Searching for hilarious, quirky, and relatable books to shake up your your girls only book club? Our 15 funny book club books are perfect for modern women, stressed out moms, and anyone in need of a laugh!
Disclosure: This site contains affiliate links for products and services I recommend. When you make a purchase through an affiliate link, at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission. Read our full disclosure here.
I don’t know about you, but I know sometimes I need to step away from life and just laugh.
Don’t get me wrong, dramas, historical fiction, and mysteries have their place. But when my kids don’t nap, my home is a mess, or the world goes to shit, I don’t want to think too hard. After a rough day, I want to crack open a bottle of sauv blanc, sit on my couch, and dive into something that lifts the weight off my shoulders. Don’t you?
These 15 funny book club books, specifically picked out for women, should do the trick!
If you’re a parent, you’ll love reading about the New York attorney turned stay at home mom, the middle-aged class mom of a kindergartner, or Ashely Keller, the hot-mess new mom in Confessions of a Domestic Failure.
Or maybe you’re eyeing something less maternal. Enjoy a hilarious adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, the heartwarming story of a cranky old man who hates people, and a few comedic autobiographies.
These hilariously funny book club books are perfect for when you need a light laugh or for your (probably virtual) get together. Crack open the wine and find your next title below.
15 Funny Book Club Books for Women
Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
Where’d You Go Bernadette is one of those spit your sip of wine out funny books, perfect for a night of book club laughs.
15-year-old Bee Branch’s parents, software genius, Elgin, and former architect, Bernadette, promise their daughter a cruise to Antarctica. Bernadette though, is on the brink of disaster.
After a feud with a neighbor and a school fundraiser gone wrong, Bernadette disappears. Bee, determined to get everyone on board – literally – with her cruise, picks up her mother’s trail. She weaves together emails, school memos, and conversations with her Bernadette’s Indian assistant, Manjula.
Will Bee and her father find Bernadette? Is she absolutely insane of just sane enough? One of my absolute favorite funny book club books, Bernadette speaks to the bit of crazy in all of us.
More funny books by Maria Semple:
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
I don’t think there’s a book I’ve recommended more as a librarian than The Rosie Project. Simsion’s novel is a perfect balance of quirkiness and humor.
Single, obsessive compulsive genetics professor, Don Tillman decides it’s time to find a wife. His plan – The Wife Project – is to eliminate undesirable candidates through a simple questionnaire.
Rosie is on a quest of her own, to find her birth father. When she asks Don for help, the two are drawn to one another, though are clearly a terrible match on paper. Rosie challenges Don’s obsessive habits and encourages him to be spontaneous. Can these two actually be a match?
The Rosie Project is an intelligent, yet sweet romantic comedy with protagonists who are clearly awkward misfits, yet winners in their own ways.
The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion
Just when you thought Simsion and his beloved Don and Rosie couldn’t get any funnier, Rosie’s pregnant! In typical Don Tillman research fashion, he goes about trying to learn how to be the perfect father. Not without getting himself into legal trouble, of course.
Fortunately for Don, his best friend Gene has recently left his own wife and is moving in with Don and Rosie. What could go wrong in this lovable sequal?
More funny books in Simsion’s Rosie Project series:
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
We all know an Eleanor. Socially awkward. Hasn’t cut her hair since she was thirteen. Does crossword puzzles during lunch. Weekends are bookended with bottles of vodka and phone conversations with her mother. Her coworkers think she’s socially underdeveloped and she thinks them idiots.
Eleanor doesn’t know that life should be anything more than fine. But a chance encounter Eleanor and Raymond, a coworker, have with an elderly man who collapses on the street changes everything.
As clues to Eleanor’s sad, troubled past surface, her newfound friendship with Raymond drives her break from isolation.
But wait, this doesn’t sound funny…
Admittedly, I receive many comments that readers didn’t quite find Eleanor hilarious. To me, funny book club books can (and should) include the quirky and relatable side of humor, too.
Eleanor is quirky, awkward, and weird. But she charms the hearts of readers and rakes in more than a couple of laughs.
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
Ove is a miserable, curmudgeon of an old man. At 59 years old, Ove is a widower who’s tried (and failed) to kill himself multiple times. His neighbors call him the bitter neighbor from hell.
But, one morning, his chatty new neighbors accidentally run over Ove’s mailbox, and he, unfortunately, has to talk to them. And apparently teach them how to drive. What follows a comical tale of human values, community, and friendship.
