9 New Funny Female Books to Keep You Laughing
Gather ‘round, it’s comedy hour! These funny females will have you in stitches page after page in these top new finds.
Around here, we like to slip a particularly hilarious piece of literature into our reading lineup from time to time, to add a little levity and laughter to our reading hours. Looking for a bit of light reading for yourself? Pick up any of these very funny new books by some of the funniest females writing right now. We’ve led with a whole lot of nonfiction and capped it with two novels, in case you like your funny served with fiction. Enjoy!
Edison's Ghosts: The Untold Weirdness of History's Greatest Geniuses
by Katie Spalding
Overturn everything you knew about history's greatest minds in this raucous and hilarious book, where it turns out there's a finer line between "genius" and "idiot" than we've previously known.
"As Albert Einstein almost certainly never said, everyone is a genius - but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." So begins Katie Spalding's spunky takedown of the Western canon, and how genius may not be as irrefutably great as we commonly understand.
Edison's Ghosts is filled with examples of the so-called best of humanity doing, to put it bluntly, some really dumb shit. You'll discover stories that deserve to be told but never are.
Tough Titties: On Living Your Best Life When You're the F-Ing Worst
by Laura Belgray
From award-winning TV writer Laura Belgray, a hilarious collection of full-body-cringe, watch-through-your-fingers life lessons her own husband calls "loser Sex and the City."
Peppered with cutting insights on our confusing, self-helpy culture that calls hair removal "self care" and tells us to give our 110% but also to give zero f*cks, Tough Titties will leave you feeling better about, well, everything. Let's face it: we're all tired of shame-spiraling after being told what to do when we know we're not going to do any of it.
Tough Titties is one big permission slip to be a dork, a sometimes-unspiritual slacker, a late bloomer and, ultimately, 100% yourself. It'll also have you snort-laughing in public and tapping whoever's nearby to say, "Lemme read you one more part!" Which is annoying, but tough titties.
Everybody's Favorite: Tales from the World's Worst Perfectionist
by Lillian Stone
"Many have tried, and many will try, to capture the sweet, innocent insanity of life as a young girl during the '90s and 2000s. None have come close to the comedic perfection Lillian Stone nails again and again in Everybody's Favorite." –Glamour, Best Nonfiction Books of 2023
Lillian Stone--childhood evangelical, AOL girlfriend, and professional nail-biter is always living on the edge of anxiety. From the pitfalls of a girl plagued by religious trauma, the incomprehensible yet unforgiving need for perfection, and a poorly-behaved twenty-pound beagle, Everybody's Favorite is a refreshing story of what it means to pick yourself when the world is telling you otherwise.
Everybody's Favorite is set largely during the early 2000s in the Ozarks. It is peppered with Stone's biting satire and gloriously self-deprecating personal anecdotes and is a wry, empathetic look at the chaos that ensues when we contort ourselves into an ever-changing assortment of socially acceptable shapes.
Ali's Well That Ends Well: Tales of Desperation and a Little Inspiration
by Ali Wentworth
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER – Bestselling author Ali Wentworth offers a comedic look at family, friendship, and lessons learned during the Covid-19 pandemic in her new collection of laugh-out-loud comic vignettes.
Like many, Ali Wentworth spent the pandemic seesawing between highs, lows, and baking an unnecessary amount of chocolate cake. Between binging every tv show in existence to conquering TikTok to becoming a (semi) empty-nester, Ali experienced her share of turmoil (including an early case of Covid), but she also grew a little, learned a lot, and found comfort in some unexpected people and places.
In Ali's Well That Ends Well, Wentworth turns her gimlet eye to the year no one saw coming. With her signature irreverent style, she shares the most hysterical, absurd, and sometimes trying episodes that her family endured during the terrible global pandemic. Thoroughly relatable, absolutely charming, and filled with moments both hilarious and poignant, this terrific collection once again showcases the comedic genius of a beloved star who is "the girlfriend you want to have a glass of wine with, the one who makes you laugh because she sees the funny and the absurd in everything" (Huffington Post).
Kiss Me in the Coral Lounge: Intimate Confessions from a Happy Marriage
by Helen Ellis
Even twenty years into marriage, Helen Ellis's husband still makes her heart pitter-patter. The New York Times bestselling author paints a portrait of true romance for our times in these surprising, sexy, and hilariously frank essays about love, marriage, and her last first kiss.
Welcome to the Coral Lounge, a room in Helen Ellis's New York City apartment painted such an exuberant shade that a Peeping Tom left a sticky note asking for the color. It is in the Coral Lounge where all the parties happen: A game called "What's in the box?" makes its uproarious debut, the Puzzle Posse pounces on a 500-piece jigsaw of a beheaded priest, and guests don blindfolds for a raucous bridal shower.
