Laugh-out-loud funny books
Between pandemic stress and geopolitical angst, we need laughter now more than ever. But good comedy doesn’t shy away from difficult subjects. No, many of the best humor authors dive right in. Well-written humor often includes profound perspectives and self-aware stories about the author’s own foibles. And we firmly believe that some of the best books of all time are also incredibly funny books.
Ask Reader’s Digest Book Club members about the authors that leave them in stitches, and they’ll point to the masters: Erma Bombeck, David Sedaris and Jenny Lawson. And you can’t go wrong with the entire Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich—more than a handful of book clubbers cite them as some of the funniest books they’ve ever read.
To compile a list of books guaranteed to make you chuckle, we thumbed through bestseller lists, reader ratings and critical reviews, and we asked the bookworms of the Reader’s Digest Book Club for their favorites. Whether you enjoy fiction books or nonfiction books, memoirs, feel-good stories or something in between, there’s something for you in these hilarious and heartwarming picks.
When you’re done (or you’re ready for humor in smaller doses), laugh yourself silly with these funny poems and funny roses-are-red poems, funny limericks and funny quotes.
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1. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Genre: Humorous fiction
John Kennedy Toole won a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for his epic 1987 novel. In short, A Confederacy of Dunces is a modern masterpiece and hands-down one of the greatest comedy books of all time. Prepare for a madcap adventure with hilarious descriptions, funny sayings and a brilliant plot that follows the tragicomic hero, Ignatius J. Reilly, through a series of zany scenes and exploits.
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