# Recommend me a book that will cheer me up **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 7, 2012, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-that-will-cheer-me-up/643367 "2012-12-07T22:44:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-that-will-cheer-me-up/643367/21 "2012-12-10T00:52:56Z")
Kevin Kling’s The Dog Says How is a bunch of essays that is roll on the floor funny (and sometimes poignant as well, but mostly just funny). ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-that-will-cheer-me-up/643367/22 "2012-12-10T01:22:19Z")
I’ll second Wodehouse’s _Jeeves_ books, and Pratchett’s _Diskworld_ books ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-that-will-cheer-me-up/643367/23 "2012-12-10T01:49:19Z")
Christopher Moore. His latest. **Sacre Bleu** is his best. Anything by A. Lee Martinez. **Monster** is probably his best, but they’re all funny fantasy adventures. Jasper fforde’s **The Eyre Affair** ---
**Author:** ![Tapiotar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3be4f8/32.png) [@Tapiotar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapiotar)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-that-will-cheer-me-up/643367/24 "2012-12-10T02:42:32Z")
Ditto on Christopher Moore, the first 6 Stephanie Plum books by Evanovitch, and Terry Pratchett. Let me add the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters, starting with The Crocodile on the Sandbank. She makes delicious fun of the intrepid Victorian British female explorer, spoofs the Victoria Holt type of Gothic romance, and throws in a lot of good Egyptology. Read in order for character development. Also, The Herring Seller’s Apprentice, by LC Tyler. Hero a mild-mannered writer of mediocre mysteries and his bullying agent. British humor. Georgette Heyer. For years, I never read them, because they are romance, and I was prejudiced against romance. But they are quite clever, the Regency slang and costumes thoroughly researched, and, most important of all right now, very funny. Think of them as Jane Austen light. ---
**Author:** ![ducati](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cc9497/32.png) [@ducati](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ducati)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-that-will-cheer-me-up/643367/25 "2012-12-10T03:28:33Z")
[Go The Fuck To Sleep](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CseO1XRYs9I), as read by Samuel L. Jackson. A short read to be sure, but I dare you not laugh! ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-that-will-cheer-me-up/643367/26 "2012-12-10T06:02:46Z")
Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir by Jenny Lawson. You will laugh yourself stupid, I promise. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-that-will-cheer-me-up/643367/27 "2012-12-10T06:35:29Z")
Harpo Marx’s memoirs, [Harpo Speaks!](http://www.amazon.com/Harpo-Speaks-Marx/dp/0879100362/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1355120325&sr=1-1&keywords=harpo+speaks) Preview at Amazon’s “Look Inside” or Google Books. [How he became a member of the Algonquin Round Table](http://books.google.com/books?id=XCR14V7uMbsC&lpg=PA1&pg=PA168#v=onepage&q&f=false). There were a lot of ups and downs until they finally made Broadway. After that, the amount of famous people he met are just astounding. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-that-will-cheer-me-up/643367/28 "2012-12-10T07:35:19Z")
> [@tellyworth](#): > > Here’s a freebie: [Right Ho, Jeeves](http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10554) by P.G. Wodehouse. Yes. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-that-will-cheer-me-up/643367/29 "2012-12-10T16:22:50Z")
_ **Three Men in a Boat** _ by Jerome K. Jerome ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-that-will-cheer-me-up/643367/30 "2012-12-10T16:38:32Z")
Seriously? With this crew, no one has mentioned The Princess Bride? My magic number (the post number I was guessing would be the one that suggested it) was 5. ---
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-that-will-cheer-me-up/643367/31 "2012-12-10T19:46:12Z")
Anything by Thorne Smith. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-that-will-cheer-me-up/643367/32 "2012-12-11T02:09:14Z")
_The Cursing Mommy’s Book of Days_ by Ian Frazier. You will thank me when you stop laughing. ---
**Author:** ![sisu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@sisu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sisu)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-that-will-cheer-me-up/643367/33 "2012-12-11T02:44:43Z")
A little off what you have asked for but I have always found that when I need a cheer I just reread Jonathon Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-that-will-cheer-me-up/643367/34 "2012-12-11T03:56:23Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > _The Cursing Mommy’s Book of Days_ by Ian Frazier. You will thank me when you stop laughing. > [@ducati](#): > > [Go The Fuck To Sleep](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CseO1XRYs9I), as read by Samuel L. Jackson. Do these adhere to the OP’s request: > [@Obsidian](#): > > Preferably not in any way about pregnancy, babies, or motherhood. ? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-that-will-cheer-me-up/643367.md?page=1)