A Man Called Ove speaks to what it means to not just live, but be alive. Humor mixed with genuine human emotion will have you crying one moment and laughing the next. Guys, I hugged this one when I was done.
More funny book club books by Fredrik Backman:
- Anxious People
- My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry
- Things My Son Needs to Know About the World
Confessions of a Domestic Failure by Bunmi Laditan
Ashley Keller is a career woman turned stay at home hot-mess mommy to eight month old Aubrey. Emily Walker keeps a pinterest-worthy home and runs a successful mommy blog and media empire.
When Ashley snags a spot in Emily’s Motherhood Better Bootcamp, she sees a chance to improve as a mother and homemaker. Ashely attempts to navigate her way through crafts, mommy groups, and makeovers.
But hot mess mom is a title harder to abandon than she realizes. But she’s about to change in a way the Motherhood Better Bootcamp could never have prepared her for.
One of the best funny book club books for moms, this speaks to the pressures of millennial parenting – and living. However, this title will resonate with anyone who owns a cell phone or has an Instagram account. Or anyone who has ever felt or laughed at the need to be perfect.
More funny books by Bunmi Laditan:
Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding
One of the original comedic book club books, Bridget Jones’s Diary is laugh out loud funny. Through her journal entries, we follow Bridget Jones, a single thirty-something living in London.
Loosely based on Pride and Prejudice, Bridget is smitten for her boss, but her parents have their sights on Mark Darcy, a divorced family friend. The web gets pretty tangled.
Alongside her romantic flops, laugh along with weight loss journey, career advancements, family and friends, and, most importantly, finding love.
Full of modern, romantic humor (even 20 years later) Bridget Jones’s Diary marks the beginning of the chick-lit movement.
More funny books by Helen Fielding:
Woman Last Seen in Her Thirties by Camille Pagan
Maggie Harris is happily married with two healthy children. Anxious by nature, she has a couple of not always rational fears, like identity theft and falling air-conditioners.
The least of her worries is finding herself single at thirty three. But when her husbands walks out on her, Maggie comes face to face with her biggest fear – herself.
After years of caring for everyone but herself, Maggie embarks on a trip to Rome, begins a new career, and even enters into a new relationship. But when disaster strikes – again – what will Maggie risk to maintain her new sense of self. And avoid a nervous breakdown?
More funny book club books by Camille Pagan:
Bossypants by Tina Fey
Tina Fey tells her own story. Not just the story of Saturday Night Live and Liz Lemon, but her story.
Through biographical essays, Fey delivers magazine style parodies of her beauty regimen, college romance, and her “me time” as a new parent (ha!). All in jest, of course, this provides a unique angle into how this comedienne came to be.
When Life Gives You Lululemons by Lauren Weisberger
Emily Charlton, a la The Devil Wears Prada, returns post Miranda Priestly. A somewhat successful consultant herself, Emily lands in Greenwich CT with the job of relaunching former model Karolina.
Karolina finds herself in hot water after her Senator husband’s very public indiscretion and her own arrest for drunk driving. Her only friend is Miriam, a New York attorney turned stay at home mom.
Together they’ll navigate this new territory…the suburbs.
More funny book club books by Lauren Weisberger:
The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
Alan Karlsson’s had an eventful life. He turns 100 in just a day and his nursing home is planning a big celebration…though he’d prefer that there be more vodka.
He’s in perfect health and isn’t all that interested in celebrating. So Alan escapes out the window and embarks on a hilarious and surprising journey, complete with a suitcase full of money and an elephant.
Alternating with his adventures are flashbacks from his wildly fantastic past. Alan befriended Harry Truman, helped make the atom bomb, dined with Charles de Gaulle, and became a spy. Perhaps the nursing home was just too uneventful for him.
More funny book club books by Jonas Jonasson:
- The Accidental Further Adventure of the Hundred-Year-Old-Man
- Hitman Anders and the Meaning of It All
- The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules
The Hating Game: A Novel by Sally Thorne
Lucy and Joshua don’t dislike each other. They despise one another. Hate. Detest.
They display their true feeling for one another through a series of passive aggressive maneuvers as they sit across from one another as assistants to the co-CEOs of a publishing company. As they are each up for the same promotion, tensions mount…and could cost them each a dream job.
Equally witty and sexy, this rom-com is a girl’s night book club must read!