When the pandemic shuts down the city, the Coral Lounge becomes a place of refuge, where Helen and her husband binge-watch Joan Collins's Dynasty, dote on two spoiled cats, and where Helen discovers that even twenty years into marriage, her husband still makes her heart pitter-patter.
Not Funny: Essays on Life, Comedy, Culture, Et Cetera
by Jena Friedman
NATIONAL BESTSELLER – "[A] hilarious and much-needed book." --Samantha Bee, Emmy Award-winning comedian, author, and host of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee
For fans of the perceptive comedy of Hannah Gadsby, Lindy West, and Sarah Silverman, Academy Award-nominated and acclaimed stand-up comedian Jena Friedman presents a witty and insightful collection of essays on the cultural flashpoints of today.
Growing up, Jena Friedman didn't care about being likable. And she never wanted to be a comedian, either. A child of the 90s, she wouldn't discover her knack for the funny business until research for her college thesis led her to take an improv class in Chicago. That anthropology paper, written on race, class, and gender in the city's comedy scene, was, in Jena's own words, "just as funny as it sounds." But it did lay the groundwork for a career that has seen her write and produce for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, the Late Show with David Letterman, and the Oscar-nominated Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.
Friedman's debut collection, Not Funny, takes on the third rails of modern life in Jena's bold and subversive style, with essays that explore cancel culture, sexism, work, celebrity worship, and...dead baby jokes.
The World Deserves My Children
by Natasha Leggero
A "deeply, darkly funny" (Ali Wong, comedian and New York Times bestselling author) collection of insightful and razor-sharp essays on motherhood in our post-apocalyptic world from comedian Natasha Leggero.
When Natasha Leggero got pregnant at forty-two after embarking on the grueling IVF process, she was over the moon. But once her feelings of bliss dissipated, she couldn't help but shake the lingering question: Am I doing this right? And then, Should I be doing this if the world is about to end?
In "by far the funniest book" (Chelsea Handler, New York Times bestselling author) about parenting, Natasha explores themes like "geriatric" pregnancy, parenting in an environmental panic, fear and love, discipline (and conflicting schools of thought on how not to raise a brat), and more. Ultimately, Natasha determines that motherhood is worth it. After all, where do you think the next five generations of humans will be if the only people who are having kids don't believe in science? The world deserves my children.
The Exhibitionist
by Charlotte Mendelson
THE TIMES (UK) NOVEL OF THE YEAR | Named A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR by the Guardian, the Telegraph, and the Sunday Times (UK)
Charlotte Mendelson's The Exhibitionist is a "furiously funny" novel (Sunday Express, UK) about a marriage between two artists, Lucia and Ray, which begins to unravel over the course of one weekend.
The Exhibitionist is the latest, extraordinary novel from Charlotte Mendelson, a dazzling exploration of art, sacrifice, toxic family politics, queer desire, and personal freedom.
The Patron Saint of Second Chances
by Christine Simon
The self-appointed mayor of a tiny Italian village is determined to save his hometown no matter the cost in this "charming farce that highlights the triumph of hope and community" (People).
Vacuum repairman and self-appointed mayor of Prometto, Italy (population 212) Signor Speranza has a problem: unless he can come up with 70,000 euros to fix the town's pipes, the water commission will shut off the water to the village and all the residents will be forced to disperse. In a desperate bid to boost tourism--and revenue--he spreads a harmless rumor that movie star Dante Rinaldi will be filming his next project nearby.
As the entire town becomes involved (even the village priest invests!), Signor Speranza starts to think he might be able to pull this off. But what happens when Dante Rinaldi doesn't show up? Or worse, what if he does?
Strawberry Funfetti Cake - Baking with Blondie by Mandy Merriman
Keeping the fun rolling by pairing these funny books with a fabulous funfetti recipe by Mandy Merriman from Baking with Blondie. One of the things we love most about her cake recipes - they all start with a box of cake mix! Plus, her decoration instructions are supreme.
See the recipe for this fun Strawberry Funfetti Cake!
If you like this recipe, see a preview from her new, fabulous cookbook I'll Bring the Cake: Recipes for Every Season and Every Occasion.
I'll Bring the Cake: Recipes for Every Season and Every Occasion
by Mandy Merriman
Baking with Blondie blogger Mandy Merriman takes the guesswork out of delicious and beautiful cakes – starting with boxed mixes and then adding flavorful ingredients and creative decorations – for occasion-worthy cakes any baker can make.