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.
Previous Top Ten Tuesday Topics
- 5th July: Most Anticipated Books Releasing In the Second Half of 2022
- 12th July: Book Covers that Feel Like Summer
- 19th July: Some Bookish Opinions
- 26th July: Books from my Past Seasonal TBR Posts that I STILL Have Not Read
- 2nd August: Books Set In A Place I’d Love to Visit
This is a tricky one: I rarely read ‘hilarious’ books, if I’m honest, preferring wry irony perhaps; I fear I would actually find a ‘hilarious’ title rather off putting – there is such a thing as trying too hard; and there are some obviously rather silly titles out there that a quick Google search throws up. Do I want to be the one to throw into your consciousness Images You Should Not Masturbate To or Crap Taxidermy or The Beautiful Poetry of Donald Trump? Do I want to be the one to be responsible for anyone else realising that there is a whole genre of dinosaur erotica with titles like Taken by The T-Rex and Ravished by the Triceratops?
I did, however, like one title that that Google search popped up so perhaps I’ll start the list with that:
Are You There Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea by Chelsea Handler
This is totally not the sort of book I would ever pick up (I know, call me prejudiced…) nor had ever heard of before today – though the name Chelsea Handler rings bells somewhere… But I do like the title in its own right, but also in its very deliberate echoing of Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume – which is also pretty funny in itself, and a book I am only aware of as its importance as a school text!
Chelsea Handler is a woman on a mission. She’s smart, sassy and not afraid to speak her mind. From an early age Chelsea knew exactly what she wanted and even in the trickiest of situations, she’s never one to pass up an opportunity.
How To Kill Your Family, Bella Mackie
A title that is unexpected and a little bit blunt perhaps?
Whilst I do actually own this one – basically on the back of hearing Bella Mackie and her husband Greg James together on A Good Read – I’ve not got around to reading it yet.
They say you can’t choose your family. But you can kill them.
Meet Grace Bernard.
Daughter, sister, serial killer…
Grace has lost everything.
And she will stop at nothing to get revenge.
The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee
Felicity Montague must use all her womanly wits and wiles to achieve her dreams of becoming a doctor—even if she has to scheme her way across Europe to do it.
It’s the final and somewhat unexpected reference to piracy that slips in the humour – although perhap less unexpected if you’d read the previous book in the series, The Gentleman’s Guide to Virtue and Vice, but the title of this one seems funnier to me – and it looks like a cracking yarn!
Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death, M. C. Beaton
High-flying public relations supremo Agatha Raisin has decided to take early retirement. She’s off to make a new life in a picture-perfect Cotswold village. To make friends, she enters the local quiche-making competition – and is accused of being a cheat and potential poisoner. Definitely not the best start.
Any of the Agatha Raisin books could fit this category – and in fact there is a trend of cosy detectives for have wry titles – whether it be The Murderous Marriage, The Wellspring of Death or The Curious Curate…!
The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde
And, again, with the Thursday Next series, I could almost have chosen any of them: I particularly like Something Rotten and First Among Sequels as humourous titles, but the assonance and rhyme of this, the first book, is great. And they are also cracking good – bonkers – books if you like allusive madcap literary adventuring. And who doesn’t?
There is another 1985, where London’s criminal gangs have moved into the lucrative literary market, and Thursday Next is on the trail of the new crime wave’s MR Big.
Acheron Hades has been kidnapping certain characters from works of fiction and holding them to ransom. Jane Eyre is gone. Missing.
The Kaiju Preservation Society, John Scalzi
When we watch Godzilla or Pacific Rim or Godzilla, do we ever stop and wonder who is looking out for the big guy – the Kaiju? They’re just trying to survive after all. Turns out, a ragtag team of scientists are looking after them!
They’re big, they’re bad and they’re about to become extinct . . .
It seems Tom’s ‘animal rights organization’ is way more than it appears. The animals aren’t even on Earth – or not our Earth, anyway. In an alternate dimension, massive dinosaur-like creatures roam a tropical, human-free world. And although Kaiju are their universe’s largest and most dangerous animal, they need support to survive.
