Stop, You're Killing Me!

Q: "Can you name a writer or a work that made you Laugh Out Loud? (no inner chuckles)"

-from Susan

Pretty much anything by Dave Barry.

Pretty much anything by David Sedaris.

Bits of Mark Twain.

Some snappy lines in Nora Ephron’s Heartbreak and also in some of her essay collections.

Within the mystery genre, Rhys Bowen’s Royal Spyness books have some laugh out loud situations, as do Cindy Sample’s Dying for a … series. Years ago, I remember laughing out loud at some of the nuttier situations in Donald Westlake’s Dortmunder caper books. John Mortimer’s Rumpole of the Bailey stories, at least at first. After the twenty-seventh, even “she who must be obeyed” got a little shop worn. And, to my own surprise, I guffawed at a couple of comically awful moments in Johnny Shaw’s Plaster City. Surprise because there’s so much violence in the very scenes I was laughing at – how could that be? Maybe because Johnny Shaw’s just a great storyteller, as all these writers are.

There are probably others, but these snap to mind. Can’t wait to hear what my fellow Minds have to recommend.