The other day I decided that I was totally sick of myself. I was tired of constantly working and holing myself off from the world and reading nothing but business related stuff. It dawned on me that what I needed was a good laugh, more precisely, a book that would make me laugh.

So I did what every self-respecting person would.  I reached out to my friends on Facebook and asked for a recommendation. And man did they come pouring in.

I thought I’d share these recommendations with you here, in case you’re feeling the same way. Let me know which one grabs you, knowing that we all have such different tastes.

If you want to see my favorite funny books, many of which were also recommended, you can go HERE.

But in the meantime, let’s begin.

Hyperbole And A Half by Allie Brosh

I had this buried on my Kindle and dragged it out. Laughed until I cried. Essays  like, “The God of Cake,” “Dogs Don’t Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving,” which are hysterical, and her astonishing, “Adventures in Depression,” and “Depression Part Two,” which have been hailed as some of the most insightful meditations on the disease ever written. Not funny but, holy crap, if you’ve never experienced depression, you’ll finally get it.

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

I read this years ago and found it weirdly hysterical. After a long and eventful life, Allan Karlsson ends up in a nursing home, believing it to be his last stop. The only problem is that he’s still in good health, and in one day, he turns 100. A big celebration is in the works, but Allan really isn’t interested (and he’d like a bit more control over his vodka consumption). So he decides to escape. He climbs out the window in his slippers and embarks on a hilarious and entirely unexpected journey, involving, among other surprises, a suitcase stuffed with cash, some unpleasant criminals, a friendly hot-dog stand operator, and an elephant (not to mention a death by elephant).

McCarthy’s Bar: A Journey of Discovery In Ireland by Pete McCarthy.

Traveling through spectacular landscapes, but at all times obeying the rule, “never pass a bar that has your name on it,” the author encounters McCarthy’s bars up and down the land, meeting fascinating people before pleading to be let out at four o’clock in the morning. I have yet to read this but it’s probably next on my list. Recommended by a girlfriend who owns a bookstore.

Somewhere in Ireland A Village is Missing an Idiot by David Feherety (published by Stephen Pressfield’s dude)

A collection of Feherty’s most popular Golf Magazine columns, intermingled with his most outrageous work from Golfonline.com. As an added bonus, readers will be treated to some notorious pieces from his work at the British publication Golf Monthly. I’m not a golfer but this sounds hysterical.

Paris on Air by Oliver Gee

Award-winning podcaster Oliver Gee takes us on this laugh-out-loud journey through the streets of Paris. He tells of how five years in France have taught him how to order cheese, make a Parisian person smile, and convince anyone you can fake French (even if, like Oliver, you speak the language like an Australian cow).

Sportsman’s Paradise by Nancy Lehmann

Recovering from her Manhattan life in a green Atlantic outpost, newspaper woman Storey Collier encounters a man from her past, cheerful carnival intruders, her boss, and others.

They is Us by Tama Janowitz

Just your typical American family story. Set against a backdrop of increasingly invasive technology, growing pollution and the President of the USA’s impending gay marriage (to be broadcast live across the nation) They Is Us features a cast of unforgettable characters that will stick in your mind long after you finish the book. Tama Janowitz has written a prophetic novel which is funny, and frequently hilarious, but is so uncannily believable that it is chilling to read. This really could be the future.

Heartburn by Nora Ephron

Is it possible to write a sidesplitting novel about the breakup of the perfect marriage? If the writer is Nora Ephron, the answer is a resounding yes. For in this inspired confection of adultery, revenge, group therapy, and pot roast, the creator of Sleepless in Seattle reminds us that comedy depends on anguish as surely as a proper gravy depends on flour and butter.

Nothing To See Here by Kevin Wilson

The critics love this one: “I can’t believe how good this book is…. It’s wholly original. It’s also perfect…. Wilson writes with such a light touch…. The brilliance of the novel [is] that it distracts you with these weirdo characters and mesmerizing and funny sentences and then hits you in a way you didn’t see coming. You’re laughing so hard you don’t even realize that you’ve suddenly caught fire.” In short, it’s a moving and uproarious novel about a woman who finds meaning in her life when she begins caring for two children with a remarkable ability.

