You heard it here first: Senior Planet is starting a (virtual) book club!

If you find you have a lot more time on your hands these days, then you’re in the perfect position to cozy up with some tea (or something stiffer) and dive into great book along with fellow Senior Planet readers.

Each Tuesday, we’ll post a thread on SeniorPlanet.org inviting your comments on the next section of the book.

But first! We’ve put together a shortlist of five very funny books (because we could all use a little more levity these days) and it’s up to you which one we kick off with. Read on for details about each book, then take the poll at the end and tell us: What should the Senior Planet Book Club read first?

All of these books can be ordered from Amazon.com and delivered to your home. If you’ve got an iPad or Kindle, you can order an e-book version and read it on your device; or, you can take an e-book out from your local library.

The Books:

Tepper Isn’t Going Out, by Calvin Trillin

“Tepper Isn’t Going Out is a wise and witty story of an ordinary man who, perhaps innocently, changes the world around him.” – Amazon.com

Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett

“People have been predicting the end of the world almost from its very beginning, so it’s only natural to be skeptical when a new date is set for Judgement Day. But what if, for once, the predictions are right, and the apocalypse really is due to arrive next Saturday, just after tea? It’s a predicament that Aziraphale, a somewhat fussy angel, and Crowley, a fast-living demon now finds themselves in. They’ve been living amongst Earth’s mortals since The Beginning and, truth be told, have grown rather fond of the lifestyle and, in all honesty, are not actually looking forward to the coming Apocalypse.” – Amazon.com

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos

“Masquerading as her diaries, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes follows Lorelei as she entertains suitors across Europe before returning home to marry a millionaire. In this delightfully droll and witty book, Lorelei’s glamorous pragmatism shines, as does Anita Loos’s mastery of irony and dialect.” – Amazon.com

A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole

“A Confederacy of Dunces is an American comic masterpiece. John Kennedy Toole’s hero, one Ignatius J. Reilly, is “huge, obese, fractious, fastidious, a latter-day Gargantua, a Don Quixote of the French Quarter. His story bursts with wholly original characters, denizens of New Orleans’ lower depths, incredibly true-to-life dialogue, and the zaniest series of high and low comic adventures.” – Henry Kisor, Chicago Sun-Times

Me Talk Pretty Someday, by David Sedaris

“David Sedaris’s story collection, Me Talk Pretty One Day, tells a most unconventional life story. It begins with a North Carolina childhood filled with speech-therapy classes (“There was the lisp, of course, but more troubling than that was my voice itself with its excitable tone and high, girlish pitch”) and unwanted guitar lessons taught by a midget. From budding performance artist (“The only crimp in my plan was that I seemed to have no talent whatsoever”) to “clearly unqualified” writing teacher in Chicago, Sedaris’s career leads him to New York (the sky’s-the-limit field of furniture moving) and eventually, of all places, France.” – BookBrowse.com

Take the poll!

Photo by Paul Schafer on Unsplash