This is a selected list of novels featuring funny characters, humorous events, or spoofs of real people.  Most titles from this list may be found at the main library in the fiction area under the author’s last name.  Titles that may be found at North (N) or South (S) Community libraries or in the large print area (LP) are noted as well as titles that are available on cassette (CASS) or compact disc (CD).

Alexander, Victoria – The Marriage Lesson

Lady Marianne Shelton pens a series of scandalous but anonymous books based on the exploits of the dashing Thomas Effington, the future Duke of Roxborough, but the situation becomes complicated when Thomas finds himself in the role of guardian--and then fiancé--to the headstrong young lady.  ROMANCE  (N, S)

Amick, Steve – The Lake, The River and The Other Lake

The lives, loves, fates, and fortunes of the colorful inhabitants of Weneshkeen, a resort town on the shore of Lake Michigan, both townies and ritzy summer visitors, intertwine over the course of a single tumultuous summer.

Andrew, Miles Keaton – Final Arrangements

This debut novel  filled with strange and amusing characters, delves into the American funeral industry by following undertaker Casey Kight, who finds his seemingly perfect existence at Morton-Albright, a family-owned and operated mortuary, shattered when an avaricious funeral-home giant attempts to take over.  (N)

Andrews, Donna – We’ll Always Have Parrots

Journeying to a cult TV show's fan convention in the hope that her actor fiancâe will be able to renegotiate contract terms with the program's manipulative leading lady, Meg finds herself investigating when the star is found murdered.  MYSTERY  (LP)

Apodaca, Jennifer – Dating Can be Murder

Outraged at discovering her condom-selling husband's infidelities, Samantha Shaw reinvents herself after his untimely death. She sells his prize car, has breast augmentation surgery, and purchases a dating service.  MYSTERY  (N, S, LP)

Ballard, Mignon – Too Late for Angels

When the small, pie-baking town of Stone's Throw, South Carolina, is thrown into turmoil by two murders, guardian angel Augusta Goodnight rents a room from the widow Lucy Van Pilgrim, with whom she sets about solving the crimes and uncovering painful local secrets.  MYSTERY

Barry, Dave – Tricky Business

Humorist Barry (Big Trouble) brings together a motley group of South Florida eccentrics on an ill-fated casino boat voyage in his second full-length comic mystery novel.  (N, S,, LP, CASS)

Bell, Nancy – Biggie and the Devil Diet

Biggie is delighted when her old friend Rex Barnwell and his wife return to Job's Crossing to convert the local ranch to a retreat for overweight teenage girls, but when Rex is found murdered, Biggie is forced to reveal a secret.  MYSTERY

Blumenthal, Deborah – Fat Chance

Full-figured columnist Maggie O'Leary, a.k.a. America's Anti-Diet Sweetheart, despite many attempts of sabotage and subtefuge, transforms herself into a svelte goddess, but her new look forces her to make some difficult decisions.  (N, S)

Born, James – Walking Money

State police officer Bill Tasker faces the toughest case of his career when he is framed for a crime involving more than a million dollars of stolen money, a corrupt FBI agent, and a murdered key witness. 

Cannell, Dorothy – Importance of Being Ernestine

Ellie Haskell becomes drawn into a mystery with her moonlighting housekeeper when a modish matriarch reports that the surviving daughter of a late ex-employee may be seeking revenge by killing off her mother's former employers and their descendants.  MYSTERY

Carroll, Leslie – Reality Check

Liz Pemberley is a smart girl with a weakness for bad boys, but for the first time in her life, her bad luck with men might just pay off. A hot new reality TV show called Bad Date is offering a million dollars to the singleton with the best story of romance gone awry. There’s no one with a more dismal dating history than Liz and she intends to prove it . . . on national television.  ROMANCE  (N, S)

Churchill, Jill – Bell, Book and Scandal

In the wake of a murder at a local mystery writers' convention, aspiring novelist and part-time investigator Jane Jeffry and her sidekick, Shelley, investigate to find out who might be responsible for poisoning a legendary editor.  MYSTERY  (N, S, LP, CD)

Cook Claire – Multiple Choice

March Monroe endures her daughter's animosity when they wind up sharing a radio station internship, a situation that is complicated by her tired marriage, her angry adolescent son, and a mid-life crush.  (N, S)

Cruise, Jennifer – Bet Me

Agreeing not to pursue a relationship after one date, unlikely lovers Min Dobbs and Cal Morrisey are thrown together again in the wake of such factors as a jealous ex-boyfriend, a determined psychologist, and a bizarrely intelligent cat.  (N, S, CD)

Davis, Jill – Girls Poker Night

After landing a job as a reporter at the "New York News," Ruby Capote joins three other women for evenings playing poker and finds herself falling for her intriguing and challenging boss, Michael.

Delbanco, Francesca – Ask Me Anything

A young woman who pens an advice column by day and struggles to become an actor by night illuminates the complex manners and social customs of Manhattan in this novel of fame, sex, love, ambition, and friendship.

Dodd, Christina – My Favorite Bride

When Miss Samantha Prendregast arrives at Devil's Fell to take charge of six rebellious girls, the vibrant, outspoken governess is not quite prepared to deal with the tall, dark and dashing master of the grand estate.  ROMANCE  (N, S, LP)

Evanovich, Janet – Ten Big Ones

Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum witnesses a gang-executed robbery and police officer shooting and finds herself targeted by a California-based killer looking to claim the price that is subsequently placed on her head.  MYSTERY  (N, S, LP, CD, CASS)

Fitzhugh, Bill – Fender Benders

A humorous novel follows an aspiring country singer-songwriter, a music journalist, a pair of corrupt music-biz players, and an enigmatic serial killer as they wreak havoc amidst the wild and crazy country music scene in Nashville.  (S)

Flagg, Fannie – Standing in the Rainbow

As the story begins, it is 1945, the war is over, the American economy is booming, and there is no better place in the world than Elmwood Springs, Missouri. Ten-year-old Bobby Smith's father is the town pharmacist and his mother is a local radio personality. Over the next several decades, the plot expands to include numerous beguiling characters who interact with the Smith family--among them, the Oatman Family Southern Gospel Singers.  (N, S, LP, CASS)

Friedman, Kinky – Kill Two Birds and Get Stoned

Walter Snow, an author with writer's block, meets Clyde Potts, a feisty and unhinged woman, and her partner in crime, Fox Harris, whose love for a good prank inspires him to write, but their ultimate prank of corporate sabotage gets out of hand.

