ISO Recommendations for Funny Books

[Annie]

It has been a fairly serious summer for me, so I want to read some light-hearted funny books.

Any recommendations! I will really appreciate it, as will those around me dealing with my currently gloomy self :hugs:

 

[dochawk]

It’s not a book, but I’ve been laughing my head off over the babylonbee.com the last couple of days.

Lighthearted satire, in a way that the onion hasn’t been for a very long time.

For lighthearted Christian reading, try finding a copy of The Little World of Don Camillo and the various Don Camillo books that follow it.

They are collections of stories, translated from Italian, that were actually Christian Democrat propaganda when the communists were a serious threat in Italy after the war. Don Camillo is a village priest, Peppone (?) the communist mayor, and these are short stories about them. Christ speaks to him from the crucifix on the altar.

 

[BartholomewB]

For lighthearted Christian reading, try finding a copy of The Little World of Don Camillo and the various Do Camillo books that follow it.

Yes, definitely. Very warm, very human. They’re the books that have been translated into more languages than any other Italian author with the sole exception of Dante.

Another suggestion: P. G. Wodehouse. For a start, try Pigs Have Wings.

 

[Annie]

I will have to try them; thank you !

I like the Babylon Bee as well

 

[Annie]

I love PG Wodehouse. But have not read many of the Blandings stories, definitely will get them! Thank you!

 

[Peeps]

My husband recommends The Princess Bride. I’ve never read it. He says it’s not slapstick funny, but kind of sophisticated humor.

My husband also recommends anything by Alan Dean Foster. Science fiction, but light-hearted.

I recommend the wonderful books by James Herriot about his years as a veterinarian in Yorkshire (Great Britain). The chapters in the books alternate between very dramatic (the advent of penicillin–my favorite chapter in all of his books!), very sad (when Debbie the mother cat dies), and hilarious, eye-watering, deep stomach laughter FUNNY–e.g., all of Dr. Herriot’s “courting” experiences with Helen, the woman who would eventually become his wife.

We have a ton of cartoon anthologies that are always fun to read. We especially love Calvin and Hobbes, the cartoons of Charles Adams, Herman anthologies, the Far Sides, Peanuts, Garfield, and Dilbert. I also have a pretty good collection of Bloom County–so funny! I love the storyline about “hunting liberals”–you can recognize their calls: “No nukes! No nukes!”

But there are plenty of other cartoon anthologies, and often these are available in large quantities from thrift stores for a cheap price.

I hope your “serious summer” wasn’t a sad summer, and hope your “gloomy self” can feel lighter in the coming days.

 

[Annie]

These sound like great recommendations!

I had forgotten about Charles Addams. My parents had a book of his, and I remember poring over it in my youth.

Maybe I will understand it better now

Thanks for asking about my summer. It had good points and bad points…

 

[Londoner]

Barney's Version

Before his brain began to shrink, Barney Panofsky clung…

www.goodreads.com

Absolutely hilarious, although I warn you that it takes a few dark and tragic turns as the story progresses. Single funniest line that I remember: “I have been in touch with Ismail ben Yussef, who you knew under his slave name, Cedric Richardson, …”

Adrian Mole - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I can’t testify to the level of humour of the later Adrian Mole books, but the early ones are very funny. I didn’t realise how funny they were until I re-read them as an adult:

Sunday January 11th

First after Epiphany

Now I know I am an intellectual. I saw Malcolm Muggeridge on the television last night, and I understood nearly every word. It all adds up. A bad home, poor diet, not liking punk. I think I will join the library and see what happens.

It is a pity there aren’t any more intellectuals living round here. Mr Lucas wears corduroy trousers, but he’s an insurance man. Just my luck.

The first what after Epiphany?

