I inherited an offbeat sense of humor from my mother, who encouraged me to create stories about outrageous subjects, like cats doing “people things.” I’m grateful to have made a living writing about such things, as well as observations about my own humorous experiences in essays, calendars, and books. I’ve always looked to other funny creatives for inspiration, and the books on my list reflect some of my favorites.
I wrote...
Texts from Mittens: The Friends and Family Edition
Like the author, I live with mental illness and use humorous writing/reading to process my thoughts and “check out” sometimes. In many instances, her words feel like my words. I can’t help that depression and anxiety affect my daily life, but I do find myself musing about weird happenings—often questioning the reality of situations. And then I laugh.
When I read this book, I didn’t feel so alone in my “weirdness,” I felt validated in giggling at the strange predicaments I’ve found myself in.
In Furiously Happy, a humor memoir tinged with just enough tragedy and pathos to make it worthwhile, Jenny Lawson examines her own experience with severe depression and a host of other conditions, and explains how it has led her to live life to the fullest:
"I've often thought that people with severe depression have developed such a well for experiencing extreme emotion that they might be able to experience extreme joy in a way that ‘normal people' also might never understand. And that's what Furiously Happy is all about."
I love the rawness of Samantha Irby’s writing—she says it like it is. When I read her essays, I’m peeking in on her uncensored thoughts about the mundane, which are unrefined, real, and hysterical to me. Like many of us, I enjoy reading/hearing someone not trying to “polish a turd.”
While reading her book, my mind equally thinks: "I CANNOT believe she just wrote that” and “Tell me MORE.”
'Irby might be our great bard of quarantine.' New York Times
In this painfully funny collection, Samantha Irby captures powerful emotional truths while chronicling the rubbish bin she calls her life. From an ill-fated pilgrimage to Nashville to scatter her estranged father's ashes to awkward sexual encounters to the world's first completely honest job application, and more, sometimes you just have to laugh, even when your life is permanently pear-shaped.
'I cannot remember the last time I was so moved by a book. As close to perfect as an essay collection can get.' Roxane Gay 'Hilarious. I love it.' Candice…
I’m instantly hooked by an essay that’s irreverently funny but has a heart. David lives in his head and overanalyzes his life’s experiences. As an overthinker, I relate. I’ve always found humor in my own or others’ neuroses, and some of my best friendships are those in which we compare obsessions and funny/awkward experiences. I feel like I’m with a friend when I read his essays.
David Sedaris plays in the snow with his sisters. He goes on vacation with his family. He gets a job selling drinks. He attends his brother's wedding. He mops his sister's floor. He gives directions to a lost traveler. He eats a hamburger. He has his blood sugar tested. It all sounds so normal, doesn't it? In his newest collection of essays, David Sedaris lifts the corner of ordinary life, revealing the absurdity teeming below its surface. His world is alive with obscure desires and hidden motives -- a world where forgiveness is automatic and an argument can be the…
King’s unapologetically devoted to unrefined pop culture, and I’m right there with her. I completely relate to the magnetic pull of lowbrow reality shows like Jersey Shore. I sit down to an episode of Real Housewives and get up five hours later with a full bladder, cheese-dusted fingers, and no idea how so much time has passed.
I’m sometimes embarrassed to admit my love of what others may not find sophisticated, but King’s essays make me proud to be in such great company, and I feel nothing less than joy about it.
An irreverent and charming collection of deeply personal essays about the joys of low pop culture and bad taste, exploring coming of age in the 2000s in the age of Hot Topic, Creed, and frosted lip gloss—from the James Beard Award-nominated writer of the Catapult column "Store-Bought Is Fine”
Tacky is about the power of pop culture—like any art—to imprint itself on our lives and shape our experiences, no matter one's commitment to "good" taste. These fourteen essays are a nostalgia-soaked antidote to the millennial generation's obsession with irony, putting the aesthetics we hate to love—snakeskin pants, Sex and the…
Chelsea is the cool girl I want to be best friends with, even though she intimidates the bejeezus out of me. I’ve always been a people pleaser, so I get a kick out of living vicariously through her foul mouth and “screw it” attitude toward most things.
She’s whip-smart, witty, and unafraid—a combination that sends me into fits of laughter and wonder. These essays evoke everything from childhood nostalgia to complete discomfort. Plus, I like vodka, too.
When Chelsea Handler needs to get a few things off her chest, she appeals to a higher power,vodka. This mini edition abridgement of her bestselling book, Chelsea mines her past for stories that are outrageous and one of a kind. Whether she is convincing her third-grade class that she's play Goldie Hawn's daughter in an upcoming film or pretending to honeymoon with her father to get an upgrade to first class, Chelsea has a knack for getting herself into outrageous situations.
One cat, two paws, unlimited drama. What could possibly go wrong?
My book pulls back the curtain on the amusing inner life of the fictional housecat Mittens via neurotic text messages with his patient human and glimpses into the zany antics of his animal and human friends. Come for the drama, but stay for the liver treats.
Not So Little Things by Kyle Ann Robertson unravels the meticulously crafted life of Tina, an artist engrossed in the intricate world of historically accurate miniatures. As she dutifully honors her deceased father's desire for her to follow in his artistic and historical footsteps, Tina's controlled existence is shaken by the emergence of long-buried secrets when she takes a commission to build a replica of Jake Martin’s family mansion.
Robertson navigates the delicate balance between Tina's devotion to her father's wishes and the disruptions caused by revelations from the past. The novel beautifully explores the complexity of familial expectations and…
Tina Edwards loved her childhood and creating fairy houses, a passion shared with her father, a world-renowned architect. But at nine years old, she found him dead at his desk and is haunted by this memory. Tina's mother abruptly moved away leaving Tina with feelings of abandonment and suspicion. Raised by her loving, wheelchair-bound Aunt Liddy, her father's sister, 33 year old Tina has become a miniature room artist and cherishes the control she has over her life in Northeast Georgia as she works hard to please her beloved dead father's wishes of following in his footsteps in art and…