Gaiman, Neil – Anansi Boys: A Novel

His past marked by his father's embarrassing taunts and untimely death, Fat Charlie meets the brother he never knew and is introduced to new and exciting ways to spend his time.  (N, S, CD)

Garcia, Eric – Hot and Sweaty Rex

Asked by the head of the raptor mafia to investigate hadrosaurus activities in raptor territory, reptile detective Vincent Rubio reluctantly travels to Miami for an assignment that proves dangerous at every turn.  MYSTERY

Gillespie, Karin – A Dollar Short

Waitress Chiffon Butrell is outraged when she learns that her husband has left her and their three children for a famous actress, a situation that prompts Chiffon to turn to her best friends and an estranged sister for help.

Goldsmith, Olivia – Dumping Billy

There's something magical about Billy Nolan. It's not just that the Brooklyn bar owner is wickedly handsome: It's that every woman he dates and dumps (and he dumps them all) immediately goes on to marry the next person she meets.The only woman seemingly immune to Billy's charms is feisty, upwardly mobile, 28-year-old Kate Jameson.  ROMANCE

Gulley, Phillip – Change of Heart

In his fifth year of ministering to the citizens of Harmony, pastor Sam Gardner finds himself challenged by Deena Morrison's impending marriage to Dr. Daniel Pierce and the Hodges' possible loss of their daughter to her biological parents.  (N, S)

Heller, Jane – Best Enemies

Enjoying her successful career as well as a respectable social life, Amy Sherman runs into the former best friend who stole her fiancâe four years earlier and invents a boyfriend in order to avoid admitting that she is still single.  ROMANCE  (N, S)

Helprin, Mark – Freddy and Fredericka

Ridiculed by the British press, Prince of Wales Freddy and his wife, the frivolous Fredericka, are sent to colonize the barbaric land of America, during which they engage in a freight train ride, an art theft, and a wayward presidential election.  (CD, CASS)

Holden, Wendy – Farm Fatale

Rosie and Mark, a couple living in chic urban squalor, pine for the rustic bliss of country life. Newly minted, Samantha and Guy want the same thing-on a somewhat grander scale. The four converge on the quaint village of Eight Mile Bottom. With its eccentric residents, including a reclusive rock star, a nosy postman, a foxy farmer, and one ghost with a knife in its back, the two couples are soon swept up in various romantic entanglements, mix-ups, slipups, and unlikely seductions in their search for ever-greener pastures.  (N, S)

Kinsella, Sophie – Confessions of a Shopaholic

If you've ever paid off one credit card with another, thrown out a bill before opening it, or convinced yourself that buying at a two-for-one sale is like making money, then this silly, appealing novel is for you. In the opening pages of Confessions of a Shopaholic, recent college graduate Rebecca Bloomwood is offered a hefty line of credit by a London bank. Within a few months, Sophie Kinsella's heroine has exceeded the limits of this generous offer, and begins furtively to scan her credit-card bills at work, certain that she couldn't have spent the reported sums.  (CD, CASS)

Landvik, Lorna – Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons

From the initial formation of The Freesia Court Book Club and over the course of the next thirty years, five women in small-town Minnesota share the events, triumphs, tragedies, hardships, joys, and sorrows of their lives.  (N, S, LP, CASS)

Moore, Jane – The Ex Files

The guest list for Faye's and Mark's wedding could become a problem as Faye copes with her ex, Nat, a narcissistic fashion model, and Kate, Mark's vengeful ex, as Faye faces a serious decision about love and personal dreams.  ROMANCE

Pickens, Cathy – Southern Fried

Laid off from her job with a big-city law firm, attorney Avery Andrews returns to the small southern town of her childhood to set up a new practice, but finds her efforts challenged by the murder of a client.  MYSTERY

Pratchett, Terry – Going Postal

Sentenced to death for forgery and swindling, Meist Von Lipwig accepts a pardon in exchange for revamping an ancient post office, but his efforts are thwarted by murderous characters who want the post office shut down.  FANTASY  (CD)

Ross, Ann – Miss Julia Meets Her Match

When long-time boyfriend Sam Murdoch pops the question, Miss Julia contemplates the offer while the town is being turned upside down with rumors of infidelities and other events shocking to the Southern facade of gentility and family values.  (CASS)

Smith, Alexander McCall – 44 Scotland Street

Pat rents a room from the handsome and cocky Bruce, at 44 Scotland Street, and discovers that she has also acquired some colorful new neighbors, including Domenica, an eccentric widow.  (N, S, CD, CASS)

Smith, Kyle – Love Monkey

Tom Farrell, an editor in his early thirties at Tabloid (a thinly veiled version of the New York Post), can’t figure out how to navigate Manhattan’s dating scene. Tom knows women, but he has a Goldilocks problem: none of the women he knows are just right for him.

Westlake, Donald – Watch Your Back

John Dortmunder and his crew find the perfect score in a lavish New York apartment, but when they discover that their favorite bar is on the Mafia's hit list, they are forced to split their time fighting the mob and robbing the rich.  MYSTERY  (N, S)

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