Humor can entertain us and lift spirits during difficult life experiences.

By Katherine Einspahr, Burke Centre Library Information Assistant 

Funny Feels Better

If you’ve seen actor John Krasinski’s “Some Good News” (SGN) series on YouTube, you probably found his positive focus and amusing take on current events makes you smile and feel a bit better during these challenging times.

In the article “Laughter is the Best Medicine” — found in Gale, one of the databases accessible to Fairfax County Public Library (FCPL) cardholders — author Kavita Khajuria explains how, throughout history, humor has been a form of escape. Being able to laugh despite traumatic events prepares us to endure those experiences. Laughter decreases stress hormones, increases infection-fighting antibodies, and can even temporarily relieve pain. Doctors in ancient Greece understood this phenomenon and prescribed trips to comic theatre as part of patients' recovery plans.

Amusing Audiobooks

What better time than now to test out the healing effects of humor? Here’s a sampling of humorous audiobooks, available for download from FCPL’s catalog.

• 1. Between Heaven and Mirth

• Between Heaven and Mirth by James Martin looks at how humor can change our lives and lift our spirits. A bestselling author and a Jesuit priest, he understands how our spiritual concerns mesh with our everyday life. He reflects on scriptural passages, lives of saints and spiritual teachings of other traditions to show us how to experience joy.

• 2. Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America

• Here for It by R. Eric Thomas, award-winning playwright and creator of Elle's "Eric Reads the News,” hilariously relates how he coped with the contrasts of his formative years and went from feeling like an outsider to a participant in his life. In Entertainment Weekly, Lin-Manuel Miranda calls Thomas "laugh-out-loud funny” and one of his favorite writers.

• 3. How to Be a Bawse

• How to Be a Bawse by Lilly Singh, a.k.a. YouTube’s Superwoman, boldly shares her wacky tips on how to become successful. In addition to working hard, she suggests “being the dumbest” by surrounding yourself with smart people from whom you can learn. She also advises avoiding FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), which distracts you from your goals.

• 4. Lessons from Lucy

• Lessons from Lucy by Dave Barry reveals how he learned (at age 70) to grow older happily by following his aging dog Lucy’s example. Lucy was adjusting to life’s changes better than he was. As the author and humor columnist began to model his life after her, such as taking on new adventures, Barry found his outlook improving.

• 5. Nobody Will Tell You This But Me

• Nobody Will Tell You This But Me by Bess Kalb divulges generations of family secrets via the voice of her beloved grandmother, Bobby, who passed away at age 90. A formidable woman who emigrated from Belarus to America in the 1880s, Bobby shares tough-love wisdom such as, “If the earth is cracking behind you, you put one foot in front of the other.”

• 6. The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly

• The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly by Matt McCarthy is a humorous, honest account of the disparity between the author’s medical school vision of becoming the perfect doctor and the reality of his internship in a New York hospital. He discovers that his best education comes from those he treats…plus from his unexpected, first-hand experience as a patient.

• 7. That Can Be Arranged: A Muslim Love Story

• That Can Be Arranged: A Muslim Love Story by Huda Fahmy is an eBook, not audiobook, that’s too entertaining to pass up. Fahmy, the illustrator of a popular webcomic and a devout Muslim woman, tells the comical tale of how she traversed a zigzag, chaperoned course through various suitors and eventually found her husband. Move over Jane Austen!

Check out these and more humorous titles in FCPL’s digital collection to help lessen your stress by listening to an amusing audiobook or reading a riotous eBook.