You have to give Laurie Notaro credit for some fun book titles. Her latest one “The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death” (Villard Books, $20) ranks with her other classics “I love Everyone (and Other Atrocious Lies)” and my personal favorite: “We Thought You Would be Prettier.”

Her book is a collection of random stories from her life. A few are hilarious. A few are dull. Some are downright disgusting. There are chapters that should be skipped or at least read when you aren’t eating or about to because they are about some nasty topics such as poop. Human poop that her husband touches in a basement drain, seagull poop that rains down on her friend’s face and in a plate of food. There’s other disgusting episodes but maybe you are reading this blog while you’re eating, so I’ll write no more about the gross stuff.

What is this trend in humor books to save the best for last? The last chapter in the new David Sedaris book “When You are Engulfed in Flames” is the longest, and best in the book.

Same with “Come Sail Away” the final chapter in the Flaming Tantrum, which by the way is a term her friend coined after seeing “one of the most spectacular flameouts/hissy fits in world history.”

The final chapter is about an Alaskan cruise that Notaro went on with her friend Jamie.

“Somehow I know that when we were sitting in front of Jamie’s computer in her new house in Portland, a month prior, neither one of us pictured that in a matter of weeks, we would be clinging to a piece of plywood with frozen fingers, trying not to get thrown overboard to meet our destiny on the tip of a sharp rock.”

Her take on the mounds of food served on cruise ships and the various caste systems bestowed on diners (buffet people, dining room people) is funny, but their off-boat excursion on a rafting trip is worth the $20 for the book.

“We were supposed to float down the river, not tumble. I wanted to serenly glide past the scenery, not cling to a piece of plywood, grunting like a silverback with my glasses clenched between my teeth.”

Of course, the very best of the book is the last page. (Don’t look!!!) You have to read the story that comes before the page to truly appreciate it.