“Can you name a writer or a work that made you Laugh Out
Loud? (No inner chuckles)”
Before I answer this question I should stipulate one thing:
I’m much more of an “inner chuckler” than a “laugh out loud-er”, so I’m going
to allow snorts to count as laughs for this discussion. I hope that's okay with everyone :-)
I’m delighted to be able to tell you that one of my co-bloggers
here writes books that make me grin, chuckle silently and snort aloud a good deal: Catriona MacPherson’s Dandy Gilver
books are beautifully written in a style that’s so easy to read it belies the
skill she employs on every page. She delivers the preposterous with a
side-helping of the mind-boggling, and all the time keeps me – the reader –
smiling contentedly as I wait for the next barbed comment or wry observation.
All her Dandy Gilver books are a joy to read, and I suggest you try them, if
you haven’t already done so. (There’s a new one due soon!)
If you’re not familiar with Catriona MacPherson’s Dandy, maybe you’ve heard of Douglas
Adams’ Slartibartfast or Marvin (the paranoid android)? Just two
of the bizarre characters in The
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, they wriggled their way into my life back
in 1978 when they first appeared in the BBC Radio 4 series of the same name,
then became manifest on the page. I’ll admit I enjoyed the BBC TV series of the
first two of the Hitchhiker books,
and even the movie they made (where Slartibartfast’s workshop was finally
realized in much the way I’d imagined it). Pretty much anything Douglas Adams
wrote makes me snort a lot – including Dirk
Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency.
I hope my picks give you as much to smile about as they do
me.
Cathy
Ace writes the WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries (book
#2 THE CASE OF THE MISSING MORRIS DANCER was published in trade
paperback on August 31st in the UK, and will be available in November in
the US/Canada),
and the Cait Morgan Mysteries (book #8 THE CORPSE WITH THE RUBY LIPS
will be published in paperback in October in Canada, November in the
USA). Find out more about Cathy and
her
work, and sign up for her newsletter at http://cathyace.com/
Nice to see one of our Criminal Minds giving another some shout-outs with this question! And yes to Douglas Adams too--years since I've read his work, but even thinking about it had me smiling. (And I'm one to chuckle inwardly more than laugh out loud too, I should add.)
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more about Adams. I haven't read McPherson.....yet. May I add Jasper Fforde's Tuesday Next books? The early Evanovich books made me snicker, also.
ReplyDeleteHi Art - an opportunity to give a shout-out I couldn't pass up :-)
ReplyDeleteHi Merrill - Oh yes, I like Jasper Fforde's Tuesday Next books too :-)
ReplyDeleteThaks for your recommendations, Cathy. I've got Douglas Adams on the Will-probably-never-read shelf, so will add to my To-be-read shelf now.
ReplyDelete