Calypso by David Sedaris

First, I’ve never met a Sedaris book that didn’t make me howl with laughter. So you can stop reading the description now. With Calypso, Sedaris sets his formidable powers of observation toward middle age and mortality. Make no mistake: these stories are very, very funny–it’s a book that can make you laugh ’til you snort, the way only family can. Sedaris’s powers of observation have never been sharper, and his ability to shock readers into laughter unparalleled. But much of the comedy here is born out of that vertiginous moment when your own body betrays you and you realize that the story of your life is made up of more past than future.

The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody by Will Cuppy

This light-hearted romp through history sets off with the conundrum of the two Egyptians, carrying on to explore the Strange Bedfellows of Attila the Hun, Charlemagne and Lady Godiva, ending up in Merrie England and the roamings of Christopher Columbus, et al. It is a journey through the annals of history with the heroes and villains of the past as your fellow travellers: Lucretia Borgia, Lady Godiva, Henry Viii, Elizabeth I and George Iii. As Will Cuppy’s profiles of the good and the great make you realise that the truth of history is far stranger than the fiction!

Men Under Water: Short Stories by Ralph Lombreglia

In his first collection of stories, Ralph Lombreglia writes about being young and unsettled, about trying to connect and not always making it–or succeeding in startling ways. A powerful first collection. Some of the stories in Lombreglia’s collection have appeared in The New Yorker, Atlantic, and The Best American Short Stories in 1987 and 1988. Lombreglia has considerable talent for making the improbable seem inevitable.

Over My Dead Body by Kate Klise

Written for middle graders. The news from Ghastly, Illinois, is grave—and that’s something to laugh about!The International Movement for the Safety & Protection Of Our Kids & Youth (IMSPOOKY) dictates that Seymour cannot live in the mansion at 43 Old Cemetery Road “without the benefit of parents.” Ignatius B. Grumply tries to explain to Dick Tater, the head of IMSPOOKY, that he and Seymour are in a lovely living arrangement with the ghost of Olive C. Spence. Dick Tater is not convinced. But this clever trio can’t be broken up as easily as he imagines . . .

Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher

Jason Fitger is a beleaguered professor of creative writing and literature at Payne University, a small and not very distinguished liberal arts college in the midwest. His department is facing draconian cuts and squalid quarters, while one floor above them the Economics Department is getting lavishly remodeled offices. His once-promising writing career is in the doldrums, as is his romantic life, in part as the result of his unwise use of his private affairs for his novels. In short, his life is a tale of woe, and the vehicle this droll and inventive novel uses to tell that tale is a series of hilarious letters of recommendation that Fitger is endlessly called upon by his students and colleagues to produce, each one of which is a small masterpiece of high dudgeon, low spirits, and passive-aggressive strategies.

Wilt by Tom Sharp

Apparently, this is a series of hysterical novels that make up the Wilt Series. In this one, Henry Wilt is the head of a reconstituted Liberal Studies Department who must confront the fantasies he has about  political bigots and reactionary bureaucrats.It is only when Wilt becomes the unintentional participant in a terrorist siege that he is forced to find an answer to the problems of power, which have corrupted greater men than he. With a mental ingenuity born of his innate cowardice, Wilt fights for those liberal values which are threatened both by international terrorism and by the sophisticated methods of police anti-terrorist agents. Bitingly funny and brilliantly written, The Wilt Alternative exposes the farcical anomalies, which have become the social norms of our time.

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah

The compelling, inspiring, and comically sublime story of one man’s coming-of-age, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed. Named one of Paste’s best memoirs of the decade. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. It’s a story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother—his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life.

