You know what they say: laughter is the best medicine!

Except for … you know … actual medicine. But nevertheless!

With everything going on in the world lately, I feel like we could all use a bit of a laugh, right? Not that laugh-cry thing you do when you listen the evening news, either, but a real, honest-to-goodness guffaw. The sort that makes you snort, even though you pretend it totally wasn’t you.

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday is books that made me laugh out loud.

Since I absolutely love humor books, you can imagine how much I love this prompt! I think we can all use more laughter in our life, and these books deliver on that. I’m going to go ahead and break my book recommendations down by age group, because that seems easier, but honestly, I’d recommend these for just about anyone, regardless of age.

Middle Grade

The Super Life of Ben Braver

Ben Braver is an ordinary kid. All he wants to do is finish his summer watching awesome TV shows and eating his favorite candy. But when some kid screams for help, Ben, like his favorite comic book heroes, tries to save the day. Let’s just say it ends badly. But it does lead him to a secret school where kids with super abilities learn to control their powers. Ben’s never had any powers—and never thought he could be special. So when he’s offered a spot at the school, Ben realizes this is his chance to become the superhero he’s always dreamed of. Packed with black-and-white art and comic strips throughout.

Reasons to Read:

• Takes superhero trope and turns it on its head.
• Superpowers aren’t always a super awesome blessing!
• Part book, part graphic novel.
• Relatable protagonist who just wants to have superpowers, darn it!
• Lots of teen sarcasm and funny, ill-advised situations.

The Incredibly Dead Pets of Rex Dexter

Rex Dexter is itching to have a dog. He was practically born to have one. His name is Rex, for crying out loud. It’s a dog’s name. Any pooch is preferable, but a chocolate Labrador is the pinnacle. The best of the best. The dream of all dreams.

When Rex’s B-Day for Me-Day finally arrives, his parents surprise him with a box. A box with holes. A box with holes and adorable scratchy noises coming from inside. Could it be? Yes! It has to be! A . . . a . . .

Chicken?

Pet poultry?

How clucky.

One hour and fourteen minutes later, the chicken is dead (by a steamroller), Rex is cursed (by the Grim Reaper), and wild animals are haunting Rex’s room (hounding him for answers). Even his best friend Darvish is not going to believe this, and that kid believes everything.

Rex’s uninvited ghostly guests are a chatty, messy bunch. And they need Rex to solve their mysterious deadly departures from the Middling Falls Zoo before it happens again.

But how?

Reasons to Read:

• Super funny situational humor.
• Dead animals that are keen on cracking jokes.
• Relatable protagonist who just wants a darn dog, thank you very much.
• Lots of funny, ill-advised schemes.

Karma Moon: Ghost Hunter

While staying in a haunted Colorado hotel for her father’s ghost-hunting television series, Karma Moon must battle her anxiety, interpret the signs of the universe, and get footage of a real ghost–you know, the usual.

Karma Moon is a firm believer in everything woo-woo, as her dad calls it. So when she asked her trusty Magic Eight Ball if the call asking her dad to create a ghost-hunting docuseries was her dad’s big break, it delivered: No doubt about it. Because the universe never gets it wrong. Only people do.

Karma and her best friend, Mags, join her dad’s Totally Rad film crew at a famous haunted hotel in Colorado over her spring break. Their mission: find a ghost and get it on camera. If they succeed, the show will be a hit, they can pay rent on time, and just maybe, her mom will come back.

Unfortunately, staying at a haunted hotel isn’t a walk in the park for someone with a big case of the what-ifs. But her dad made Karma the head of research for the docuseries, so she, Mags, and a mysterious local boy named Nyx must investigate every strange happening in the historically creepy Stanley Hotel. Karma hopes that her what-ifs don’t make her give up the ghost before they can find a starring spirit to help their show go viral–and possibly even get them a season two.

Reasons to Read:

• Protagonist with anxiety that will be super relatable for anyone with anxiety.
• Also kind of funny seeing her worries, especially if you’ve ever had the same worries!
• Lots of banter and dialogue humor.
• Situational humor and ill-advised plots.

