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Kiran Dass compiles a list of books by funny women
THE PORTABLE DOROTHY PARKER
edited by Marion Meade
Infamous for her lacerating bon mots, the whip-smart writer, critic and wise-cracking satirist Dorothy Parker once said, “the first thing I do in the morning is brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue.” If you haven’t read any Parker before, you’re in for a delicious treat. This collection brings together her darkly comic verse, stories, essays and journalism. A founding writer at the New Yorker, Parker’s barbed and searingly sardonic theatre and book reviews spared no-one, she could brutalise with a witty oneliner — “this wasn’t just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it . . . ”
YES PLEASE
by Amy Poehler
As the exasperatingly peppy and sometimes dopey but ambitious and well-meaning Leslie Knope in Parks and Recreation, Amy Poehler was adorably likeable and oozed plenty of gutsy sass. This free-form book blends memoir, advice, inspiration and plenty of crack-up laughs. Loosely divided into three parts: “Say whatever you want”, “do whatever you want” and “be whoever you are”, Yes Please is funny, uplifting, and offers insights into the entertainment industry, in particular Poehler’s tenure on Saturday Night Live and Parks and Recreation. There is even a haiku about plastic surgery.
I FEEL BAD ABOUT MY NECK: AND OTHER THOUGHTS ABOUT BEING A WOMAN
by Nora Ephron
Self-deprecating and droll, the writer, filmmaker and humourist Nora Ephron wrote the screenplay for the iconic rom-com When Harry Met Sally and directed the saccharine Sleepless in Seattle. But don’t hold that against her. This collection of essays about the absurdities of life and the futility of the ageing process is wicked and wise and dry as hell. Lamenting how the neck is always the first place to show the signs of ageing, Ephron writes that “you have to cut open a redwood tree to see how old it is, but you wouldn’t have to if it had a neck.” Whether she’s writing about food and cooking, parenting, city-living or cheap purses full of junk, Ephron has a sly sense of hunour.
HOW TO BE A WOMAN
by Caitlin Moran
Caitlin Moran is a gut-bustingly funny woman who set out to make feminism accessible with her universally relatable and sensational book
How to Be a Woman. Inviting all of us to embrace feminism and to smash the glass ceiling of the patriarchy, Moran does acknowledge that “it’s difficult to see the glass ceiling because it’s made of glass. Virtually invisible. What we need is for more birds to fly above it and shit all over it, so we can see it properly.” Grubby and fearless, Moran is a hilarious writer and comedian and you can’t go wrong with any of her books.
THE LAST BLACK UNICORN
by Tiffany Haddish
Fierce actor and comedian Tiffany Haddish shone in the comedy Girls Trip and is a hugely inspiring badass fox. Going from a brief period of homelessness when she lived in her car, to featuring on Time’s 2018 list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World, she has made a successful career in comedy to make people feel uplifted. In this collection of edgy and revealing personal essays, The Last Black Unicorn, she writes, “I know that a lot of these stories will seem unbelievable. I look back over my life and I’m like, ‘For real, that happened?’” A memoir of survival and the power of comedy and positive thinking.