Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Autobiography of a Fat Bride | 2002 | Laurie Notaro | Buy |
| 2 | The Idiot Girls’ Action-Adventure Club | 2002 | Laurie Notaro | Buy |
| 3 | I Love Everybody | 2004 | Laurie Notaro | Buy |
| 4 | An Idiot Girl’s Christmas | 2005 | Laurie Notaro | Buy |
| 5 | We Thought You Would Be Prettier | 2005 | Laurie Notaro | Buy |
| 6 | The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death | 2008 | Laurie Notaro | Buy |
| 7 | The Post Office Lady with the Dragon Tattoo | 2011 | Laurie Notaro | Buy |
| 8 | It Looked Different on the Model | 2011 | Laurie Notaro | Buy |
| 9 | The Potty Mouth at the Table | 2013 | Laurie Notaro | Buy |
| 10 | Housebroken: Admissions of an Untidy Life | 2016 | Laurie Notaro | Buy |
| 11 | Excuse Me While I Disappear | 2022 | Laurie Notaro | Buy |
| 12 | The Murderess | 2024 | Laurie Notaro | Buy |
Laurie Notaro’s non-fiction output stretches from 2002 to 2024 and traces a shift from pure comedy to more serious subjects. Her early books, The Idiot Girls’ Action-Adventure Club (2002) and Autobiography of a Fat Bride (2003), established her voice: blunt, self-mocking, and packed with stories about embarrassing moments, bad dates, and family chaos. I Love Everybody (2004), An Idiot Girl’s Christmas (2005), and We Thought You Would Be Prettier (2005) followed in rapid succession, several reaching the New York Times bestseller list.
The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death (2008), It Looked Different on the Model (2011), and The Potty Mouth at the Table (2013) kept the same formula, mining Notaro’s daily life for absurd situations. Housebroken: Admissions of an Untidy Life (2016) focuses on domestic disasters and the reality of getting older. Her later books take a different tone. Excuse Me While I Disappear (2022) deals with aging, loss, and the death of her mother. The Murderess (2024) is her most ambitious non-fiction project, a narrative account of the notorious 1931 case of Winnie Ruth Judd, who murdered two women in Phoenix and tried to transport their bodies to Los Angeles in trunks. Notaro researched the case for a decade.