Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish (click the link to visit them) who pick a different topic each week.
This week the topic is…Top Ten Books to Make you Laugh
- A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon: I found this book really funny as well as bittersweet and slightly heartbreaking. George was darkly hilarious without meaning to be.
“George Hall doesn’t understand the modern obsession with talking about everything. ‘The secret of contentment, George felt, lay in ignoring many things completely.”
- Mystery Man & Dan Starkey by Colin Bateman: I feel like I’ve talked about Bateman’s books too much on this blog since I started it, but it’s impossible not to include both of his hilarious series on this list. They are black humor at its best. I did a whole feature on it here. And, Dan Starkey is a feckless journalist who finds himself in ridiculously stupid yet very sticky situations, constantly! [Review]
“Serial Killer Week got off to an inauspicious start when the opening wine and bean evening was invaded by a former prisoner who misinterpreted the poster, but he was at least able to give us the professional’s view of the genre.”
- The Gates by John Connolly: Samuel Johnson and his dachshund, Boswell are a hilarious duo in John Connolly’s book about demon neighbours, portals, and the Large Hadron Collider.
- Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy: A sarcastic skeleton detective and a girl who kicks ass…what more could you want?
- Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins: Pitched as ‘Legally Blonde meets The Terminator’, this book was full of genuine laughs and also laughs from the ridiculousness of it. In a good way. It was a lot of fun. [Review]
- The Madwoman Upstairs by Catherine Lowell: I absolutely loved this book. I don’t think it was supposed to be a comedy so to speak but protagonist Samantha Whipple really made me laugh. [Review]
- Horns by Joe Hill: I’m not really sure why I found this book funny, but I did. It was pretty dark and twisted but the protagonist’s reaction to what was happening to him was amusing. [Review]
- The Martian by Andy Weir: Mark Watney provides some much needed humor in this book about one man stranded on Mars. [Review]
“If I could have anything, it would be a radio to ask NASA the safe path down the Ramp. Well, if I could have anything, it would be for the green-skinned yet beautiful Queen of Mars to rescue me so she can learn more about this Earth thing called ‘lovemaking’.”
- I am the Messenger by Marcus Zusak: It’s been a long time since I read this one so I can’t remember it in great detail, but I do remember that I loved Ed Kennedy’s self-deprecating sense of humor in it and that it made me laugh.