Markham
Jennifer Weiner

Please nothing cancer at all. I could do death in a humerous book if it's a quick murder, but no slow dying, nothing looking down from heaven, and no cancer whatsoever, not even a joke about it.

Thanks! It's a tough order, but I really need some humorous books!



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Re: Recommendations for Funny Books?
« Reply #1 on: June 20, 2009, 11:08:44 PM »
Do they have to be modern? I notice that the authors you named are all contemporary. I kind of prefer older books, so for starters I'll recommend a few of my very favourites:

The Mapp and Lucia books by EF Benson
The Provincial Lady books by EM Delafield
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (or pretty much anything by Oscar Wilde)

I'll try and come up with more later!
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Re: Recommendations for Funny Books?
« Reply #2 on: June 20, 2009, 11:12:35 PM »
Don't have to be modern, those just happen to be the ones I've read.  :)


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Re: Recommendations for Funny Books?
« Reply #3 on: June 20, 2009, 11:23:51 PM »
Autobiography of a Fat Bride by Laurie Notaro
Bitter is the New Black and Such a Pretty Fat by Jen Lancaster
Broke Diaries by ??
My Horizontal Life by Chelsea Handler


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Re: Recommendations for Funny Books?
« Reply #4 on: June 20, 2009, 11:27:31 PM »
I second Laurie Notaro - she is hilarious!  Very funny.  What about David Sedaris?


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Re: Recommendations for Funny Books?
« Reply #5 on: June 20, 2009, 11:28:48 PM »
How about something by PG Wodehouse?  I find him sidesplitting.  Or James Thurbur?  Dorothy Parker?  

For something along the same lines as Marian Keyes and Sophie Kinsella, I really like Jenny Colgan.
On s'envolera du même quai
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Pour cette vie et celle d'après
Tu seras mon unique projet.

Je t'aimais, je t'aime, et je t'aimerai.

--Francis Cabrel


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Re: Recommendations for Funny Books?
« Reply #6 on: June 20, 2009, 11:51:59 PM »
How about something by PG Wodehouse?  

YES!!!!
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Re: Recommendations for Funny Books?
« Reply #7 on: June 21, 2009, 02:55:41 PM »
Douglas Adams!!
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Re: Recommendations for Funny Books?
« Reply #8 on: June 21, 2009, 03:55:52 PM »


I absolutely loved this book-laughed the whole way through it :)  Don't be fooled by the title-it isn't overly religious :)
Even after all this time the sun never says to the Earth "You owe me."
Look what happens with a love like that, it lights the whole sky.
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Re: Recommendations for Funny Books?
« Reply #9 on: June 21, 2009, 04:45:35 PM »
I strongly second the Douglas Adams recommendation! :)

Also, if you're at all interested in fantasy, then Terry Pratchett is a must.  Don't let the fact that most of his novels are part of the Discworld series scare you; many of them stand alone quite well, and even if you pick one that's more of a 'series' book, it's very easy to jump in at any point.  You don't have to worry about being lost if you start in the middle.

Other comic fantasy authors I can recommend are Tom Holt, Christopher Moore (probably closest in style to the authors you listed) & Jasper Fforde.


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Re: Recommendations for Funny Books?
« Reply #10 on: June 21, 2009, 05:19:07 PM »
Oh also Tom Robbins! Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates is one of my favorites. Totally funny, bizarre and interesting!
I'm done moving. Unrepatriated back to the UK, here for good!

Angels are made out of Coffee Beans, Noodles, and Carbon.

http://flyingnunns.blogspot.com
http://coffeebeancards.etsy.com


Re: Recommendations for Funny Books?
« Reply #11 on: June 21, 2009, 08:17:03 PM »
David Sedaris always has me rolling!


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Re: Recommendations for Funny Books?
« Reply #12 on: June 21, 2009, 09:56:23 PM »
Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies.  Seriously.  It is beyond funny!  Best if you have read the original, though.

And I will third PG Wodehouse!  Very funny stuff!
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Re: Recommendations for Funny Books?
« Reply #13 on: June 22, 2009, 12:18:53 AM »
I third Douglas Adams and give a HUGE second to Jasper Fforde.  I absolutely love him.  Sheer genius. 
On s'envolera du même quai
Les yeux dans les mêmes reflets,
Pour cette vie et celle d'après
Tu seras mon unique projet.

Je t'aimais, je t'aime, et je t'aimerai.

--Francis Cabrel


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Re: Recommendations for Funny Books?
« Reply #14 on: June 22, 2009, 08:33:15 AM »
DH and I are big fans of humorous travel logs - stuff like Bill Bryson, we both liked the Driving over Lemons series (not ha ha belly laughs funny, but amusing & interesting), and Tim Moore's Spanish Steps: One Man and His Ass on a Pilgrimage to Santiago was a good one too!
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in...

- from Anthem, by Leonard Cohen (b 1934)


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