More funny book club books by Sally Thorne:
Class Mom by Laurie Gelman
Jen Dixon is a mom of two college age daughters but she’s about to embark on a whole new adventure: becoming her kindergartner’s class mom.
Her alternative methods though, such as tracking responses from parents for help, don’t go over well. With a cast of characters, including a Real-Housewife in training, a sexy teacher, and an over sensitive mama, the job becomes more than Jen bargained for.
Highlighting the struggles of raising kids and the pressure to be perfect Class Mom offers a dose of humor and reality we need as parents.
More funny books by Laurie Gelman:
The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra by Vaseem Khan
Inspector Chopra retires and inherits two cases. One of a drowned boy (not funny) and the other of of a baby elephant (hilarious). Since no one else seems to take the circumstances surrounding the boy’s death seriously, Inspector Chopra will.
Khan mirrors the seriousness of police work with the randomness of a stubborn elephant. Part detective work, part struggle with stepping into retirement, and part superstar elephant, this one is unexpected (intentional!) and charming.
More funny books by Vaseem Khan:
Bitter is the New Black by Jen Lancaster
Imagine going from six figured to broke… When you go from having it all to having nothing, sometimes all you can do is laugh.
Lancaster brings us her smart-mouthed, soul-searching, hilarious memoir of discovering her perfect life wasn’t exactly all it was cracked up to be. With funny but real life lessons and unmatchable wit, Bitter is the New Black is a must for anyone navigating middle age.
More funny book club books by Jen Lancaster:
More Funny Book Club Books Recommended by Blog Readers
Find even more funny book club books as recommended by you guys, our amazing readers!
I love hearing what you’re reading and discovering new, laugh out loud funny titles that keep my mood light. Though I haven’t read all of what’s been suggested just yet, quite a few have made it to my TBR.
I’m looking forward to reading about Jack, who’s grounded for life and stuck helping his neighbor with chores, and Lacey, who publicly calls her husband out for his indiscretions.
Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man by Fannie Flag
Flagg’s novel chronicles the life of her main character growing up in Mississippi, from her father’s unsuccessful schemes and inventions, to her dreams of competing in the Miss America pageant.
Then She Found Me by Elinor Lipman
April is a school teacher used to quiet evenings alone. Her world is about to be turned upside down by Bernice, a designer label loving talk show host who happens to be April’s biological mother who’s set out to become the best mother she can be…36 year later.
Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos
Young Jack’s plans for an epic family vacation are shot down when he’s grounded for life. Adventure ensues, however, when Jack’s mom enlists him to help his neighbor with chores.
Harris and Me by Gary Paulsen
A boy spends his summer with his aunt and uncle, where he gets involved in all sorts of escapades with his cousin. Heartwarming and funny, Paulsen’s books is perfect for children and adults alike.
A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel
Kimmel takes is back to rural Indiana in her witty memoir, full of heartwarming memories, quirky neighbors, and small town observations.
And One Last Thing… by Molly Harper
After being humiliated by her husband’s indiscretions, Lacey adds some extra material to his company newsletter. Her plan goes awry, however, when she becomes the town joke and center of a defamation lawsuit.
Where Can You Get These Funny Book Club Books at a Discounted Price?
- Try Audible Today and Get Two Free Audiobooks
- Sign Up for Kindle Unlimited
- Get or hold these titles through your public library
Are you looking for funny book club books for your next meeting? Which would you snag?
Are you a traditional chick-lit or rom-com reader or are you into the weird, quirky, and witty? Have you read any of the titles on this list? Which ones did you love? Anything you’d add? Let us know your favorites in the comments.
Save our Funny Book Club Books to Pinterest:
More Book Lists and Reading Tips You Might Enjoy:
I loved The Rosie Project too! It was so good. Also loved Tina’s book and The Hating Game. The 100 year old man sounds so good. All of these books sound great. Many I’ve been meaning to read. So many great books to read! I could definitely use something funny so thank you for this list!
Author
Ah, I love Rosie Project, if you couldn’t tell from the post! I feel like I realized when putting this together that there’s different types of humor – like 100 year old man and the Hating Game are so wildly different but both so funny. Yeah, sometimes you just need something more lighthearted, right?!
I use to love to read books. I’m older now n reading makes m sleepy . maybe I’ll try a funny book n see what it does. Thank u very much
I turned my mother on to audio books when she started losing her eyesight. She loved to read and was sad that she couldn’t read her books. She downloads them for free from the library and now we can’t get her to take off her head phones!
