Anything by Bill Bryson- I can’t read them in public because I invariably find myself laughing uncontrollably. Notes From A Small Island is one of the funniest books I’ve ever read, and it takes on a whole new layer of funniness if you’ve spent any time at all (an afternoon would suffice) in the UK.
I’m rather fond of P.J. O’Rourke’s material as well, especially Holidays In Hell and Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut.
It’s a shame your wife doesn’t like science fiction, because The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy is pretty much the very definition of what she’s looking for in a book, IMHO…
Loyd Little’s Parthian Shot is out pf print but well worth a search, IMHO. Before reading it, I would never have believed it possible to write a hilarious comic novel set in the Vietnam War.
And of course there’s the old reliable Scoop by Evelyn Waugh.
Though its scope is far wider than just comedy, Catch-22 by Joseph Heller was probably the funniest novel I’ve read besides the prohibited Douglas Adams books.
I’m not sure if you have to have been in the military to fully ‘get it’ though. Have any lifetime civilians here read Catch-22 and found as funny as I have? I remember not loving it when I read it in high school, but I’m not sure if it was because I was young and inexperienced, or if it was the not being in the military thing.
Donald Westlake has a bunch of humourous mystery books. I find Carl Hiassen to be a light humorous read. Elmore Leonard novels tend to have humorous moments. Brian Wiprud’s Sleep with the Fishes was the same. Your wife might like Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series - I didn’t (stopped after 2) but my wife read them all. Starts with One for the Money and goes in numbers from there. Jasper Fforde, while funny, is fantasy misfiled in the fiction section; same with Christopher Moore. I love the latter, but find myself in no rush to read the 3rd book by Fforde, having read the first two. Lastly, I’ll also throw my recommendation in for Christopher Buckley.
I started with Code of the Woosters but I don’t think there is really any need to go into a particular order, characters are re-introduced many times in the stories.
Since Hugh Laurie, and the series made by him and Stephen Fry has already been mentioned, allow me to add this link where Laurie discusses his opinion of Wodehouse. It is very funny, as is Fry’s article (available on the linked page).
AJ Jacobs: The Know it All in which the author attempts to read the entire Encyclopedia Britanica cover to cover (so to speak).
And The Year Of Living Biblically by the same author. In which the author (an agnositc jew) attempts to follow the bible as literally as possible for 1 year.
Both are hillariously funny, fast, fun, educational reads.
Also, in a simialr vein, almost anything by Bill Bryson (a Walk in the Woodswas recomended up thread, and is a good place to start).
I would also recomend Me Talk Pretty Someday even though it is a collection of short stories, they all tie together to form a whole narrative. David Sideras is sort of brilliant like that. And if your wife likes audiobooks, I think that the Sideras books are even better that way. But only when read by the author.
George MacDonald Fraser’s The Pyrates is great silly fun.
Another vote for Christopher Moore, which, while having elements of fantasy, are often read by people who don’t care for fantasy. I’d recommend Lamb or A Dirty Job to start.
If new to Donald Westlake, start with What’s the Worst That Could Happen. His characters are fully developed by this book, but you don’t need to have read any earlier ones. This just happens to be my favorite of his Dortmunder books.
My Old Man and the Sea- A mid 30 something man, his father and a cat build a small sailboat and sail it around ‘The Horn’. It’s in journal format and every so often digresses to past memories of the two. People often say this, but for me it’s very rare; it’s one of the few books that I’ve actually laughed out loud while reading.
Well, I took several of the suggestions to the library, and brought home with me 1 Hiassen, the Hugh Laurie, 2 Tim Dorseys, a Ludlum, 2 Chris Moores, and 2 Terry Pratchett. I’ve made my way through 5 of them, and on balance, I’m enjoying them pretty well. One thing I seemed to recall from the OP has kinda been bothering me, tho.
You got that guys? No one dying or getting abused! For crying out loud, I’m not sure I have ever read 5 more bloodthirsty books in a row! Average body count has to be at least 10 or 20 per book. Folks torn in half by opening draw bridges, cut in half by machine gun fire, burned alive, wrapped in chicken wire and fed to the fishes, devoured by demons…
What part of “doesn’t want to read about anyone dying or getting abused” do we fail to understand? :eek:
Any book by Ben Elton is good for a laugh. Stark is probably my favorite. It’s a comedy about the destruction of the environment written over 20 years ago, though it’s still relevant today.
Wodehouse, man. For Bertie Wooster, ‘tragedy’ means ‘getting married to Madeleine Bassett’, so the comedy comes from his attempts to avoid this (and similar) fate(s) worse than death. If anybody dies in Wodehouse, it’s somebody’s rich uncle, and they die off-screen, to the significant financial advantage of one of Bertie’s pals.
Since Laurie’s books have been mentioned, I feel I should bring up the fact that Stephen Fry has written a few comedic novels. I’ve only read two, and one of them had time travel, so I guess I should only recommend The Hippopotomus.
Gerald Durrell (love all his books but I’m thinking of the childhood books about growing up on Corfu)
Thorne Smith (Topper)
Auntie Mame (the actual book, forget the author)
and, I just finished “Bridge of Birds” by Barry Hughart which reminded me quite a bit of stuff like The Princess Bride.
I also think “Connecticut Yankee” by Mark Twain is very funny and I think that even though he’s a “classic” author, his voice and use of language is very accessible and modern. Then again, I am biased, I’m always debating who I love more…Dickens or Twain.