I've read too many sad books...recommend me something clever but funny please

[BoogleMcGroogle]

I manage about a book a week. They seem to be getting incrementally darker. Having last week lost myself in Gary Younge's incredible One Day in the Death of America, I thought I'd try light relief and just finished The Beekeeper of Aleppo. Great book, not exactly light relief. I now feel really quite sad.

Please, please recommend me something sharp and very funny to brighten my weekend. Fiction or nonfiction. For reference, my absolute favourite books of all time are Tales of the City, with most of Updike coming a close second. I have a history of incontinence on public transport when reading David Sedaris.

Help! 🙂

[JaneJeffer]

The Bear Went Over the Mountain by William Kotzwinkle

[Binterested]

Yy to Heartburn, Diary of a Nobody, Diary of a Provincial Lady. And lots of Marian Keyes. My favourite heartwarmer is The Brightest Star in the Sky.

[DollyMixtureLulus]

I’m really enjoying City of Girls just now. Lighthearted and witty.

(so far, not finished)

[doyounothavegoogle]

@CoffeeBeansGalore and anyone else who enjoys the "Why Mummy....." books. Why Mummy Swears is being serialised on Radio4 this week

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000ktp5

I only caught a few minutes but it seemed very well done.

[JuliaDomna]

Have you read Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams? I found it a really good read. Funny in parts too.

[TuMeke]

YY to Diary of a Nobody. I also revisited The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole recently; brilliant and I got so much more out of it reading it as an adult. And you can’t beat a bit of Austen for clever and funny. I, Partridge made me laugh the whole way through, but obviously you have to be an Alan Partridge fan

[Honeywort]

I love the tales of the city books too. And I’ve always thought the e f benson’s map and Lucia books are a more old fashioned/ middle aged equivalent

[Stuffofawesome]

Less. By Andrew Sean Greer

[GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER]

If you’re happy with period pieces (pre Ww2), Crampton Hodnet by Barbara Pym is a favourite of mine.

I love Mr Golightly’s Holiday, by Salley (yes, there’s an e in it) Vickers - set in a Devon village - delightful IMO, plus there’s a fantastic twist that I didn’t see coming, though sharper wits might.

[Destinysdaughter]

I enjoyed Ben Elton's Identity Crisis. Even more so listening to it on Audible as he narrated it himself. Very funny!

[stoneysongs]

If you like Updike I think you would like The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen, it's brilliant.

[missingmyholidays]

Chronicles of St Mary's

Ridiculous but very entertaining

[MilkshakeandFries]

May we be forgiven by A M Homes is brilliant and made me laugh out loud quite a few times.

[stoneysongs]

Also anything by Elizabeth Taylor (not the actress)

[Mummyof2girls5and10]

Anything by Dan brown. Especially the Davinci code. My all time fave

[BoogleMcGroogle]

Ooh, a mention for A M Homes, who IMHO is massively underrated.

At the risk of answering my own question This Book Will Save Your Life fits the bill perfectly.

[MaryRaddy]

I like the Alan Partridge books "Nomad" (belly achingly funny) and We Need to Talk About Alan. I literally cry and cry with laughter.
Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is quite good, more of a wry smile than humour but worth a look at a female utopia.

[MilkshakeandFries]

@BoogleMcGroogle which of hers have you read and would recommend?

[Krieger]

Anything by Tom Sharpe. There will be plenty in Oxfam. The only books to have ever made me laugh out loud.

[QueSera]

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, by Gloria Honeyman. Loved it.

[Achangeagain1]

Am in the same boat need something light. I’d recommend Nina Stibbie - funny and quite heartwarming. Or my always favourite Marian Keyes (though they can still be “dark” I suppose.

[BoogleMcGroogle]

milkshakeandfries definitely This Book Will Save Your Life. It is weird, uplifting and funny. Great characters.

Her other books are, in various ways, quite dark, but very readable. I also enjoyed May We Be Forgiven.

[Achangeagain1]

Ooh what’s may we be forgiven like @MilkshakeandFries? I loved This Book will Save your Life but made the mistake of then trying The End I’d Alice - which I loathed (only book I’ve ever chucked in the bin after reading - I felt grubby)

[Daftasabroom]

Non fiction - The late Clive James.
Fiction - Tom Sharpe

[BoogleMcGroogle]

AChangeAgain1 you got further than me- I couldn't bear to start it and ended up giving it to the charity shop.

May We Be Forgiven has a disturbing pretext but is very readable, although I read it more than a decade ago.