38-41: Eleven on Top, Twelve Sharp, Lean Mean Thirteen, and Fearless Fourteen, by Janet Evanovich (2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 hardcovers)

In the world of ChickLit, I'd say that Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series comes out near the top of the pack. It's Bridget Jones meets Kinsey Milhone (a la Sue Grafton's alphabet series), set in Jersey to a sitcom laugh track.  

Oh, wait. That's me laughing.  

There are few books that make me laugh out loud--Adams's Hitchhiker series and Gaiman and Pratchett's Good Omens are the only others that come to mind right now--but these books set me off regularly.  It's certainly not highbrow humor, either, as the laughs usually come from the least sophisticated characters in a completely unsophisticated cast, and the funny situations involve accidental shootings, sex, exploding cars, funeral homes, and rolling in food.  And, not infrequently, all of these at once.

Stehanie Plum is a Jersey girl, raised in the Italian neighborhood called the Burg.  Having failed in her first mariage and her first post-college job, she becomes a bond enforcement agent for her cousin Vinnie.  She's the least-likely bounty hunter you could imagine, and it's almost accidental when she manages to bring someone who's skipped bail in for rebooking.  The two funniest characters in the series are Stephanie's Grandma Mazur--a gun-toting, funeral-attending outspoken senior citizen--and her sidekick Lula--an ex 'ho who crams her size-16 African American body into size-10 leopard-print lycra.  Add two sexy men (a cop and a bounty hunter/security company owner), her parents and her sister's family (including a ten-year old niece who thinks she is a horse), and a number of other eccentric characters, and I laugh my way through the books. 

The books are quick reads (taking 4-5 hours each at most) and perfect for beach and travel reading.  The plots aren't particularly compelling and a bit repetitive: in Eleven Stephanie quits her job as a bounty hunter due to the danger involved and becomes the target of a murderous stalker while wrapped up in a missing persons case; in Twelve the daughter of secondary-love-interest Ranger is kidnapped by someone who has stolen Ranger's identity; in Thirteen, Stephanie's ex-husband is missing and she's a prime suspect; and in Fourteen, she's working security for a pop star while trying to solve a kidnapping and past bank heist somehow connected to primary-love-interest Morelli's house.  Despite the less-than-riveting story lines, the bumbling efforts at fugitive apprehension, the snappy dialogue, and the unexpected events make these books worth reading.  Just be careful where you do so, or people will hear you giggling and guffawing to yourself and will think you're as crazy as the books' characters.