I think I will leave it there this week – although I have only cited six titles, once you include other entries into the series mentioned, you have far more than ten! Also, I did do another Funny Title post not that long ago well, in 2021 but I threw out spices that expired in 2021 from the cupboard today so that still feels recent! – which anyone can go and check out and which I have tried strenuously to avoid albeit with some overlapping!
I am looking forward to seeing your posts and having a good natured giggle! Happy Tuesday!
Upcoming Top Ten Tuesday Themes
August 16: Books I Love That Were Written Over Ten Years Ago
August 23: Completed Series I Wish Had More Books
August 30: School Freebie (In honor of school starting up soon, come up with a topic that somehow ties to school/education. The book could be set at school/college, characters could be teachers, books with school supplies on the cover, nonfiction titles, books that taught you something or how to do something, your favorite required reading in school, books you think should be required reading, your favorite banned books, etc.)
September 6: Books I Loved So Much I Had to Get a Copy for My Personal Library (Maybe you received an ARC or borrowed from a friend/the library and loved it so much you wanted your own! Or maybe you read it in one format and wanted another format, like you read it in ebook and wanted a physical copy to display on your shelves or you read it the paperback and would love to re-read it on audio. Change this TTT title to fit your post best!) (Submitted by Alecia @ The Staircase Reader)
September 13: Books with Geographical Terms in the Title (for example: mountain, island, latitude/longitude, ash, bay, beach, border, canyon, cape, city, cliff, coast, country, desert, epicenter, hamlet, highway, jungle, ocean, park, sea, shore, tide, valley, etc. For a great list, click here!) (Submitted by Lisa of Hopewell)
September 20: Books On My Fall 2022 To-Read List
September 27: Typographic Book Covers (Book covers with a design that is all or mostly all words. You can also choose to do books with nice typography if that’s easier!) (Submitted by Mareli @ Elza Reads)
The Book Lovers' Sanctuary 
These are all great! I like The Eyre Affair the best!
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Fab list!
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Dinosaur Erotica? No, I definitely don’t want to know!! I like the title for How to Kill your family. I know there is a book How to kill your husband and other household chores. So funny!
Happy TTT!
Elza Reads
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I love this title : Are You There Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea 🙂
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Well said. Often books with humorous titles have plots and/or characters that don’t live up to the title. Or maybe that’s just me…
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Lmao, oh no, dinosaur erotica 🙈 Totally forgot that was a thing! Barring those, these are some pretty great titles! I added How to Kill Your Family because of the title (and cover). It sounds good!
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I’ve read one of these, The Lady’s Guide To Petticoats and Piracy and I really enjoyed it, it was a lot of fun. I love that cosy mystery titles always seem to be puns, it makes me think I should try some of them!
My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2022/08/09/top-ten-tuesday-380/
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Great list and picks. These titles have made me both laugh (especially the ones in your intro) and curious about.
Here is my TTT this week: https://herseriallife.com/top-10-hilarious-books-book-titles/
Have a great week☀️
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Comedians and cozy mysteries always have the best titles!
Here is our Top Ten Tuesday.
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Like you, I rarely attempt a book that claims to be hilarious because I never think it is. I think it’s VERY hard to set out to write something funny and pull it off. But, I did appreciate the titles you managed to come up with, particularly the Chelsea Handler one. I did a similar Google search and came up with some pretty risque titles that I decided to leave off 🙂
Terrie @ Bookshelf Journeys
here’s me: https://www.bookshelfjourneys.com/post/ttt-funny-book-titles
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These are all great! I always love the ones comedians come up with for memoirs.
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Great titles and covers too!
Have a great week!
Emily @ Budget Tales Book Blog
My post:
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Are You There Vodka, It’s Me Chelsea was a funny book! I remember reading it when Chelsea Handler was a big name in comedy in the early 2010’s… I think 😅 Maybe it was earlier, but I definitely remember watching her late night show in high school!
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The How To Kill Your Family one really caught me off guard with how much it owns it with the cover xD Like it’s not being coy at all lol. I included your post in mine this week, I hope you don’t mind!
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Same here. I really don’t read funny books and apparently, I’m also a little put off by titles that are trying too hard to be funny. Those kinds of titles do catch the eye, though, which is the point, of course.
Happy TTT (on a Wednesday)!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
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I actually like Crap Taxidermy. It’s funny and different.
My TTT
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