“Let’s Pretend This Never Happened” by Jenny Larson! I needed tissues because I was LAUGHING so hard. Surprised it’s not already on your list…
Oh my goodness yes . As well as her other book furiously happy ? I cried with laughter . Also hyperbole and a half by Allie brosh hilarious !! It’s so hard to find genuinely hilarious books .
Author
Great suggestions! It is hard to find genuinely funny books. So many try TOO hard!
Author
I haven’t read that one but I’ve heard it’s funny! I’ll have to get on it and add it to the list!
I loved all of Jenny lawsons books , laughted hysterically. As well as Allie brosh hyperbole and a half , all of the books by Jonas jonasson are brilliantly written and funny . I tried reading the Rosie project and just became annoyed by it . Not my sense of humour I guess
I think that the people who do not like The Rosie Project do nor realise, when they start reading, that people with autism or Asperger can really be like that.
I myself have read this book already three times, because to me it’s hilarious an also hart warming.
Author
I’ve heard those parallels drawn before – I always find it interesting that Simpsion never claims Don’s on the spectrum but it’s widely talked about as so. I’ve worked with a lot of teens and YA on the spectrum and I definitely do think the author approached the topic respectfully and with class, but still showcasing their nuances and subtle outspokenness!
Author
Rosie Project is definitely different. It’s more awkward and quirky than some of the other traditionally funny ones.
Great list! Funny books are so hard to find. I also love Lisa Lutz’ Spellman Files series for a laugh.
Great series!??
Author
Thanks so much!
Jen Lancaster’s Bitter is the New Black is an autobiography, but hilarious! Thanks for the list, it is hard to find funny books.
Author
I’ll have to add that one to my TBR list! I love updating these posts too with new suggestions. Thanks!
Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods + any fiction by Bryson. “Woods” was by far the funniest laugh out loud book EVER.
Author
You’re right, A Walk in the Woods is hilarious.
Agree about Bill Bryson. He seems to be naturally funny. I put all his books on my TBR list.
YES! And IN A SUNBURNED COUNTRY. I could not stop laughing!
I agree a thousand times over! I’ve read ‘A Walk In the Woods’ countless times and still end up in stitches!
i wholeheartedly agree!
gerald durrell’s books/memoirs of his wacky family and their brief stint on the island of corfu are definitely LOL. i have a high standard when it comes to literary humor, and most don’t make my list.
Author
Sounds hysterical!!
Durrells of Corfu is a delightful BBC production available on Prime and PBS Passport. I want to read the books now that I have seen this production.
Fannie Flagg’s original book, Daisy Faye and the Miracle Man, is my favorite funny book.
I agree. One of my all time favorite books!
Agree many of Bill Bryson’s non-fiction travel books, e.g. also In a Sunburned Country, are very funny.
My two favorite laugh out loud authors are the late great Nora Ephron, her fiction starting with Heartburn and her later essay collections. And Elinor Lipman, from The Inn at Lake Devine, And Then She Found Me, to so many others in her long career of writing fun fiction reads.
Author
Great suggestions, thank you!
Dead End in Norvelt, From Norvelt to Nowhere etc. by Jack Gantos are delightful, laugh-out-loud books with wonderful characters and a storyline that has you feeling like you have a bird’s eye view of what is going on in the community. Pure joy.
Author
Sounds very funny! Thanks for the suggestion.
I am so excited to check some of these books out, always love a good laugh. I just finished reading Harris and Me by Gary Paulsen to my 7 year old grandson and we were both crying from laughing. It is a young adult book but so worth the read. It is about two cousins that get into all kinds of trouble over a summer. Another one that I loved was A girl named Zippy by Haven Kimmel – really refreshing look at growing up that made me howl.
Author
I’ll definitely check out both titles, thanks for the recommendations! Books about growing up always seem to be the funniest, because they’re SO TRUE!!
LOVE LOVE LOVE Zippy!
Molly Harper’s “And One Last Thing…” For anyone who has had bitter feeling about a break up but is still a sucker for romance. I laughed all the way through.
Author
Oh that sounds like a good one! Thank you!
Diary of A Mad Fat Girl By Stephanie McAfee is the funniest book I have ever in my life read.
All of Sloan Crosley’s books are hilarious.
I love anything by Sophie Kinsella, but especially “The Undomestic Goddess.” Thanks for the suggestions! I added the mom one to my wish list.
