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Carly's avatar

Can you recommend a recent fictional book you laughed out loud with while reading?

Asked by Carly (4555points) March 14th, 2011

I’ve noticed that the books I read have great influence on my mood, and the past few years I’ve only read depressing works of fiction. I need something interesting, something witty, something that will seriously make me laugh.

Any suggestions?

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34 Answers

kenmc's avatar

Everything Matters!! by Ron Currie Jr. It’s a laugh, cry, cringe, & squeal kind of book.

sliceswiththings's avatar

Don Quixote! Go with the classics! It’s truly way ahead of its time.

Pied_Pfeffer's avatar

Standing in the Rainbow by Fannie Flagg was a fun read. It’s a G-rated novel with humor and intrigue. It’s also available on CD.

augustlan's avatar

Just about anything from Carl Hiaasen. You could also check out David Sedaris… not exactly fiction, but funny nonetheless. WARNING: May be offensive to some readers.

BarnacleBill's avatar

Jean Shepherd’s Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden Memories or In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash. He wrote A Christmas Story.

Ian Frazier’s Dating Your Mom, a collection of short stories which includes Coyote v. Acme.

Stella Gibbon’s Cold Comfort Farm

I second Carl Hiaasen

12Oaks's avatar

The Spellman Files, and the three that followed.

flutherother's avatar

Leave it to Psmith by P J Wodehouse. ( The ā€˜pā€™ is silent as in pshrimp)

Austinlad's avatar

I love Wodehouse, too. Haven’t read them for a long time, but his Jeeves series is hilarious.
Also Damon Runyon’s stuff.

Michael_Huntington's avatar

Not recent, but I laughed at Fight Club.

lucillelucillelucille's avatar

They’re not recent by any means,but Mark Twain’s stories get me every time.:)

Austinlad's avatar

Another author who never fails to make me laugh is A.J. Liebling. Also Woody Allen’s books.

MacBean's avatar

That’s P.G. Wodehouse. His stuff always cheers me up when I’m in a mood. Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series works for me, too.

flutherother's avatar

@MacBean Sorry, P G (for Grenville) Wodehouse

WasCy's avatar

Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris. I laughed more the second time I read it.

incendiary_dan's avatar

Any of the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett.

theninth's avatar

“Good Omens” by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” (the first one in the inaccurately named trilogy) by Douglas Adams. “Happyslapped by a Jellyfish” and “An Idiot Abroad” by Karl Pilkington.

aprilsimnel's avatar

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer (deceased) and Annie Barrows. Came out in 2008.

This is a “girlier” book than I usually read, but it’s a really funny and touching epistolary novel about how people in England kept calm and carried on during WWII, and how they recovered in the aftermath.

WasCy's avatar

I liked that one, too, @aprilsimnel. But I’m a member of a mostly-female book club, and read a lot of “more feminine” books than I normally might have otherwise. And I’m okay with that.

marinelife's avatar

Any P.G. Wodehouse Bertie and Jeeves novel is laugh-out-loud funny!

WillWorkForChocolate's avatar

Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie is absolutely hilarious. So are Bet Me and Trust Me on This. Those are my favorites, but every single one of her books makes me laugh out loud.

flutherother's avatar

Bill the Galactic Hero by Harry Harrison is hilarious.

Begeara's avatar

Hitchhikers Guide To the Galaxy written by Douglas Adams. This book is brilliantly witty and hilarious. :D

SpatzieLover's avatar

I second @augustlan‘s suggestion for David Sedaris. Even on a re-read, I can’t control myself from bursting out with laughter.

Personally when I need a good laugh I get out one of my Gary Larson books and wonder how his brain works ;D

Rarebear's avatar

John Scalzi, The Android’s Dream.

VS's avatar

If you want a good laugh, please read “The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood”. You may have already seen the movie, but there was TONS of hilarious stuff left out of the movie and really, one of the funniest scenes I have ever read in any book anywhere, was in that book.

Hawaii_Jake's avatar

I very recently finished Fool by Christopher Moore, and it made me laugh out loud often.

GoJessGo's avatar

Any of the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich. They are so funny and bright!

janbb's avatar

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.
Nobody’s Fool by Richard Russo.

WasCy's avatar

Just about anything by Augusten Burroughs. He wrote Running With Scissors, which was far better as a book than as a movie. He writes short stories and novels, and they’re all wickedly funny and amazingly well written before I even say ‘for a high-school dropout’. He’s tremendously talented and acidly funny. What made me think of him in particular was @kenmc‘s description of a book as a “laugh, cry, cringe and squeal” kind of book.

MacBean's avatar

@hawaii_jake Oh, man, I can’t believe I forgot to mention Christopher Moore. A Dirty Job was wonderful.

optimisticpessimist's avatar

I do not have time to read a lot lately, but I enjoyed The Road to Gandolfo and the sequel The Road to Omaha written by Robert Ludlum (under the pen name Michael Shephard). They are comic adventure stories unlike his other novels.

CWOTUS's avatar

On the off chance than anyone is still watching this thread:

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Buddy by Christoper Moore is hilariously funny in some places, slyly funny in others, touching in many and thoughtful in all. And (speaking as an atheist) it did not appear to be overtly blasphemous – but it does portray Christ as a more-nearly-regular-man with a few super-powers and that odd genesis of his.

nebule's avatar

Oh… you have to read “A Man called Ove” It is hilariously funny but also poignant and tragic at the same time…an absolutely awesome piece of writing! Had me laughing and crying!!

flutherother's avatar

This is guaranteed to make you laugh though it isn’t fiction.

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