TOP TEN TUESDAY: Books that Made Me Laugh Out Loud

Humour is a tricky thing. I get nervous when a book is advertised as 'hilarious' or 'laugh out loud funny' because I've been fooled a bit by this. It could just be my humour doesn't match the blurber, and my list may not tickle your funny bone. But these are the books that I remember as funny. I'll be looking for other lists that somewhat match my list to find some new funny books. Check out That Artsy Reader Girl for future topics and other lists.

Beat the Reaper by Josh Brazill

Ridiculous, unbelievable, but also funny

Extreme Vinyl Cafe by Stuart McLean

This only represents all the Stuart McLean stories, and you read this one with the late Stuart's voice in your head. If this is the one with the Waterslide, then that is the one that makes me laugh the most.

Heads You Lose by Lisa Lutz (or any of the Spellmans)

This is a meta humourous book, and I've read reviews that found the emails in between chapters not necessary, but that is the whole book! That's the funny part. 

She Got Up Off the Couch and other heroic stories from Mooreland, Indiana by Haven Kimmel

The sequel to an also funny A Girl Named Zippy, this memoir has some depth as well

Bridget Jones' Diary by Helen Fielding

I went through a spell where I read Bridget Jones every year, because it amused me so much. The movie is also very funny, especially the fight scene between Hugh Grant and Colin Firth. But Bridget is so funny herself!

 

I Want to Go Home or This Can't Be Happening at MacDonald Hall by Gordon Korman

These books go back to my childhood, but I still remember being unable to read because I was laughing so hard. 

Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell

Another book where hearing the author's voice is a part of the fun. Even if I don't listen to an audiobook, I hear Sarah Vowell in my head. This book is her going on vacation to investigate the assassination of various presidents of the US. See, funny topic!

Redshirts by John Scalzi

An audacious plot that by the time you get to the end, your head will be spinning. But it is still funny

Paper Towns by John Green (the road trip section)

I remember giggling out loud at 2 in the morning while reading the road trip section and trying not to wake my husband.

The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie

As you might expect from Hugh Laurie, this espionage-spy thriller is also full of laughs.

Not David Sedaris or Augusten Burroughs

Running With Scissors was particularly jarring as a 'funny' book. I did not find this book funny at all. At all. And I've read a few Sedaris and I guess I don't get them. 

I left off the funny ladies of Tina Fey, Mindy Kaling, and Amy Poehler and I did find their memoirs funny, but maybe not laugh out loud. 

TOP TEN TUESDAY: Mardis Gras!

 

Here's a little Canadian - American difference: I would call today Shrove Tuesday or maybe Pancake Tuesday, but it is more known as Mardi Gras in the United States. I've only had pancakes on Tuesday but I guess it is more of a celebration in the States. I was certainly aware of New Orleans Mardi Gras but it must be more than just there. The colours of Mardi Gras are purple, green and yellow and that is the theme for this week's Top Ten Tuesday - books cover colours. These are books I own but haven't read yet. For more lists and future Top Ten Tuesday plans, visit That Artsy Reader Girl.

Are you eating pancakes tonight?

TOP TEN TUESDAY: Love Freebie

 

It's a Love Freebie this week, as Valentine's Day approaches. I found ten books with Love in their title. Some are from my favourite ongoing series, some are nonfiction, and some are truly love stories. Check out That Artsy Reader Girl for other lists, and to see some future TTT topics.

To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

I haven't seen the series yet, but the delightful relationship between Lara Jean and Peter makes this a great YA sereis

Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert

The Republic of Love by Carol Shields

This is a quiet story (obvs, by Carol Shields) but no less a love story.

I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You by Ally Carter

This is a crazy YA story about students at a spy boarding school. Lots of outrageous fun but no real love story.

Love Your Life by Sophie Kinsella

I read this Kinsella story last year and remembered how good Kinsella is at the light romance story. It doesn't take long until you are invested in the characters and their outcome.

Love and Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch

I brought this YA novel home from our school library about a teenager who goes to live with her unknown father in Italy after her mother dies. There's a neighbour boy who shows her around the neighbourhood. So, not as light as it originally seems, but still, Italy in the summer. 

The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra

I love connected short stories and this one set in Russia over the 20th century is very good. I'm oddly fascinated by Russia - not enough to read War and Peace, but it started with Russka by Edward Rutherford.

An Irish Doctor in Love and at Sea by Patrick Taylor

Lovely gentle series set in 1960s (and back in time during both wars) with love stories in the past and present.

