Play Book Tag discussion
May 2020: Comedy
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Announcing the Tag for May
I didn't have a super strong preference for this month, but comedy works for me!Insight to my thought process for my May book selection:
-- Moore has a new book coming out next month, Shakespeare for Squirrels
-- Hmmm, it seems to be the third book featuring the character Pocket
-- I wonder what the first two books are...
-- Oh! Fool and The Serpent of Venice. They are also Shakespeare themed!
-- I should read those first
That is a long way of saying that I will be reading Fool by Christopher Moore.
I think I am going with My Lady Jane. Its been on my TBR for forever, and it has like three or four poll ballot tags, except that I probably wouldn't use it for Comedy. (Although get the two points for regular PBT), I will probably use it for Cheese.
I would love to read Christopher Moore, we'll just have to see if I have time for that.
it's either the inimitable jeeves or mr penumbra's 24-hour bookstore for me.
I was hoping for made me cry, but comedy will work! Had a feeling this would win given discussion. I'll probably try and read a book by a comedian. Will narrow down choices later.
Although this is not the kind of book you read through, I would still recommend for hearty laughs They Call Me Naughty Lola: Personal Ads from the London Review of Books. And I'll probably read it through once and for all.
Joi wrote: "I'll probably try and read a book by a comedian. Will narrow down choices later."If I get to a second book in May, then I think it will be a memoir by a comedian/actor. I'll keep an eye out for your list. I don't think I have anything on my TBR at the moment (drat that I just read Dear Girls by Ali Wong!).
Then again, I may just stick to one for next month. I have several other books sitting here that I have been wanting to read and they are decidedly NOT comedy. lol
I found a few good options for this month that I'm excited about:First, a friend of a friend wrote a memoir, and it comes out May 5th. I purchased an advanced copy, and it's definitely supposed to be funny, so that's a possibility:
The Girlfriend Mom: A Memoir
More likely, I want to read about the making of comedy. Two possibilities are:
Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy
Just the Funny Parts: ... And a Few Hard Truths About Sneaking Into the Hollywood Boys' Club
I got both out of the library.
If I am able to make a recommendation, Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened totally cracked me up . . .well worth a try. It wasn't uniformly good, but the parts about dogs were pure comedic gold.
Easy choice for me-I am going with The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, it will be a trifecta for me Tag, Polls and it will come off my Un-official Trim list.
Anita wrote: "If I am able to make a recommendation, Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened totally cracked me up . . .well worth a try. It wasn't uniformly good, but the parts about dogs were pure comedic gold...."You got me at dogs! I'm putting this on my TBR.
both of my choices will fit either trim or poll!
I can recommend Crime's Strangest Cases by Peter Seddon - it was one of my unofficial trim numbers earlier this year and had me laughing during the majority of the short stories.
I can recommend Crime's Strangest Cases by Peter Seddon - it was one of my unofficial trim numbers earlier this year and had me laughing during the majority of the short stories.
If you want something that is light fun, two books that had me laughing out loud were:Class Mom (note that I am not a mom and still was 100% entertained)
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 (Jen Lancaster's first three books still remain some of the funniest books I have read)
A note on Pretty Fat: there are lots of footnotes of snide comments so make sure you have a format where you can read those easily. Which may mean paper copy....maybe not the most do-able right now.
My second choice, and a weak second at that. Oh well, I'm sure I'll find something.
This was my third choice, lmao. I just searched the tags and the first one from my TBR list that showed up is... Infinite Jest! There's a reason that's been on my TBR for 5 years. 1088 pages! And I just started A Clash of Kings to continue my Song of Ice and Fire reread. Oh boy, this is truly gonna be the Year of the Chonkers for me...I suppose I might as well try it, and if I can't get through it, at least I can move it from TBR to DNF.
Darn... I was hoping for Made Me Cry which I'll probably read for next month anyway.I may read Terry Pratchett finally or a memoir of some kind.. there are a ton that fit into comedy.
I highly, highly recommend Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson or her other book. Even though Furiously Happy is her 2nd book, I actually listened to it first. It was the only thing that got me snapped out of my extreme sadness when I lost two of my brothers last year. I literally LOL multiple times when I was listening. I now follow her on instagram and I just love what she names her pets and her taxidermied animals.