People I Want to Punch in the Throat by Jen Mann

Jen Mann doesn’t have a filter, which sometimes gets her in trouble with her neighbors, her fellow PTA moms, and that one woman who tried to sell her sex toys at a home shopping party. Known for her hilariously acerbic observations on her blog, People I Want to Punch in the Throat, Mann now brings her sharp wit to bear on suburban life, marriage, and motherhood in this laugh-out-loud collection of essays. From the politics of joining a play group, to the thrill of mothers’ night out at the gun range, to the rewards of your most meaningful relationship (the one you have with your cleaning lady), nothing is sacred or off-limits.

Less by Andrew Sean Greer

First, this won a Pulitzer Prize, so there’s that. Who says you can’t run away from your problems? You are a failed novelist about to turn fifty. A wedding invitation arrives in the mail: your boyfriend of the past nine years is engaged to someone else. You can’t say yes–it would be too awkward–and you can’t say no–it would look like defeat. On your desk are a series of invitations to half-baked literary events around the world. And thus the plot begins. Less shows a writer at the peak of his talents raising the curtain on our shared human comedy.

Sharon and My Mother-in-Law by Saud Amiry

Based on diaries and email correspondence that she kept from 1981-2004, here Suad Amiry evokes daily life in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Capturing the frustrations, cabin fever, and downright misery of her experiences, Amiry writes with elegance and humor about the enormous difficulty of moving from one place to another, the torture of falling in love with someone from another town, the absurdity of her dog receiving a Jerusalem identity card when thousands of Palestinians could not, and the trials of having her ninety-two-year-old mother-in-law living in her house during a forty-two-day curfew. With a wickedly sharp ear for dialogue and a keen eye for detail, Amiry gives us an original, ironic, and firsthand glimpse into the absurdity—and agony—of life in the Occupied Territories.

The Sellout by Paul Beatty

A biting satire about a young man’s isolated upbringing and the race trial that sends him to the Supreme Court, Paul Beatty’s The Sellout showcases a comic genius at the top of his game. It challenges the sacred tenets of the United States Constitution, urban life, the civil rights movement, the father-son relationship, and the holy grail of racial equality―the black Chinese restaurant.

The Break by Marion Keyes

Amy’s husband Hugh has run away to ‘find himself’. But will he ever come back? ‘Myself and Hugh . . . We’re taking a break.’ If only. Amy’s husband Hugh says he isn’t leaving her. He still loves her, he’s just taking a break – from their marriage, their children and, most of all, from their life together. Six months to lose himself in South East Asia. And there is nothing Amy can say or do about it. Yes, it’s a mid-life crisis, but let’s be clear: a break isn’t a break up – yet . . .  The Break is a story about the choices we make and how those choices help to make us. It is Marian Keyes at her funniest, wisest and brilliant best.

Straight Man by Richard Russo

William Henry Devereaux, Jr., is the reluctant chairman of the English department of a badly underfunded college in the Pennsylvania rust belt.  Devereaux’s reluctance is partly rooted in his character–he is a born anarchist–and partly in the fact that his department is more savagely divided than the Balkans.  In the course of a single week, Devereaux will have his nose mangled by an angry colleague, imagine his wife is having an affair with his dean, wonder if a curvaceous adjunct is trying to seduce him with peach pits, and threaten to execute a goose on local television.  All this while coming to terms with his philandering father, the dereliction of his youthful promise, and the ominous failure of certain vital body functions.  In short, Straight Man is side-splitting, poignant, compassionate, and unforgettable.

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simpson

An international bestselling romantic comedy featuring the oddly charming, socially challenged genetics professor, Don, as he seeks true love.  In the orderly, evidence-based manner with which Don approaches all things, he designs the Wife Project to find his perfect partner: a sixteen-page, scientifically valid survey to filter out the drinkers, the smokers, the late arrivers.Rosie Jarman possesses all these qualities. Don easily disqualifies her as a candidate for The Wife Project (even if she is “quite intelligent for a barmaid”). But Don is intrigued by Rosie’s own quest to identify her biological father. When an unlikely relationship develops as they collaborate on The Father Project, Don is forced to confront the spontaneous whirlwind that is Rosie―and the realization that, despite your best scientific efforts, you don’t find love, it finds you.