Young Adult

Bad Habits

Hilarious, bold, sparky and surprising, this is the funniest feminist book you’ll read all year.

Alex is a rebel from the tip of her purple fauxhawk to the toes of her biker boots. She’s tried everything she can think of to get expelled from her strict Catholic boarding school. Nothing has worked so far – but now, Alex has a new plan.

Tired of the sexism she sees in every corner of St Mary’s, Alex decides to stage the school’s first ever production of The Vagina Monologues. Which is going to be a challenge, as no one else at St Mary’s can even bear to say the word ‘vagina’ out loud . . .

Reasons to read:

• Protagonist who has turned sarcasm into an art.
• Juxtaposition of feminism onto a super conservative population.
• Lots of funny, awkward situations.
• A cast of quirky characters, all funny in their own way.

The Extraordinaries

Some people are extraordinary. Some are just extra. TJ Klune’s YA debut, The Extraordinaries, is a queer coming-of-age story about a fanboy with ADHD and the heroes he loves.

Nick Bell? Not extraordinary. But being the most popular fanfiction writer in the Extraordinaries fandom is a superpower, right?

After a chance encounter with Shadow Star, Nova City’s mightiest hero (and Nick’s biggest crush), Nick sets out to make himself extraordinary. And he’ll do it with or without the reluctant help of Seth Gray, Nick’s best friend (and maybe the love of his life).

Reasons to Read:

• Super relatable characters making not-so-great life choices.
• ADHD can be funny! That’s totally a thing.
• Okay, maybe it’s just funny for me, since I have ADHD and can totally relate, and oh my poor friends and family.
• Lots of situational humor.
• Teen sarcasm. Since we all know teens are professionals at it.

Illuminae

Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the worst thing she’d ever been through. That was before her planet was invaded. Now, with enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra are forced to fight their way onto one of the evacuating craft, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.

But the warship could be the least of their problems. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet’s AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their biggest threat; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady plunges into a web of data hacking to get to the truth, it’s clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: Ezra.

Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents—including emails, schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more—Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping, high-octane trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.

Reasons to Read:

• Will make you laugh and cry for different reasons.
• More teen sarcasm! These are professionals, folks.
• Mostly dry humor and sarcasm, which is the best kind of humor.
• Humor offsetting darker, heavier themes.

Adult

The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry

A charming historical fantasy with a tender love story at its core, from the author of Unnatural Magic.

Hard-drinking petty thief Dellaria Wells is down on her luck in the city of Leiscourt—again. Then she sees a want ad for a female bodyguard, and she fast-talks her way into the high-paying job. Along with a team of other women, she’s meant to protect a rich young lady from mysterious assassins.

At first Delly thinks the danger is exaggerated, but a series of attacks shows there’s much to fear. Then she begins to fall for Winn, one of the other bodyguards, and the women team up against a mysterious, magical foe who seems to have allies everywhere.

Reasons to Read:

• Historical fantasy mixed with charming romance.
• Filled with a squad of sarcastic characters.
• Plenty of dark humor and dark situational humor.
• A hilarious undead hamster named Buttons.
• Quirky characters guaranteed to make you at least chuckle!

Peril in the Old Country

You’ve got to have rules. According to the good folk of the Old Country, they’re all that’s holding the dismal tide at bay. Start playing fast and loose with the rules, and it all comes tumbling down.

No one in the Old Country follows the rules half as well as Sloot Peril, who has never so much as given alms to a beggar without getting a certified receipt. He had his entire life planned out to the end and was so looking forward to making as faint a mark on the world as possible. Then he was asked to correct the worst financial report ever written.

Sloot’s corrections prevented annihilation from coming to pass; however, if he’d known what he was setting in motion instead, he might have heard annihilation out.

