Mrs Funnybones: She’s Just Like You and a Lot Like Me

By Hamza Shafique

Me with the book as a sign that I have read it :)

I used to be an avid reader before but these days I look for an easy read as between Job, family, master’s program and my blog I hardly get time to read complicated/heavy stuff. Last month while visiting Karachi I found a copy of Mrs. Funnybones at a used book exhibition. The book looked like a light fun read, so I picked it up. Another intention of mine was to understand how nonfiction light books based on one’s life are, as someday I would like to convert the personal diary section of my blog in to one such book.
“Mrs. Funnybones: She’s Just Like You and a Lot Like Me” is a 2015 Indian non-fiction book written by former film actress Twinkle Khanna and published by Penguin India. Mrs. Funnybones sold over one lakh copies making Twinkle Khanna India's highest-selling female writer of 2015.

I started reading it on my flight back to Dubai from Pakistan and had couple of laugh out loud moments which landed me with few ‘are you crazy /high’ glances from the other passengers. I got hooked instantly to Mrs. Khana’s writing style, which is simple yet quirky, at times with a hidden message with in and above all appears as if a friend is sharing with you a personal story.

Twinkle Khana -Author of the book

This book documents random events from Twinkle Khana’s daily life, childhood memories and struggle as she juggles between the roles of house wife, mother, business woman, writer, daughter/daughter in law. But these random events are placed so perfectly that they don’t appear random at all. As a reader, I felt a certain flow in the book where the things being discussed moved from simple family dinner dynamics to serious topics like discussing existence of God with her Son, all hidden with in an apparent random collection of events, depicting Mrs. Khana’s personal evolution as an individual.

Even though Mrs. Khana claims that the book is fusion of few facts with little fiction but still everything in the book appears real and relatable. Knowing that she is a super star wife, daughter of equally super star parents, a successful entrepreneur and overall a famous woman, yet nothing associated with her in this book is glorified to look extra ordinary. She appears just as normal as any one of us and this fact that you are reading about a human being and not some diva makes this book even more interesting.
This book is a true but fun definition of term “struggle is real”. The Times of India rightly stated that "The funny bone definitely tickles but at the same time also jabs you hard”. Ladies of the house will definitely enjoy this more than men but still I would recommend it for everyone.
If you wish to have this book from me then download Browzly – an app that helps you swap paper books with people nearby. It’s a perfect way to save money and get access to many new books.