The Humans by Matt Haig

You know those movies you watch because they leave you feeling all warm and fuzzy and picking you up from a down mood, well Matt Haig's The Human's is a definitely a feel-good book in much the same way. It's delightfully quirky, witty and laugh-out-loud chuckly throughout so if you're feeling a bit blue this could be just the book to lighten your mood.

Professor Andrew Martin of the University of Cambridge has just solved one of the most complex and important mathematical problems in the history of the universe. But when the following day, he is found wandering the motorway in the nude it's apparent that he's not quite right. That's because he's not. Extra terrestrial non-Earthen aliens have discovered his mathematical breakthrough and plan to put a stop to it being published. When a lifeform takes the place of Professor Andrew he does so as an outsider to Earth who views Humans with the utmost disgust and loathing.

It's truly hilarious. Matt Haig has managed to sum up all that is quirky, horrible and downright silly about the human race quite aptly from the point of view of an alien invader. "Magazines are very popular despite no human ever feeling better for having read them. Indeed their chief purpose is to generate an inferiority in the reader that consequently leads to them needing to buy something, which they do, and then feel even worse..."

But he also manages to sum up all that is great and beautiful and wonderful about us too. "Sentimentality is another human flaw. A distortion. Another twisted by-product of love, serving no rational purpose. And yet, there was a force behind it as authentic as any other." 

To love and to laugh and create and be moved is to be human in the best possible way and The Humans is surely a book to be read when you're feeling a wee bit down about the world as it will make you feel immediately better.