Top Ten Tuesday: Laugh Out Loud Books

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

After the fuckshow of 2020 and the way 2021 started like a bad 2020 hangover, I’m definitely in need of something funny as fuck.

I won’t say I’m a big fan of books in the humor genre, as I tend to go for cozier contemporary romances when I need a pick-me-up or boost, but there are a couple that have me dying.

Here are some books that made me laugh. Fair warning: my sense of humor is a little (a lot) warped, partially thanks to the Marine Corps and sarcasm that just won’t quit.

Science Fiction

The Warrior’s Apprentice covers a lot of dark and grim topics, but beneath it all is Miles Vorkosigan, a hyperactive genius who pulls everyone and everything into his wake, willing or no (and they all, weirdly, become willing).

Terminal Alliance has the madcap humor I love in science fiction. It doesn’t take itself seriously, and the shenanigans they all get into, plus the concept of military space janitors and Earth is Space Australia, is just perfection. Plus there’s a space-version of Clippy, the obnoxious Word “helper.”

This is How You Use the Time War has lush, purpley prose failing to hide a hilarious, sapphic spy vs spy engagement between two time-traveling enemies. All told in letters hurled viciously at each other.

All Systems Red is hilarious because of poor, beleaguered Murderbot, the SecUnit main character who is really over all of this human nonsense, thankyouverymuch. The first four installations are novellas, and the series gets fan-fucking-tastic when Murderbot meets ART, who is just as sarcastic as it is.

Gideon the Ninth is truly the most fun I’ve ever had with a skeleton. While the plot itself bogs down and the worldbuilding is a little all over the place (the story is basically And Then There Were None in space with bones and swords), I adored Gideon’s snark and her general attitude and her antagonistic rivalry with Harrow.

Romance

I love fake fandoms and fan fanfiction and um, basically stories about nerds nerding out and going all out. I really enjoyed the main storyline of Spoiler Alert, but the “extras” at the end of each chapter were truly the highlights of this enjoyable book.

Red, White and Royal Blue makes the list not for the romance between the two leads. Honestly, I couldn’t care less for them. But the secondary characters won me the fuck over. I would take a bullet for the president, who expresses her emotions through PowerPoint.

The Unhoneymooners was everything You Deserve Each Other promised and was not: funny, filled with precious banter between two enemies-turned-reluctant friends-turned-we’renotsurewhatwe’llcallthis. I loved it so, so much.

Ayesha at Last is a real sleeper, in that I hardly ever see it on anyone’s list! Read this, peoples! It’s hilarious! I adore Ayesha’s uncle, her relationship with Khalid and her cousin, and everything! It’s one of my absolute favorite Pride and Prejudice retellings.

Graphic Novels/Comics

Yes, I’m Hot in This is basically a primer on how not to treat a hijabi, told in hilarious-but-sadly-true cartoons by the brilliant Huda Fahmy. I absolutely love this comics collection.

Check, Please! is the queer, frat house-hockey bro graphic novel I never knew I wanted. It’s heartwarming, adorable, and Shitty (yes, the name of a real character in the book) literally makes me laugh out loud every time he’s on the page.

While I enjoyed the Lunar Chronicles, it was the graphic novel adaptation Wires and Nerve that I adore best of all, mainly because it highlights the person who should have been the main character in the series: Iko.

Grease Bats is another adorable queer comic collection. It’s funny, relatable, and I just love Andy and Scout. Whenever I’m having the flopsies, I think this book.

And, of course, no hilarious graphic novel/comics collection could ever be complete without Giant Days. I came into the series late, and gobbled up each volume and then issue with delight, as three former roommates navigate relationships, college, and adulthood.

Memoirs

I’ve mentioned both Furiously Happy and Wow, No Thank You quite a bit, as these are both audiobooks that caused me to change several pairs of undies (and pants, on one occasion), and I highly recommend them.

While Trevor Noah is…not the best, I did love Born a Crime, particularly the stories he tells of his mother, who is the funniest woman I’ve ever met. For instance, after Trevor had gotten his hair done and was strutting around feeling fine, his mom waltzes in and shouts “The queen is back! You spent four hours trying to look like that, I just took a shower” or something to that effect, and um, I died.