The Case of the Love Commandos: From the Files Vish Puri, India's Most Private Investigator by Tarquin Hall

I haven't read from this series in a while, but I see there is a new addition to the series. It took me a while to get the tone, because it feels light, but really isn't.

Love and Death Among the Cheetahs by Rhys Bowen

This was the latest in the Her Royal Spyness series as Georgie heads to Africa for a safari. Not the strongest in the series, but still a fun time.

The Mapping of Love and Death (Maisie Dobbs #7) by Jacqueline Winspear

What started as a series of life after WW1 has gone on so long that now Maisie is thrust into WW2, as book #16 is the latest. I'm running out of love for Maisie - they are still well done, but what I liked the most has changed over time and I'm debated whether to keep going.

TOP TEN TUESDAY: Books Written Before I Was Born

 

The topic this week is Top Ten Books Written Before I Was Born. That gives me a great selection of books as I can pick anything before 1967. I've narrowed this down to the classics that I did not enjoy. Now, some were read when I was in high school and perhaps my tastes were not as developed. I've tried a few of them a second time, generally in audio version for the reread and nothing changed. In fact, I probably hated Lord of the Flies even more.  The first book I ever DNF'd was On the Road by Jack Kerouac and it was such a huge decision to stop reading it, but I was so annoyed at the lazy gad-about druggies that it pushed me to it. 

On the Road (dnf)

The Picture of Dorian Gray (x2)

Wide Sargasso Sea

Little Women (I don't hate this one, but it always disappoints me that I don't like it more 

read x2)

Lord of the Flies (x2)

The Pearl

The Hobbit (dnf)

Their Eyes Were Watching God (dnf)

The Scarlet Letter (picked up The Scarlet Pimpernell the first time - much better book!)

Wuthering Heights (although it was fun to put Heathcliff on trial in grade 12 English for being 'cold, cruel and calculating)

LIST: Best Books of 2020

Top Five Books of the Year

1. The Innocents - Michael Crummy
2. The Causeway: A Passage from Innocence - Linden MacIntyre
3. The Pull of the Stars - Emma Donoghue
4. Queenie - Candice Carty-Williams
5. Easy Prey - Catherine Lo

142 books read

13 nonfiction

83 audiobooks

24 ebooks

Best Mystery
Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith

It's not even the mystery - it's Cormoran and Robin's relationship

Honourable Mentions Best Mystery (because I read a lot of mysteries)

IQ by Joe Ide

The Chestnut Man by Soren Sveistrup

The Lost Man by Jane Harper

Murder on Cold Street by Sherry Thomas

Long Bright River by Liz Moore

Best Start to a Series - Alex Morrow series
Still Midnight - Denise Mina (also read The End of the Wasp Season)

Best Historical Series

Lady Charlotte Holmes by Sherry Thomas

Best Graphic Novel

American Gods part 1 and 2

Best Young Adult 
Easy Prey by Catherine Lo

This was a free YA Sync listen, and I just loved how it all came together, and that is was Canadian.

Best Recommended Book (won the Booker Prize and was on the Women's Prize for Fiction shortlist)

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo

Favourite Characters

Evered and Ada, the orphaned brother and sister from The Innocents living on the outports of Newfoundland

Best  Book by a Tried and True Author 
Both The Last Anniversay and The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty were classic Moriarty - multiple views, a mystery and Australian. I can't even decide which I liked best.

Best Historical Fiction 

The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue and

Hamnet & Judith by Maggie O'Farrell

Two plague books by two of my favourite authors. Hey, Tracy Chevalier (another great historical fiction writer - Where's your plague book?

Best Apocalyptic/Dystopian

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

Best Book by a New to Me Author

Marilla of Green Gables by Sarah McCoy

Best Science Fiction/Fantasy
The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

Best Debut Book

Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

Best Short Story Collection 
The Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips

Funniest 

How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran

Most Heartbreaking
Still Alice by Lisa Genova

Creepiest Novel
The Guest List by Lucy Foley

Best Re-read
In May, during lockdown times, my library offered Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone all the time to whoever wanted to read it with no waiting. It was excellent, and I was hoping they would offer the rest of the series like that as well, but alas, no. And then because so many people were re-reading the HP series, the line-ups were long for the next books.