Drink, Play, F@#k: One Man’s Search for Anything Across Ireland, Las Vegas, and Thailand by Andrew Gottlieb

I’ve been told that you need to have read Eat, Pray, Love to get the most out of this, apparently a spoof on Liz Gilbert’s book, which is clever if you think about it. Here’s how it’s described: a jilted husband sets off to explore the world, experience a meaningful connection with the divine, and rediscover his passion. His travels lead him from his home in New York City to a drinking bender across Ireland, through the glitz and glamour that is Las Vegas, and to the hedonistic pleasure palaces of Thailand.

Fup by Jim Dodge

Start with Granddaddy Jake Santee, a cantankerous, ninety-nine-year-old coot with a taste for gambling and whiskey; add in Tiny, his gentle giant of an adopted grandson, whose passion for building well-crafted fences on land with no livestock borders on obsessive; then add Fup, a twenty-pound mallard with an iron will and a fondness for hooch and romantic movies. What do you get? You get Fup—a wildly eccentric modern classic that invites you to sit a spell and wet your whistle while it regales you with tales of teaching Fup to fly, the Sunday morning pig hunt, and the Great Checker Showdown of ’78. First published in 1983, this hilarious, heartwarming, magical tale has sold over 100,000 copies since its debut. Fup is a contemporary fable that inspires an evangelical fervor in all who read it.

The Gang that Couldn’t Shoot Straight by Jimmy Breslin

New York Times bestseller: A novel of a messy mob war in Brooklyn that “makes you laugh out loud”.

Bad Monkey by Carl Hiaasen

Actually, according to the person who recommended this, anything by Carl Hiaasen. This is just the one I chose. Andrew Yancy-late of the Miami Police and soon-to-be-late of the Monroe County sheriff’s office-has a human arm in his freezer. There’s a logical (Hiaasenian) explanation for that, but not for how and why it parted from its shadowy owner. Yancy thinks the boating-accident/shark-luncheon explanation is full of holes, and if he can prove murder, the sheriff might rescue him from his grisly Health Inspector gig (it’s not called the roach patrol for nothing). But first-this being Hiaasen country-Yancy must negotiate an obstacle course of wildly unpredictable events with a crew of even more wildly unpredictable characters, including his just-ex lover, a hot-blooded fugitive from Kansas; the twitchy widow of the frozen arm; two avariciously optimistic real-estate speculators; the Bahamian voodoo witch known as the Dragon Queen, whose suitors are blinded unto death by her peculiar charms; Yancy’s new true love, a kinky coroner; and the eponymous bad monkey-who just may be one of Carl Hiaasen’s greatest characters.

The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett

Again, anything by Terry Pratchett, according to some. The first novel in the hilarious and irreverent Discworld series from New York Times bestselling author Terry Pratchett, who has been compared to Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, and Douglas Adams.  A complex, yet zany world filled with a host of unforgettable characters who navigate around a profound fantasy universe, complete with its own set of cultures and rules.

A Fine and Pleasant Misery by Patrick McManus

Again, anything by Patrick McManus. “A hilarious compilation” (Los Angeles Times), A Fine and Pleasant Misery gathers twenty-seven witty, cautionary tales of the outdoor life from beloved humorist Patrick F. McManus in a collection edited and introduced by Jack Samson, long-time editor-in-chief of Field & Stream.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Collected together in this omnibus are the five titles that comprise Douglas Adams’ wildly popular and wholly remarkable comedy science fiction ‘trilogy’. It begins this way: One Thursday lunchtime the Earth gets unexpectedly demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass. For Arthur Dent, who has only just had his house demolished that morning, this seems already to be rather a lot to cope with. Sadly, however, the weekend has only just begun. The Galaxy may offer a mind-boggling variety of ways to be blown up and/or insulted, but it’s very hard to get a cup of tea.