Okay, while I did NOT vote for comedy, it's an excellent one and I have no complaints. As for what I'll read, I will figure that out by the time May comes around, but I do have some recommendations.Home to Woefield has been tagged this twice and if you're playing Poll Book Tally but are missing farming but already have comedy, here you are :) farming https://www.goodreads.com/work/shelve... on the first page and it fits for Popsugar since it's set in a country that begins with C
and its sequel won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal, which is a prestigious Canadian humour award Republic of Dirt: A Return to Woefield Farm, has also been tagged farming (on the first page) BUT you can't use this for Poll Book Tally comedy since I am the only one who tagged it that and just did, since I tagged it funny, humour, etc, but didn't think of comedy for some silly reason
The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise (comedy 6 times) and is set in London so can work for a Popsugar, I think (advanced, perhaps, not sure) as that city has had the olympics more than once.
There are more, of course, but I'm finding ones that probably aren't on the first page :)
I've had a dtb copy of Bossypants, which is still waiting to be read, so I suppose this is the opportunity.Edited to add that for the trim continuation, my number 21 isErotic Stories for Punjabi Widows which has comedy as a tag!
Sorry Bossypants you will have to wait.
Booknblues wrote: "I've had a dtb copy of Bossypants, which is still waiting to be read, so I suppose this is the opportunity."I listened to Bossypants and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Charlotte wrote: "Booknblues wrote: "I've had a dtb copy of Bossypants, which is still waiting to be read, so I suppose this is the opportunity."I listened to Bossypants and thoroughly enjoyed it."
I know,it probably is very good. I remember it getting raves and it was a gift and I should read it, but I'm just not into entertainers memos. I'm sure I would like it, but...
I'm hoping to fit in some pure fluff next month. Kindle Unlimited has the Winston Brothers series available starting with Truth or Beard by Penny Reid. I've never read her books but they look cute enough.
Heather Reads Books wrote: "This was my third choice, lmao. I just searched the tags and the first one from my TBR list that showed up is... Infinite Jest! There's a reason that's been on my TBR for 5 years. 1088 ..."That's the spirit~LoL
Joanne wrote: "Easy choice for me-I am going with The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, it will be a trifecta for me Tag, Polls and it will come off my Un-official Trim ..."I plan to read this too Joanne. I took it out from the library just before it closed, and I’ll try to get the audio in case the font is too small. It was on my trim last year, and on my tbr for several years before that. Yeah! Is anyone else planning to read it? Bnb?
Jen K wrote: "I'm hoping to fit in some pure fluff next month. Kindle Unlimited has the Winston Brothers series available starting with Truth or Beard by Penny Reid. I've never..."
I could go for some fluff as long as the characters or setting are different or interesting in some way. Or Irish. I seem to love everything I read from Ireland.
This looks interesting. Note - Nicole said it has too much sex for her taste, but I don’t mind as long as it’s not violent.
NancyJ wrote: "Joanne wrote: "Easy choice for me-I am going with The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, it will be a trifecta for me Tag, Polls and it will come off my Un..."It was 4 stars for me both times I read it, so I hope you enjoy that kind of humour as well.
Charlotte wrote: "Darn... I was hoping for Made Me Cry which I'll probably read for next month anyway.I may read Terry Pratchett finally or a memoir of some kind.. there are a ton that fit into comed..."
Charlotte I think you and I were the only ones. There are a lot of books with both comedy and cry tags. I haven’t read anything by Pratchett yet. Maybe the color of magic, or good omens?
Here is my checklist for books with a comedy tag
A comedy that will make me cry - I’m making a list
A feel good inspiring book on my long term tbr -100 year old man,
A free fluffy funny sexy romance - ...beards..
An emotional book with “all the feels” (and a comedy tag)
International feel good book - 100 year old man, Punjabi widows, and /or something from Ireland.