Best Audiobook/ Rec for a Book Club
Such a Fun Age by Kiley

Most Unique Book 
This is How You Lose the Time War- Max Gladstone

Best Nonfiction : I have broken this down a little more because I can't pick one

Best Nonfiction: science/history
How We Got to Now: Six Innovations that Changed the Modern World - Steven Johnson
I count Johnson as a go-to NF author now. I like his connections, and writing, and topics. This isn't as fascinating as The Ghost Map, but it was still really good. 
(cold -refrigeration, time-clocks,  glass- eyeglass lenses,  light-lightbulbs, clean- sewer systems, sound)

Best Nonfiction: true crime
Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators by Ronan Farrow

Best Nonfiction: memoir/autobiography
Causeway by Linden MacIntyre 
My husband also read this book, and then we gave it to both our parents for Christmas after reading it. MacIntyre is a CBC reporter, and has written novels as well. This memoir was exactly what I like in a memoir - takes his personal memories and growth and sets it against a historical event and blends the two perfectly. The causeway in question is the connection between Cape Breton and Nova Scotia. Having lived through our own 'fixed link' in 1997 as PEI was connected to the mainland and the ferry done away with, it really is a turning point in memories of life. 

(Whew! Getting this posted and it is still January with 15 minutes to spare!)

TOP TEN TUESDAY: New-to-Me Authors I Read in 2020

I'm still working on my year-end wrap of of 2020 reading, but New-to-Me Authors is a bit of a preview of some great reads from last year. When I look at the books I read, I think I relied on tried and true authors quite a bit (shocking, in a year like last year, I know) but I did find some great new authors. My guide is - am I looking for some of their old books, or an I interested in the next one in the series?

Check out That Artsy Reading Girl for more posts from this week's Top Ten Tuesday, and to see future toics.

Denise Mina - Alex Morrow series

This was a great police procedural set in Scotland. It's everything I like in my mystery/police series - dark, messed up main character, and all the intrigue within the police

Read: Still Midnight, The End of Wasp Season

next up: Gods and Beasts

Martha Wells  - The Murderbot Diaries

Very unique science fiction series narrated by a rogue 'murderbot' who just wants to watch television shows but keeps having to deal with humans

Read: All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, Exit Strategy

next up: Network Effect

Joe Ide - Isiah 'IQ" Quintabe series

Private Investigator series set in Los Angeles with a back story that the main character is trying to figure out - who killed his brother?

Read: IQ, Righteous

next up: Wrecked

Ronan Farrow 

Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators

Investigative reporter Farrow is pretty amazing and as I probably don't read this kind of non-fiction very often, it was very compelling. Farrow was also an excellent narrator of his book.

next up: War on Peace

Julia Phillips

The Disappearing Earth (debut book)

Nice connected short stories that becomes a novel. I think it was the setting in Kamchatka Pennisula of Eastern Russia that made it so interesting. I had also just read a book called Tiger by John Vaillant set in the same region

Balli Kaur Jaswal 

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows

 The title of this book is a bit misleading as it was not as light and chick-lit as it first appears. I liked the immigrant experience in England that was portrayed and the challenge of second generation kids pulled between their home and their parents' life. I would definitely read another by Jaswal as the character development was enjoyable.

next up: The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters

Claire Lombardo 

The Most Fun We Ever Had (debut book)

 A good family epic that traces a couple and their children over a full generation, starting with the couple getting together, then following their children growing and having their own family. I still remember a lot about the characters and plot from this one, which is a good sign. Every person in a family has their own view of what happened in the family.

Lucy Foley 

The Guest List

 The trend of suspenseful, twisty books can be hit or miss for me as many can be rather generic and predictable. The Guest List was one of the better of this genre. I keep reading these suspense books and this is why - there are some really good ones mixed in with the trendy titles.

next up: The Hunting Party

Sally Thorne 

The Hating Game

I still like the odd rom-com type book. I read a Sophie Kinsella this year and was reminded again why she is the best of those type of chick lit books, but The Hating Game was pretty good too. British couple who are not liking each other, this one has movie written all over it. Which would be okay!

next up: 99 Percent Mine

Heather Cocks 

The Royal We

This was a long listen, but it was well done, especially if you are a Will and Kate and Harry fan and think a behind the scene fictionalized account would be fun. As a huge fan of watching The Crown, I didn't mind reading a more recent version of what might have happened. And there is a sequel, so that is fun.

next up: The Heir Affair

I can't wait to see your list of new authors, because obviously I need some more books to read, but I appreciate vetted titles by all you great readers.