Books that make me LOL are few and far between. I LOVE them, so I hate it that they’re so rare.
On the other hand, their scarceness makes them all the more special!
I’ve included fiction and non-fiction in this list. They’re the tastiest little nuggets of literary fare. I could eat them all at once.
Books that made me laugh
- Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman (I’m a sucker for a quirky character!)
- A Man Called Ove by Frederik Backman (Love-love-love this man named Ove, but not so much in the movie version. If you’ve only seen the movie, I’m sad for you.)
- The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion (I obviously have a thing for quirky main characters. I kind of love them in real life too.)
- The Hundred-Year-Old Man who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson (This book really tickled me. It’s like a senior citizen version of Forrest Gump.)
- Walking Across Egypt by Clyde Edgerton (I love Edgerton’s books. This one has a scene about getting out of a chair that I will never forget!)
- Dave Barry’s Book of Bad Songs by Dave Barry (I was given this book during a time I really needed to laugh more. Then again, when don’t I need to laugh more?)
- Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns (The voice! Oh, the voice! I wish Olive Ann was still around.)
- Letters From a Nut by Ted L. Nancy (Or maybe by Jerry Seinfeld?)
- At Wit’s End by Erma Bombeck (She’s my hero!)
- Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg (So down-to-earth and real.)
- Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple (this is a movie, but I haven’t seen it)
- Woman Last Seen in Her Thirties by Camille Pagan (I’m not exactly sure which of Pagan’s novels tickled me the most. I think it’s this one!)
- Reasons to Be Cheerful by Nina Stibbe (I love the title! That alone makes me want to read it. Plus, it was the winner of the 2019 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction. So, there’s that.)
- The Wangs vs. The World by Jade Chang (It is compared to Little Miss Sunshine, which is a movie I adore. And, how often to you get to use the word “adore?”)
- A Calling for Charlie Barnes by Joshua Ferris (I’m not sure how LOL this one will be, but I’m intrigued by the phrase “brutally funny” used in the description.)
- Grown Ups by Marian Keyes (A shroud of perfection unraveling? What’s not to laugh at?)
- Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh (Satire about bright, young, rich people almost always makes me smile. Plus, I’m so proud that I know how to pronounce Evelyn’s name (ee-vhuln) that I’m going to read it so that I’ll have an opportunity to work it into a conversation!)
- Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons (I loved this movie, but have never read the book. And you know what they say…)
- The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse (this is on here just because I’ve never read a Wodehouse and I feel like I should.)
- The Princess Bride S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure by William Goldman (I love the movie, and Goldman is a brilliant writer.)
- Big Trouble by Dave Barry (Barry tickles my funny bone.)
- Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man by Fannie Flagg (This, according to a review I read at some point in time, is funnier than Fried Green Tomatoes!)
More ideas…
David Sedaris is pretty funny, too. I’ve read plenty of his essays, but I haven’t read any of his books. Which one would you recommend I read first?
I’m staring out at a gray sky right now, and it’s making me want to order every book on my LOL-TBR list! Please share some of your favorite funny books. My word, we’re still living with all this Covid stress, not to mention the month of February and its certain gray-ness (Plus, it might be my least favorite month. And, yes, I’m aware we celebrate Valentine’s Day in February. Still…) We need a break from bleak!
So, come on…Share the smiles!
Tracey Buchanan
Let me know if you find any as good as those first three! Not enough humor in literature if you ask me!
Karen Jackson
I loved your first three. The Rosie Project had a sequel that was good too. Thanks for the recommendations
Paulette Petty
I’ve loved Erma Bombeck back in the day. One of her books/ columns is If Life is a Bowl of Cherries, why am I in the Pits?
Dave Barry was at one time funnier than he is now, I think. The last column I read by him seemed a little more political than in a previous time. Maybe not.
Tracey Buchanan
Erma Bombeck could always make me laugh. Wish she was still around!