A funny fantasy or magical realism book -unloveable
A feminist book - Just the funny parts
Books that fit other challenges
Books I can get on audible escape or kindle unlimited
NancyJ wrote: "Joanne wrote: "Easy choice for me-I am going with The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, it will be a trifecta for me Tag, Polls and it will come off my Un..."No clue Nancy, but if you are going to read it, I will go along with you-I had it marked as a Buddy Read, and I think it was with you :), so I was just giving it a second thought-let's go for it!
Heh. My last choice. Ah well.Thinking I'll pick a rom-com for this, just gotta sift through my Kindle a bit.
Jen K wrote: "I'm hoping to fit in some pure fluff next month. Kindle Unlimited has the Winston Brothers series available starting with Truth or Beard by Penny Reid. I've never..."
I'm with you and two friends of mine adore those books I have a couple in the TBR.
I want to chime in and endorse both Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows and The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise - both high ratings from me when I read them. As everyone doing Poll Tally knows, it's astounding what people have tagged COMEDY. I say don't be caught thinking too narrowly. Comedy is after all not just humor. Comedy is entertaining. Remember many of Shakespeare's plays are comedies - a Midsummer Night's Dream for example - but not necessarily true humor.
Sigh. I was hoping for one of the narrower tags. Oh, well. Should be easy to find something to fit.
NancyJ wrote: "This looks interesting. Note - Nicole said it has too much sex for her taste, but I don’t mind as long as it’s not violent."My problem with Truth or Beard wasn't necessarily the amount of sex, it was that it was so much sex and so little story. It felt like the shreds of plot were really just there to tie together the sex scenes.
Even Fifty Shades of Grey had more plot than this book.
And when it gets too heavy on sex and too light on plot, it reads like really bad porn. Which I am not a fan of.
But the book has a fairly high rating and there are like 10 books in the series, so I am the outlier!
Nicole R wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "This looks interesting. Note - Nicole said it has too much sex for her taste, but I don’t mind as long as it’s not violent."My problem with Truth or Beard wasn't ne..."
Oh dear, I didn't realize it was mostly sex.... I guess its free to try and then I can go from there. Thanks for the warning!
Jen K wrote: "Nicole R wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "This looks interesting. Note - Nicole said it has too much sex for her taste, but I don’t mind as long as it’s not violent."My problem with Truth or Beard, number 3 in the series. And they did say some of others not so great. Plus the one raving the most has, I've noticed, no aversion to super sexy romps that border on erotic rather than romance. So....I too will be seeing how it goes. I really do like some plot.
Heather Reads Books wrote: "This was my third choice, lmao. I just searched the tags and the first one from my TBR list that showed up is... Infinite Jest! There's a reason that's been on my TBR for 5 years. 1088 ..."Me too!!! I was also hoping this tag wouldn't come up, and everything I actually want to read is showing with a many-week hold time at the library, but Infinite Jest is available right now - I'm not sure I'm in the right frame of mind but I might have to give in and finally attempt it. Is anyone feeling up to a buddy read?
Theresa wrote: "I want to chime in and endorse both Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows and The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise - both high ratings from me when I read them. As ever..."
Ah, I hadn't realized you were also a Julia Stuart fan!
Nikki wrote: "Me too!!! I was also hoping this tag wouldn't come up, and everything I actually want to read is showing with a many-week hold time at the library, but Infinite Jest is available right now - I'm not sure I'm in the right frame of mind but I might have to give in and finally attempt it. Is anyone feeling up to a buddy read?"I'll give it a shot! I put Infinite Jest on hold at the library. There's a wait, but not a terribly long one, so I might be able to join in!
Not sure how I'll like it, to be honest. The length plus the subject matter is not ideal for me, but since it's a "classic," it's been languishing on my TBR for ages now.
Heather Reads Books wrote: "This was my third choice, lmao. I just searched the tags and the first one from my TBR list that showed up is... Infinite Jest! There's a reason that's been on my TBR for 5 years. 1088 ..."Ambitious choice! Good luck. You might love It, but no shame if you don’t.
AJ wrote: "My top recommendation is Idiot by Laura Clery. It's fantastic on audio because she narrates it herself. Not quite a celebrity memoir, but close enough. I remember you reading and recommending this one! I am off to check it out....
