Happy book please

For gentle good humour and sometimes a good belly laugh, it’s hard to beat the Herriot vet books. I read them all when they first came out and loved them all.

I too thought both The Moon’s a Balloon” and its companion “Bring on the Empty Horses” very entertaining and very funny.

Small Bomb at Dimperley is a great read if you love a bit of 'plucky and poignant' by Lissa Evans , brilliant author.

"Crooked Heart" by Lissa Evans. It is a very easy read and great fun - made me laugh out loud. Our last few book club choices have been a bit on the grim side too and, when it's my turn, I am going to suggest we read Crooked Heart.

A Man called Ove by Fredrik Backman. It was also a lovely film, renamed A Man Called Otto with Tom Hanks.

NotSpaghetti

These are ultimately happy novels:

Miss Benson's Beetle
by Rachel Joyce
about a spinster schoolteacher, Margery Benson, who abandons her life in 1950s London to search for a mythical golden beetle in New Caledonia^

Rachel Joyce also wrote
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
...which is also quirky and funny.
about Harold who goes on a long journey

...neither of these is relentlessly humorous but both are ultimately "smiling' sort of books - but also with very funny parts.

I recommend these two books as well, in particular the Beetle one, it’s a really good and uplifting read.

Sadgrandma

A Man called Ove by Fredrik Backman. It was also a lovely film, renamed A Man Called Otto with Tom Hanks.

Yes, this book too, the book better than the film as is usually the case.

Greyduster

I too thought both The Moon’s a Balloon” and its companion “Bring on the Empty Horses” very entertaining and very funny.

Me too, tho they may be out of print now?

Tony Hawk’s Round Ireland With A Fridge is funny as mentioned and was it the same author that wrote Beating The Moldovan's At Tennis?

Oreo

Greyduster

I too thought both The Moon’s a Balloon” and its companion “Bring on the Empty Horses” very entertaining and very funny.

Me too, tho they may be out of print now?

Both still in print and available.

👍🏻

Yes, it was, Oreo.
Both good. I think the tennis one was on radio 4 years ago.

Quirky humour from Howard of Warwick who has written a series of books about Brother Hermitage, a hapless naive monk who gets caught up in all sorts of pickles and becomes the King’s investigator.
As with all series some are better than others. I liked the early ones enough to keep up to date with the series.

Still Life by Sarah Winman. Slightly different but a lovely read. We all enjoyed reading it. Also A Gentleman in Moscow. A slow start but well worth reading. It was on television too although they altered the story slightly.

The Echo Chamber by John Boyne
A satire on social media. Very well written and really funny.

Millie Johnson writes quality romance books with a dash of humour and insight into the ups and downs and reality of life. Well worth a read

lixy

Quirky humour from Howard of Warwick who has written a series of books about Brother Hermitage, a hapless naive monk who gets caught up in all sorts of pickles and becomes the King’s investigator.
As with all series some are better than others. I liked the early ones enough to keep up to date with the series.

I was just going to suggest Howard of Warwick, these are brilliantly funny.

Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k-Up - Alexandra Potter (funny and heart warming)
A Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson
(funny and interesting)
The Reading List - Sara Nisha Adams
(warm and up-lifting)

Anything by Bill Bryson. Especially Letters From A big Island. Absolutely laugh out loud funny as well as being instructive.
Very much older, but The Egg and I by Betty MacDonald plus the follow on books. All autobiographical and set in the 1930s/40s but very funny.

A friend gave me Here Come the Gitls by Millie Johnson and I loved it. It’s laugh out loud funny in places and you really get to like the characters.

Here Come the GIRLS, that should say

Driving over Lemons by Chris Stewart - true story of family move to Spain and buying a farm house and making a new life there. Cheerful and happy read.
And why not go back to Jane Austen? Just celebrating her 250th birthday and any of her novels would do - all good to reread if you have already read them. My favourite is Persuasion - but take your pick from them all!

Just listening to that right this minute being read in its entirety on BBC Sounds. I love them all (except Northanger Abbey, which I find irritating) and Emma was long my favourite. But as I’ve aged, I feel Persuasion (her last full length novel) has a greater depth to it.

Dornford Yates: Berry and Co. or Blind Corner.

I second anything by PG Wodehouse or EF Benson (notably the Mapp and Lucia series) and would add The Barchester Chronicles by Anthony Trollope. Happy reading!