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100 Must-Read Hilarious Books

Side-splitting, spit-out-your-coffee, must-read hilarious books.

Susie Rodarme Sep 6, 2016

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Susie Rodarme

Staff Writer

Susie Rodarme is obsessed with small press literary fiction and tea. Other notable skills: chainmaille weaving, using Photoshop semi-correctly, and drinking gin.

View All posts by Susie Rodarme

This post is sponsored by Penguin Teen.

Mara Carlyle’s senior year is going as normally as could be expected, until—wa-bam!—fellow senior Katelyn Ogden explodes during third period pre-calc. Katelyn is the first, but she won’t be the last teenager to blow up without warning or explanation. As the seniors continue to pop like balloons, smart and hilarious Mara narrates the end of their world as she knows it. But within an explosive year punctuated by romance, quarantine, lifelong friendship, and the hope of making it to graduation lies a funny, super honest, and truly moving story of being a teenager and the heartache of saying goodbye.

There’s almost nothing I love more than a well-written comedy. If you, like me, enjoy both a great book and a deep belly-laugh, I’ve compiled a list of must-read books just for us (in no particular order because they’re all hilarious).

I know you’ll have feels about this list, because all book lovers have feels about book lists, am I right? Let me know what I missed, what you think I got wrong, and what you think I got right.

1. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling

2. Has Anyone Seen My Pants by Sarah Colonna

3. Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography by Neil Patrick Harris

4. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz – This one has both hilarity and poignancy, so it’s a bit more mixed than some other titles on this list.

5. Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

6. A Walk In The Woods by Bill Bryson

7. Heartburn by Nora Ephron

8. Varamo by César Aira – Translated from Spanish, it’s got a bit of Monty Python-esque shtick hidden in gorgeous prose.

9. My Man Jeeves (Jeeves #1) by P.G. Wodehouse

10. Gil’s All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez

11. How To Be Black by Baratunde Thurston

12. Senselessness by Horatio Castellanos Moya

13. Texts from Jane Eyre: And Other Conversations with Your Favorite Literary Characters by Mallory Ortberg and Madeline Gobbo

14. See You Next Tuesday by Jane Mai

15. Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

16. Bossypants by Tina Fey

17. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

18. Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

19. Go the Fuck To Sleep by Adam Mansbach

20. To Say Nothing Of The Dog by Connie Willis

21. Misconceptions by Blu Daniels

22. Domestic Violets by Matthew Norman

23. The Broke Diaries: The Completely True and Hilarious Misadventures of a Good Girl Gone Broke by Angela Nissel

24. Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

25. A Bad Idea I’m About to Do: True Tales of Seriously Poor Judgment and Stunningly Awkward Adventure by Chris Gethard

26. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (a whole awesome series!)

27. The Princess Bride by William Goldman

28. The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead by Max Brooks

29. How to Be A Woman by Caitlin Moran

30. Blonde Bombshell by Tom Holt

31. The Sellout by Paul Beatty

32. Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh

33. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

Lamb 34. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore – The only Jesus comedy I know that is beloved by nonbelievers and Christians alike.

35. The Cry of the Sloth by Sam Savage – This book honestly had me in stitches. If you liked A Confederacy of Dunces, read this one.

36. Company by Max Barry

37. You Can’t Touch My Hair And Other Things I Still Have to Explain by Phoebe Robinson

38. The Colour of Magic (Discworld #1) by Terry Pratchett (You don’t actually have to start at #1 in Discworld; I think I started with #33 and it was highly enjoyable. There’s a graphic here that outlines the different sub-series and their first books, in case you want to jump around.)

39. Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

40. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

41. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

42. Such A Pretty Fat: One Narcissist’s Quest to Discover if Her Life Makes Her Ass Look Big, or Why Pie is Not the Answer by Jen Lancaster