What should I read next?

I just read The Hawkline Monster by Richard Brautigan and it seems like it might be something you'd enjoy based on that list. That's the first thing that came to mind, anyway.

Arthur Phillips - Angelica (Victorian ghost story, OR IS IT)
Sergio de la Pava - A Naked Singularity
Adam Levin - The Instructions
Marcel Theroux - Strange Bodies (or Far North, both have a sci-fi-ish premise and great writing)

dog latin, of those you mentioned, I've read K&C, Pale King, and S-5. Kavalier and Clay is the most enjoyable romp of those three. Pale King is the most ambitious, has many amazing pieces to it, and is a success in detail, but something of a failure when measured against its ambitions. Slaughterhouse 5 is among Vonnegut's two or three best and how you like it will depend on how much you like Vonnegut.

Thanks all. Aimless I agree on all those points. I haven't read any other vonnegut but I loved slaughterhouse. I guess I must like metafiction with lots of derails.

Sorry I'm not that good at recommending for others. I rarely never know what anyone else will enjoy.

I usually just troll through the WAYR threads for stuff that sounds interesting, but am often disappointed that more people don't give details other than the title and author. Just two or three sentences about a book can illuminate a lot.

"Slaughterhouse 5" is the only book from that list I've read but

its excellent. Atwood's "Alias Grace" is about a Victorian era murderess. I liked that one a lot. Atwood's "The Edible Woman" is great too but it's more of a late 60s Mad Men setting than the apocalyptic narrative of "oryx and crake".

damn, i really want to get a copy of hawkline monster, but there's no digital version online to my knowledge and not many places sell it.

Aww, that sucks. I lucked out and found an old copy at a book sale. I think it's part of a Brautigan anthology that's currently in print, though.

i shall keep my eyes peeled. it looks great, apropos of the cover, especially.

Arthur Phillips - Angelica (Victorian ghost story, OR IS IT)
Sergio de la Pava - A Naked Singularity
Adam Levin - The Instructions
Marcel Theroux - Strange Bodies (or Far North, both have a sci-fi-ish premise and great writing)

If you liked Oryx and Crake you could always go for the next in the series -- The Year of the Flood. It has a similar structure to the first book of flipping between past and present but focuses on a different set of characters (though they're still loosely linked to the ones from Oryx and Crake). I enjoyed it as much as Oryx and Crake.

Or for metafiction, maybe The Affirmation by Christopher Priest? At least I think that could fall under that banner. Hopefully not giving too much away: the plot involves a guy who writes his autobiography but does so by placing himself in an alternate universe, in which he's written an autobiography placing himself in the existing universe... the story goes back and forth between the two universes. It's interesting, but really dense, I found. It needs some concentration/attention, not exactly light reading in my opinion!

That sounds pretty funny salsa shark. I am reading Year Of The Flood right now. Like O&X it's a great story bogged down by some tedious writing sometimes but once it gets going it's great. Not sure if it's quite doing as much for me as Oryx did but we'll see.

Really enjoyed Year of the Flood in the end. In fact I'd say it's essential for people who liked Oryx & Crake as it fills in a lot of back story. I'll prob get round to reading MaddAdam soon.

Have also purchased a copy of Affirmation and a few others based on recommendations ITT so thanks all.

What should I read next?

Some of what I read sort of recently, as far as I can remember: Howards End, Forster; The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Fadiman; Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, Ferrante

Already reading in parallel: Nixonland, Perlman; If on a winter's night a traveler, Calvino (reread); like three or more philosophy works from the library I've been ignoring for months

The principal candidates:

How Should a Person Be?, Heti
Learning from Las Vegas, Venturi, Scott Brown, Izenour
What a City Is For, Hern
O Pioneers!, Cather
Our Aesthetic Categories, Ngai
The Price of Salt, Highsmith
any Jeeves book to take a break from trying so hard

Joy in the Morning, done

Ha, seconded

I could probably use a break from improving books.

vote for O Pioneers!

O Pioneers! or The Price of Salt/Carol

Which philosophy works?

Aesthetic Categories sounds like my kind of thing. Reminds me of a J. L. Austin quip: "if only we could forget for a while about the beautiful and get down instead to the dainty and the dumpy."

My reading pace has slowed a lot in the last couple months and I'm dragging on finishing a couple of long books. If I can get through those, I'm thinking of Comte de Monte-Cristo as my major October read.

For a thorough break from seriousness and self-improvement, go for a Wodehouse. If you'd prefer something with more meat on it, O Pioneers! would be an excellent choice, but only if it fits your mood, which might require a soufflé over meat and potatoes.

after reading the Neapolitan novels, How Should a Person Be?, I Love Dick, and in the middle of The Flamethrowers, I have not gotten enough of novels about women artists who are by turns attracted to and disappointed by men. What are some other things in this category?

Nathaniel P is good one

Collected works of Jean Rhys?

Stella Bowen's DRAWN FROM LIFE? (She was an Australian artist whose husband, Ford Madox Ford, was also sleeping with Jean Rhys for a sizeable chunk of their marriage)

Rhys' books don't centre on female artists though?

No? Bum. A while since I read them all--misremembered some of the protagonists as writers, etc. Ah well.

You are probably right James. Can't recall rn.

I’d like to read some historical fiction or ripping-yarn-type history about renaissance Italian statesmen and popes engaging in skulduggery, or else a highly recommended low-magic fantasy pastiche of same. What am I looking for?

Just got a Daedalus Books catalog which incl. In The Name of the Family---A Novel of Machiavelli and the Borgias: "In this sequel to Blood and Beauty, Silver Dagger Award winner Sarah Dunant explores the House of Borgia's final years. It is 1502, and Rodrigo Borgia, a womanizer and master of political corruption, sits on the papal throne as Alexander VI. His daughter and longtime pawn Lucrezia---three times married by the age of 22---is discovering she too has power. But his son Cesare has become increasingly unstable, and too close to Florentine diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli, who puts what he sees into The Prince. While the pope rails against old age and his son's erratic behavior, Lucrezia navigates the treacherous court of Urbino and another challenging marriage to create her own place in history."

Didn't mean to type all that, but, though I haven't read Dunant's books, did watch all of The Borgias cable series, starring Jeremy Irons, and this description pulled me back in.

Promising!!