holiday reading

[Tortington]

i dont get chance to read that often and when i do i prefer something funny - i cant say i have a genre i stick to but to give you a clue i read bridget jones diary 2 last week thought is was hilarious.... thing is am going on holiday and want a couple of books to read - it has been suggested i find the autobiography of whoopi goldberg as thats supposed to be funny.
any suggestions would be most appreciated. thank you

Would have to be 'Life isn't all ha ha hee hee' by Meera Syal.........really REALLY funny!

Whereabouts are you going on holiday?

Hi Custardo, Ok, along those lines then I'd thoroughly recommend:

My Life on a Plate by India Knight: About a London mum who drives her child to school in her pyjamas etc, suspects she may be a crap mother, has relationship problems, gets over them. This book made me laugh a lot. Ditto 3 friends who agreed.

The Best a Man Can Get by John O'Farrell. Someone else said, and I agree, that it contains one of the funniest descriptions of being woken up in the middle of the night by children ever written.

Having it and Eating it by Sabine Durrant. Woman with two children, mid thirties crisis. Funny, sad in parts. Not as good as the 2 above IMO, but still worth reading.

If you like Jilly Cooper, I've just read Pandora, her new novel and loved it because it's very Jilly Cooper and I've been a fan for years. As The Observer said, the plots of her novels are basically all the same but you forgive her since she does what she does very well.

How to lose friends and alienate people by Toby Young. How he went to New York to work for Vanity Fair and failed miserably to win friends and influence people. He comes across as a complete w*** but I was still riveted by the book.

Notes from a small island by Bill Bryson. American travel writer takes a last tour around the UK before moving back to the States after 15 years in England. Witty, affectionate and accurate descriptions of the English and our mannerisms and mores. I sent it to my mum who said she laughed so much she farted! Not a very my mum thing to say at all.

High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. But the film was very faithful to the book so maybe don't bother if you've seen the film. Nick Hornby said of the book (I paraphrase): "I hope it makes women realise that they should stop despising men and feel pity for them instead" North London man refuses to grow up and leads a life dominated by lists - top 5 ex girlfriends, b sides, songs about death etc.

Anita and Me by Meera Syal. Indian girl grows up in Midlands. Better than Life isn't all ha ha hee hee IMHO.

HTH. Would love to know what you end up with and what you thought.

Not hilarious but a really good book is The Rotter's Club by Johnathan Coe. If you were around in the early/mid 70s, know anything about progressive rock - whether you liked it or not - and had anything to do woth school clubs it's very good. And even if you weren't or didn't it's still a really good read about growing up. I thought Anita and Me was v. good too.

awwwww thanks all.. am going to france btw, and have written ur suggestions down will go on a hnt sometme soon - am actually in the middle of reading my life on a plate.. will let you know what i end up with - tho whoopi is looking fav at the mo!

Funny book:Bing Banged My Lula by Frankie Park. It's about 4 London mum's who are basically all stuck in a rut and decide to form a band. i also enjoyed Shyama Perera's Bitter Sweet Symphony and Haven't Stopped Dancing Yet.
How long til u go away if u don't mind me asking?

three long weeks...i have it written in my planner at work and just look at it now and again at some point during the day to cheer me up!

Sherlock Holmes!

Hens Dancing and Summertime, both by Rafaella Barker. Very very funny, both (Summertime is a sequel to Hens Dancing) are about a divorced mother living in rural Norfolk and her eccentric family & friends. Think My Life On A Plate, only a bit more girly and sweet.

I tittered on the train to work every day when I was reading Michael Crick's book on Jeffrey Archer, shows what a sick sense of humour I have, finding pleasure in others' downfalls!

bundle, thought you might like this (from Simon Hoggart's column in the Guardian on Saturday):

"A friend of mine used to work for HarperCollins when they published Jeffrey Archer. He told me how someone had accidentally left a fax querying some points in an Archer manuscript. It included pointing out to the author that they didn't have mobile phones during the Wall Street crash, and that Roosevelt could not have faxed Churchill during the war.

Later I bumped into Michael Crick, Archer's highly critical biographer. "Jeffrey is stupid in many ways, but not that stupid," he told me. I went back to my publisher friend who said, well, no, he hadn't seen the fax, but people at HarperCollins often talked about it. Clearly another modern myth, and I'm glad I didn't fall for that one."

And following on from WWW's recommendations - almost anything by Bill Bryson, especially "Notes from a Big Country", the sequel to Small Island, compiled from the columns he wrote for the Mail on Sunday when he first moved back to the US (I was working on a supermarket kiosk on Sundays at the time and used to surreptitiously read them every week, I never farted but nearly fell over a time or two).

(Exceptions - "Mother Tongue", which is interesting but literary (library category, "linguistics" ), and A Walk In the Woods - interesting but heavy.)

Also Nick Hornby's About a Boy - lovely book. I am currently reading How to be Good, which also has a few giggles in it but is more serious and harder to get into.

David Lodge is good laugh-out-loud holiday reading. I'd give India Knight a swerve myself but others seem to like her!

My favourite cheer-me-up books, that always give me a lift, are the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich. They make me lol every time I read them. I bought the first one on the way to Paris a few years ago, and faked illness on the way back so that I could force the bus driver to stop at the same services, so I could go and get the sequel! The first one is called 'One for the money'. www.amazon.co.uk will provide a better synopsis than I could write- enjoy your holiday!

I've just read India Knight's new one Don't You Want Me - it's OK and it's on offer in WHS at the moment so there's another plus for it - some bits made me lol quite a bit.

My fav holiday read is The Divine Secrets Of The YaYa Sisterhood - laughs are more subtle and there are plenty of tears too but an out and out thoroughly good read

Have lots of fun in France!

I've just read a fantastic book - "Holes" by Louis Sachar. It's a 'teen-fiction' book really, and only took about 2 days to read, but it is REALLY good. I loved it

Not funny but i think Martina Cole and Patricia Cornwell books are brilliant also good holiday reading are any books by Jackie Collins and Danielle Steel.

I've just bought Frank Skinners autobiography, but went to get it yesterday for the first time to find it had disappeared with dh into his secret stash of books!

Just read 'A Free Woman' by Libby Purves. It started off slow but then I got so into that I just couldn't put it down! Another very funny book of hers is 'How Not To Be A Perfect Mother', it sums up all of your frustrations and insecurities about being a mother and puts a great big dose of humour on it! Sort of book you can identify with and laugh out loud at.

I've just read "Dead Famous" by Ben Elton. Very funny in places and also a bit disturbing, and particularly good if you've watched Big Brother 1&2. Don't know how he hasn't been sued by some of the contestants! Not a long read though.

Ooo, I've read several Ben Elton books - they are great. Sooo funny.