Sloot will have to set aside his affinity for the rules and go up against underworld kingpins, secret societies, the undead, bloodthirsty cannibals from Carpathia, and even the ruthless Vlad the Invader! If that weren’t enough, the steely gaze of Mrs. Knife follows him wherever he goes. Does she really want to murder him, or does she just have one of those faces?

At least Sloot’s misadventures bring the lovely Myrtle into his life. She has the sort of smile that makes him want to stand up straighter and invest in some cologne. He’s not even bothered by the fact that she’s possessed by the laziest philosopher ever to have died.

Will the events put in motion by the ghastly financial report end in Sloot’s grisly death? Almost definitely. Is that the worst thing that could happen? Almost definitely not.

Reasons to read:

• Reluctant, ill-equipped hero at its finest.
• Utterly funny and absolutely ridiculous situational humor.
• Dry, sarcastic humor from pretty much every character.
• Characters that will always keep you guessing.
• Snort-laugh inducing scenarios.

The Last Halloween: Children

For every human on Earth, there is a monster connected to them.

Now, the barrier keeping them out of the human world has been broken, and they’re all loose, wreaking havoc across the planet.

Chased out into the Halloween night, 10-year-old Mona meets some very strange new fellows: a ghoul, a vampire, and her own monster. Together, they search for the only human who can restore the barrier, save the world, and keep this from being the Last Halloween.

Reasons to read:

• Dark situational humor punctuated by sarcasm.
• Pokes fun at the “chosen one” theme.
• Mixes humor with horror to a delightful effect.
• Plenty of subverted expectations.

A Study in Brimstone

Sherlock Holmes is an unparalleled genius who uses the gift of deduction and reason to solve the most vexing of crimes.

Warlock Holmes, however, is an idiot. A good man, perhaps; a font of arcane power, certainly. But he’s brilliantly dim. Frankly, he couldn’t deduce his way out of a paper bag. The only thing he has really got going for him are the might of a thousand demons and his stalwart flatmate. Thankfully, Dr. Watson is always there to aid him through the treacherous shoals of Victorian propriety… and save him from a gruesome death every now and again.

An imaginative, irreverent and addictive reimagining of the world’s favourite detective, Warlock Holmes retains the charm, tone and feel of the original stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle while finally giving the flat at 221b Baker Street what it’s been missing for all these years: an alchemy table.

Reimagining six stories, this riotous mash-up is a glorious new take on the ever-popular Sherlock Holmes myth, featuring the vampire Inspector Vladislav Lestrade, the ogre Inspector Torg Grogsson, and Dr. Watson, the true detective at 221b. And Sherlock. A warlock.

Reasons to Read:

• Humorous take on Sherlock Holmes … with magic!
• Comedic parody of a classic detective.
• Situational humor—sometimes absurd, sometimes not.
• Characters with no regard to the consequences of using magic.
• A sort of dry, British humor, especially in Watson’s narration.

Just One Damned Thing After Another

“History is just one damned thing after another.”

Behind the seemingly innocuous façade of St Mary’s, a different kind of historical research is taking place. They don’t do ‘time-travel’ – they ‘investigate major historical events in contemporary time’. Maintaining the appearance of harmless eccentrics is not always within their power – especially given their propensity for causing loud explosions when things get too quiet.

Meet the disaster-magnets of St Mary’s Institute of Historical Research as they ricochet around History. Their aim is to observe and document – to try and find the answers to many of History’s unanswered questions…and not to die in the process. But one wrong move and History will fight back – to the death. And, as they soon discover – it’s not just History they’re fighting.

Follow the catastrophe curve from 11th-century London to World War I, and from the Cretaceous Period to the destruction of the Great Library at Alexandria. For wherever Historians go, chaos is sure to follow in their wake….

Reasons to read:

• Ridiculously funny situational humor.
• Characters filled to the brim with sarcasm and dry humor.
• An incredibly humorous narrative voice.
• Ventures into the past that are doomed to go wrong.

What are some funny books you’d recommend? Drop them in the comments below or leave your own TTT post.