How fun, AJ! I hope you do read it with me. Wish if you were a few states away, that I could actually dress up like a bandit, and try to mail it to you when I am done with it! It has like 3-4 tags too for Poll Ballot, and we could split them up....
Okay... my recommendationsJulie and Romeo by Jeanne Ray (a re-telling of Shakespeare's tragedy, starring two middle-aged rival florists)
Philip Gulley 's Harmony series.... first is Home to Harmony
The Miss Julia series by Ann B. Ross ... first is Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind
I did not check to see if any of these books actually has the "comedy" tag ... but they are all entertaining and have some scenes that completely tickled me. So for the monthly tag, they'll certainly fit.
One of the Science Fiction books I was hoping to get also has a "comedy" tag. As the library is re-opening for curb-side pickup starting next week, maybe I'll read it for May.
Book Concierge wrote: "Okay... my recommendationsJulie and Romeo by Jeanne Ray (a re-telling of Shakespeare's tragedy, starring two middle-aged rival florists)
This looks super cute! I love me a classic retelling!
As the library is re-opening for curb-side pickup starting next week, maybe I'll read it for May.."
This is SO exciting! I keep hoping my library will also open curbside pick-up but so far no luck.
Nicole R wrote: "Book Concierge wrote: "Okay... my recommendationsJulie and Romeo by Jeanne Ray (a re-telling of Shakespeare's tragedy, starring two middle-aged rival florists)
This looks super cute! I love me a ..."
Ours isn't showing any signs of curbside pick up, either. I am hoping they do something in May, but now that schools are closed until the end of the year it's not as likely.
My husband paid his Sherwin Williams bill without going into the store. He's always called in his orders, but now has to pick them up curbside--that actually saves him time, so not a problem. He works alone outside so isn't posing a risk to anyone. Or he does apartment turnovers all alone in empty apartments and knows how to wash his hands but obviously not too many people are moving now.
I'll definitely be reading Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood. Its been on my list for too long. After that, I'm considering My Lady Jane - it sounds right up my alley. Scat would probably fit comedy and also fit one of the Poll Ballot Tally categories.
Book Concierge wrote: "Okay... my recommendationsJulie and Romeo by Jeanne Ray (a re-telling of Shakespeare's tragedy, starring two middle-aged rival florists)
Philip Gulley ..."
I love Miss Julia - I need to check where I ended in that series.
I'm going to read Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal.Recommendations:
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Three Bags Full
You can find humor in just about any genre. If you like romance, mystery, paranormal, celebrity memoir, YA, etc., you will find something. It doesn't have to be just a comedy book.
Robin wrote: "You can find humor in just about any genre. If you like romance, mystery, paranormal, celebrity memoir, YA, etc., you will find something. It doesn't have to be just a comedy book."Right, and many books in other genres have been shelved comedy. Redshirts is a scifi comedy and you'll find comedy on the first page of shelves.
I have a lot of options, but the wait times for library ebooks are getting longer. No surprise. I have a lot of library books, and I'm checking tags. I have a lot of books with humor tags (on the first or second page), but there are fewer comedy tags (sometimes just 1 or 2). Is that close enough?
I'm shooting for 8-10 books. I may have to fill out the list with romantic comedies on audible escape.
Can anyone recommend a reasonably funny mystery series? (Other than Janet Evanovich)
Play Book Tag
Books mentioned in this topic
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 (other topics)Blame It on Bianca Del Rio: The Expert on Nothing with an Opinion on Everything (other topics)
Red, White & Royal Blue (other topics)
The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee (other topics)
Blame It on Bianca Del Rio: The Expert on Nothing with an Opinion on Everything (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Jen Lancaster (other topics)Chelsea Handler (other topics)
David Sedaris (other topics)
P.G. Wodehouse (other topics)
Philip Gulley (other topics)
More...
comedy
Please share your reading plans and recommendations below.
Remember, for the regular monthly reads, the book can be shelved as comedy on Goodreads, or be a book that is not yet shelved that way but you feel should be.
One way to find books to read for this tag is to please visit:
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
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Happy reading!