Can anyone recommend me some novels?

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Hi All, I am desperate for a couple of new books to read, but stuck for ideas. I have been working my way through the classics, and really liked The Bell Jar, Catch 22, Brave New World, Moby Dick, Nausea, The Castle. I like Hunter Thompson and Bukowski although I know they have’t aged well! I like books that leave you feeling weird...not really ones about relationships. Never read any sci fi but could potentially get into it! Any ideas would be really appreciated, thanks.

Try The World's Wife, by Carol Ann Duffy (poetry, but excellent).
Mildly eco-feminist dystopia - anything by Sheri S Tepper, though the later ones are less polemic and have a very dry sense of humour.
If you liked Brave New World, then maybe Iain M Banks's Culture sci-fi.
Alternatively, try some Russian translated classics: Tolstoy, Chekov, Bulgakov.

The master and margarita by mikhail Bulgkov.

House of leaves by Mark z Danielewski

@hidingmystatus Ah thanks, will definitely check out Tepper, sounds right up my street. Iain Banks a good shout too, my brother is really into him, and if I remember correctly him and his wife shredded their passports over the Iraq war. I have never read any Russian classics, I think I have those somewhere actually.

@n00bMaster69 Thanks for replying, not heard of either of those so will have a look at them.

If you want to get into sci-fi/fantasy/military space opera, or crime/mystery, I have LOADS of recommendations.

Hmm, if you liked Catch 22 and Brave New World and you're looking for SFF, try:

Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut
The Man In The High Castle, PK Dick
The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
Babel 17, Samuel R Delaney
The Trial, Franz Kafka

Ann Patchett, especially Bel Canto
Margaret Attwood?
Barbara Kingsolver.
Isabelle Allende.

The Wall - Jonathan Lanchaster - well written, fascinating book with a dystophia feel (and I don’t usually go for these types if books)

Salmon fishing on the Yemen - absorbing book, cleverly written, worth reading

Thanks for all the replies!

@hidingmystatus - cheers for the offer, got quite a few to be getting on with now, but maybe a couple of top picks, if you don't mind?

@hokolo - Ah I liked The Trial, Philip K Dick is a really good idea.

@DonPablo - I would love to get into Margaret Atwood. I really liked HMT series and feel I bit gutted I never read the book - do you think still worth reading?

@Standrewsschool - my mum always going on about John Lanchester, will add to the list!

I loved Station 11 by Emily St John Mandel - very topical! It's apocalyptic but uplifting.

Top picks for lightweight crime w/romance - JD Robb, SR Garrae, LJ Ross
Top picks for sci-fi - Lois McMaster Bujold, David Weber, Stephen Donaldson.

Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury
The wasp factory by Banks
Nausea by Sartre
Executioner's song by Mailer

Have you tried any Jon McGregor? Not at all sci-fi or anything, but he writes in a fishbowl-y hyperaware style that really reminds me of some of the authors you mentioned. Not necessarily the same writing style but in the way they make me feel iuyswim.

If Nobody Speaks of Unusual Things is his most famous one and a good place to start.

@OneKeyAtATime have read, and loved, the first three, I will make a note of the fourth!

@n00bMaster69 I bought and started House of Leave on your recommendation. I am not usually such a wimp but it's freaking me out so much I am struggling to read it after dark, and when I go in to feed my baby in the middle of the night I actually got a bit scared. I'm 33...pathetic eh!

Thanks for all the other suggestions, I will save this thread and come back to it when I have read my current ones.

I like books that leave you feeling weird

Oh! Oh! Oh! Inverted World by Christopher Priest. Haunted my childhood. That one. Very odd feeling.

And I can thoroughly recommend (some of) the novels of A E van Vogt. A bewilderingly dreadful writer of SF. Many of his novels are constructed by hammering some of his previously published short stories together, rewriting bits of them so they kind of merge into each other and hoping they will fit. There is a weird dreamlike logic combined with some seriously awful writing that just lifts you some place where WTF? is normal.
He was immensely popular (and very influential in SF) during the 50s and 60s and all but forgotten now. Some of his more 'serious' books are indigestible less than half-baked pseudo-philosophical meandering garbage. (Avoid anything with Null-A in the title.) but when he was out to entertain he became unsurpassably weird.
The Moonbeast is probably his most bewildering book. Or possibly The Secret Galactics. That's where I'd start.

And they do have the advantage of being very short. And very cheap on eBay.

How old is classic?

Never Let Me Go is light sci fi.

I'd say THT is definitely worth reading and The Testaments is set well after the TV series and a page turner so worth a read. Orynx and Crake and the rest of that trilogy is an interesting read as well.

Ah I’ve seen Fahrenheit 451 mentioned by a PP I would definitely second that

Water Music maybe? It is quite odd

I'd suggest the Caraval series by Stephanie Garber and The Chronicles of St Mary's by Jodi Taylor. I'm currently on book 6 of St Mary's, both series are so so good, Caraval is magical while St Mary's is sci-fi/historical, both both are the kind of reads that you can't read fast enough, but wish never ended iyswim?

I'm reading 'The Suspect' by Fiona Barton. It's a psychological thriller set in Thailand, concerning two missing girls. Very pacy, gripping read. I've read her previous books and I think she's very talented....reminds me a bit of Nicci French's writing.

Yes to Atwood - Oryx and crake and Hag-seed are two of my favourites.
Yes to Station 11
I also rate Jon McGregor although preferred Reservoir 13 to 'If no-one speaks of remarkable things'
I really enjoyed 'The Bookshop' by Penelope Fitzgerald and Swimming Home by Deborah Levy
Have you read any Shirley Jackson? I thought The Haunting of Hill House was great (haven't seen the TV series though.

The Russian classics are great too - A have a particular fondness for 'War and Peace' and 'A hero of our Time' (Lermontov) but it's been years since I've read them.

I really like Michel Faber, his books are all very different - both from each other and from other authors.
You could also have a look at Hilary Mantel, you needn't tackle the Wolf Hall trilogy if you don't fancy, she's written plenty of others. 8 Months on Ghazzah Street is a good one.

Engleby by Sebastian Faulks is good, and a bit weird.
Have you read any Murakami? Fabulously unusual and gripping books.