Every few weeks, Courtney, our Adult Services Librarians, puts up a new display to showcase different aspects of our collection. The displays are located above the paperback shelves on the second floor. Right now, the focus is on humor, and there’s a wide variety available for your perusal.
I can’t personally vouch for everything on the display, but Maria Bamford’s Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere is terrific, funny and sincere and oddly uplifting; if you’ve ever felt awkward or lonely, you’re likely to enjoy it. I also know Dave Barry is reliably good, and you can’t really go wrong with Mark Twain.
If you’re looking for more guffaws, and if you have a taste for the fantastic, I’d suggest Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. Merrill currently has several Pratchett novels (including a big collection of his YA work, which I’m unfamiliar with); having read all of them multiple times, I feel comfortable recommending any of them.
The Discworld series is a series, which can be off-putting (especially since Merrill doesn’t have The Color Of Magic, the first Discworld book), but the joy of Pratchett is that you can start anywhere and still have a pretty good time.
Some starting points are easier than others, though. You could, if so inclined, try The Light Fantastic, the second Discworld novel, but the earlier entries are a bit rougher around the edges. For my money, if you want a taste of what the series would eventually become, I’d suggest looking at Going Postal, the story of a conman who is forced to choose between restoring the postal service and a painful death. It’s self-contained, it will give you a sense of Discworld’s style, and, if you end up liking it, you have a lot of delightful exploring to do.
