The State Library of NSW has recently announced the shortlist for their biannual humour prize which I did enter since I’ve been told by many that Destination Dachshund is humorous at times. True story. But obviously not funny enough – as I am not shortlisted. Ha! My husband tells me I’m not that funny all the time but he is so wrong. The judges picked very well though – the books listed below are all winners – and if you like a bit of humour in your books then check them out.

I am pleased to see Rosie Waterland’s memoir ‘The Anti-Cool Girl’ on the list. She is hilarious but had a tough year so hopefully this shortlisting lifts her spirits.

Congratulations to all shortlisted authors.

Winner to be announced at the State Library on 8 June 2017.

• Going Out Backwards: A Grafton Everest Adventure by Ross Fitzgerald and Ian McFadyen is the fifth volume detailing the farcical adventures of a Queensland academic who finds himself holding the balance of power in the Australian Senate. How this eventuated is as much a mystery to Senator Everest as it is to everyone else. He is still obsessed with his penis, as his life and career continue to drag him through a series of preposterous adventures.True Girt: The Unauthorised History of Australia — Volume 2 by David Hunt
• True Girt: The Unauthorised History of Australia — Volume 2 by David Hunt is the sequel to Girt, David Hunt’s first history, which told the story of the white settlement of Australia up until the rule of Governor Macquarie. True Girt continues the story, unpicking our national myths about peaceful settlement and universal progress as he details the settlement of Van Diemen’s Land, Victoria and the extension of settlement in NSW — with occasional sideswipes at South Australia.
• A Toaster on Mars by Darrell Pitt contains no appliances that heat bread on the surface of the red planet. What it does contain, however, is Blake Carter, star agent for the Planetary Bureau of Investigation. Blake is having a very bad day, with a missing daughter, a cyborg partner, and the world domination plans of Bartholomew Badde. What ensues is a mad plummet down a hill of ridiculousness defying not just the laws of physics but often those of sanity as well.
• Error Australia by Ben Pobjie uses his skills at recapping reality television with precise hilarity, by recapping the ultimate Australian reality show: Australia itself. In his hilarious Error Australis, the comedian and TV columnist takes us from the initial cooling of this simple rock to the modern developments that place it so significantly in a far-flung corner of the world. This is history as farce, or rather it’s about finding that reality has been farce all along.
• Quicksand by Steve Toltz is the much-anticipated second novel, whose debut of A Fraction of the Whole, garnered rave reviews internationally when it was published several years ago. Indeed, Quicksand owes much to its epic predecessor as its genesis springs from material cut from the earlier novel. The story — narrated by Liam, an aspiring writer-turned-policeman — chronicles the life of his friend Aldo Benjamin, an eternally optimistic ‘born loser’.
• The Anti-Cool Girl by Rosie Waterland is a memoir about a childhood that by most standards would be considered disturbing. The story starts before Rosie was born and takes us through her first twenty-eight years which are packed with most varieties of trauma: both the author’s parents were addicts, she witnessed her mother trying to commit suicide, there were narrow escapes from drug-dealers and dodgy boyfriends, she was severely bullied at school — and yet, Rosie Waterland makes us laugh.