Two authors from the Golden Oldie Stack: Patrick Dennis who wrote Auntie Mame, Around the WOrld with AUntie Mame and The Joyous Season (there are others but these three are my favorites. The other is Shirley Jackson (yes, I said that) . Besides her creepy scary stuff she wrote two books about raising her crazy kids in a drafty old house in Vermont. Laugh out loud funny! The two books are Life Among the Savages and Raising Demons. Read Life Among the Savages first.
Author
Thank you for the recommendations, I can’t wait to read them!
The Thursday Next Series by Jasper Fforde. They take place in a quirky semi-British world with a quirky family whose dad travels through time (but can’t control where or when he shows up or for how long) and a heroine in her twenties maybe, who travels to Book World to sort things out so the plots come out as they should. Sounds silly and they are quick reads, but surprisingly topical and engaging. In the “real, present” world of the book, giant corporations try to monopolize everything via vertical supply chain integration (sound familiar?) and modern issues like DNA based cloning, smart smugglers, PTSD, disabled rights, and pointless wars are all handled in a way that will make you giggle. Full of clever literary references that will make you feel clever.
Author
I’d love the literary references, for sure. Sounds like a great title – I’ll add it to my TBR list. Thank you =)
I just read What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding: A Memoir, by Kristin Newman. Fiction is funny, but this was REAL and hilarious. And also fills that need to travel that none of us can fill right now. Different funny than fiction.
Author
I can tell by the title already that I’d find it funny. I love books that are funny, but real! Thanks for the recommendation.
All of the Stephanie Plum books b Janet Evanovich are hilarious. I originally started with Hot Six, then went back and read the first five. I think she’s up to 25 now I buy them the day they come out and read them in a weekend. I don’t live too far from Trenton, so that makes her books even funnier!
The Dangerous Husband ought really to be on this list.
Author
Thanks for the recommendation!
I would add – all Jenny Larson books, Sad Janet, and Geraldine DeRuiter’s All Over the Place (the Everywhereist). Thanks for the list!
I listened to ‘The Flatshare’ by Beth O’Leary on Audible and loved it! 2 narrators have been used to read the chapters relating to Tiffy and Leon which was really interesting and there were several points when I actually had to stop the recording because I was laughing so hard I was making myself choke!! Am looking forward to hearing the other books Beth O’Leary has written too. I think ‘The Flatshare’ is definitely one for this list!
I read A Man Called Ove and I really enjoyed it, However, I just cannot understand how people can call it a hilarious book! Ove’s whole life was one tragic thing after another. Yes, he certainly evolved when his new neighbors moved in; and yes, there were some great one-liners. But overall, I felt it was a profoundly sad book.
One of the funniest books I ever read was Naked by David Sedaris. It’s a collection of autobiographical essays. I haven’t laughed that hard in ages. I am so glad that I didn’t read it on an airplane because I was howling.
I read Bridgett Jones’ Diary years ago and again, I found parts of it to be very funny. But it wasn’t a laugh-out loud book for me.
Thank you so much for these suggestions! I’ve just downloaded a fifth one (Inspector Chopra) and so looking forward to it. Thank you!
COnfessions of a Domestic Failure is one of my all time favorites! I have recommended the book to several women and all agree – their husbands question what they’re reading and they can’t put it down.
There must be something wrong with me and my book club. We’ve read four of these books and haven’t found a single one of them to be funny. A couple had some funny moments here and there but those who say they are laugh out loud funny must have a very different sense of humor from us. Not to say they weren’t fairly enjoyable books because they were. But we just didn’t find them funny. And it’s not just me but my whole book club which consists of 8 women!
You missed Famous Anus by Jordan power, it’s amazingggg.!!
Author
thanks for the suggestion!
HI,
How can I get my upcoming satirical book, Standoff, How the Cold War Really Ended on your site. It has been called “Dr. Strangelove on acid.”
It will be a fun books for book clubs. Two women are central to ending the Cold War and making guys look silly doing it.
I can definitely be available to share stories about Standoff with the clubs.
None of the books that I have read from this list (about 6) is funny. Not one made me laugh. Now Jenny Lawson’s first two books had me cracking up. And wanting my friends to read them too because they were so funny.
The Car Share by Zoe Brisby is the best. I can just see Maggie Smith in the part of Max!
I just lovr The Hundred Year Old Man series! They are just hilarious in a dry sort of way. I have read and enjoyed them all several times.
If you think a Man Called Ove is funny you have missed the point of the book