Decline and Fall

Expelled from Oxford for indecent behaviour, Paul Penny…

www.goodreads.com

 

[BartholomewB]

For instructive and enlightening online Catholic reading, there’s nothing quite like the Eccles blog:

Eccles is saved

This is the spiritual journey of me, Eccles, my big brother Bosco, and my Grate-Anti Moly. Eccles is saved, but we've got real problems with Bosco and Anti.

ecclesandbosco.blogspot.com

 

[on_the_hill]

Woody Allen’s “Without Feathers,” had me laughing so hard that I felt like I was choking at every single sentence.

 

[stpurl]

I like puns and ‘word humor’. As a teen I read many of Richard Armour’s books, “It all Started with Shakespeare”, "It all started with Columbus’ etc. Fractured history to the max, and hysterically funny. When I really need a laugh, I go right back to one of those and chortle.

 

[bluerose]

James Herriot’s books are the best! I have to re-read them all! I discovered him when I was a kid by finding condensed versions of his stories in my dad’s Reader’s Digests.

I also discovered:

Erma Bombeck: (need I say more?)
Patrick F. McManus: (in addition to his comic essays ranging from his childhood to his adult adventures, he also writes comic mysteries)
Neil Boyd: his “Bless Me, Father” series

 

[Tis_Bearself]

It really depends on the style of humor you like.

I have always laughed very hard at Erma Bombeck, particularly her earliest books like “At Wit’s End” and “Just Wait Till You Have Children of Your Own.” Peg Bracken is another writer from that era with a similar style. The humor comes off a little dated now because women’s roles have evolved, but it’s still written in a very funny style.

I also found the works of Betty MacDonald to be very funny, but they have come under fire in recent years because she wrote them in the 40s and 50s about her life in the first half of the 20th Century in the Seattle/ Puget Sound area and has been accused in recent years of racism for her unflattering descriptions of the local Native Americans as being alcoholics and worse. Some people also think her books were an attempt to put a happy face on her own turbulent life, which included an unhappy first marriage and a near-fatal bout of TB. To me she’s not that different from today’s edgy comedians who use their life experiences as material.

 

[Limoncello4021]

Dave Barry’s works are very funny.

 

[Peeps]

I like puns and ‘word humor’. As a teen I read many of Richard Armour’s books, “It all Started with Shakespeare”, "It all started with Columbus’ etc. Fractured history to the max, and hysterically funny. When I really need a laugh, I go right back to one of those and chortle.

I agree! It was Richard’s Armour’s “Twisted Tales from Shakespeare” that helped me to understand the Shakespearean plays that I started reading when I was in 6th grade (because my favorite actor at that time was a “Shakespearean” actor!

 

[dochawk]

I like the Babylon Bee as well

What it does so well that other parody sites rarely do is polish and add levels, rather than simply run a simple gag and throw more words on it.

For example, they have one in which an archeological dig in Rome found St. Peter’s “funny, pointy hat”, showing that it wasn’t a later development. But they didn’t stop there with the light needling of some Catholic excess, but then added that this had dismayed many Protestants who were convinced that he went about in Hawaiian shirts

On Don Camillo . . . in one memorable scanned, he’s trying to convince Christ that politics are important, and explains that there are the churches supporters (Christian Democrats), sympathizers (I forget), and opponents (Communists). The unimpressed Christ asks something like, “So we let the supporters in heaven, send the Communists to hell, and the others to Purgatory?”

Richard Armour’s “It all Started with Europa” was also a blast. Iirc, it’s the one that explains that the huns sacked Rome in 410–beating the prior record by several second

Not humor, but nearly anything by Fr. Andrew Greeley (mostly murder mysteries, but two SF books as well) has a strong but comfortable Catholic background and feel to it.

I thought that Erma Bombeck was funny even before I had kids of my own . . . (and definitely bought a house without a septic tank . . .)

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I loved Erma’s books so much, I visited her grave last year and prayed for her and Bill.

 

[Annie]

I want to quickly thank everyone! So many great suggestions!

More tomorrow, with @ so everyone will be notified