Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish (click the link to visit them) who pick a different topic each week.
The topic for this week is: Top Ten Books Which Feature Characters Who _____ (are musically inclined, have lost someone, have depression, who grow up poor, etc.) I decided to go for my favourite funny characters. The ones that make you do a LOL when reading in public places.
Book titles link to the Goodreads page
Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy: “Magic, monsters, crime fighting, a sarcastic skeleton detective and a girl who kicks ass…what more could you want?”
Mystery Man & Dan Starkey by Colin Bateman: Black humour at its best. Mystery Man is like Bernard Black from Black Books, trying to solve crimes. So good! I did a whole feature on it here. And, Dan Starkey is a feckless journalist who finds himself in ridiculously stupid yet very sticky situations, constantly!
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness: Manchee the dog provides a lot of laughs and also tears in this book. I’ve never known a literary dog to have so much impact! Genius. [Review]
I am the Messenger by Marcus Zuzak: I loved Ed Kennedy’s self-deprecating sense of humour in this book. It’s such an underrated book overall in my opinion.
The Gates by John Connolly: Samuel Johnson and his dachshund, Boswell are a hilarious duo in John Connolly’s book about demon neighbours, portals, and the Large Hadron Collider.
A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon: I found this book really funny as well as bittersweet and slightly heartbreaking.
George Hall doesn’t understand the modern obsession with talking about everything. ‘The secret of contentment, George felt, lay in ignoring many things completely.’
I loved George so much, and he was darkly hilarious without meaning to be.
The Martian by Andy Weir: Mark Watney provides some much needed humour in this book about one man stranded on Mars. [Review]
The Ruby Redfort books by Lauren Child: I loved Ruby’s ‘sarky, feisty wit’ in these action-packed spy books. [Review]
The Flavia de Luce books by Alan Bradley: “Flavia is witty, tenacious and doggedly independent with a fiery, yet caring spirit,” making these classic mystery books a breath of fresh air. [Review]
Great idea! I love humor in books of all genres and I’m always on the lookout for new ideas. Great call on The Martian!
The Martian was HILARIOUS! I was laughing almost all the time when I was reading it. Great list!
Aeriko @ http://thereadingarmchair.blogspot.com
Awww Manchee. I have mixed feelings about him, but he did crack me up! Great list!
My new favourites are Manchee and The Martian. Love a touch of humour in stories.
I almost went with this theme too. Great idea and list! Like most everyone above I too loved The Martian, Mark Watney made the entire book for me. Of course it was about him, but still would have been a much different read without that humor.
Love your topic! With the exception of Flavia, I haven’t read any of these, but I will be sure to add them to my TBR list as I love characters who can make me laugh.
Thanks! Gotta love a character who can make you laugh 🙂
So with you on Ed Kennedy. I Am the Messenger made me crack up (and then cry), and it is highly underrated!
Great list, I love Skulduggery Pleasant! One of the funniest fictional characters ever created! Also The Knife of Never Letting Go is on my TBR list.
Here is my TTT for this week:
https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2015/04/28/top-ten-tuesdays-2/
I love a bit of humour in my books too. I haven’t heard of these but now I’ll need to check them out if I want a laugh. Thanks.
Flavia made my list also, but my category was ‘quirky characters”.