33 Best 「vonegut」 Books of 2024| Books Explorer

In this article, we will rank the recommended books for vonegut. The list is compiled and ranked by our own score based on reviews and reputation on the Internet.
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Table of Contents
  1. Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel (Modern Library 100 Best Novels)
  2. Mother Night: A Novel
  3. Cat's Cradle (Penguin Essentials)
  4. Breakfast of Champions: A Novel
  5. The Sirens of Titan: A Novel
  6. God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian
  7. Welcome to the Monkey House: Stories
  8. Bluebeard: A Novel (Delta Fiction)
  9. A Man Without a Country
  10. Player Piano: A Novel
Other 23 books
No.1
100

Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world’s great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous firebombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim’s odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we fear most.

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No.2
88

Mother Night: A Novel

Vonnegut, Kurt
Dial Press Trade Paperback

“Vonnegut is George Orwell, Dr. Caligari and Flash Gordon compounded into one writer . . . a zany but moral mad scientist.”—TimeMother Night is a daring challenge to our moral sense. American Howard W. Campbell, Jr., a spy during World War II, is now on trial in Israel as a Nazi war criminal. But is he really guilty? In this brilliant book rife with true gallows humor, Vonnegut turns black and white into a chilling shade of gray with a verdict that will haunt us all.“A great artist.”—Cincinnati Enquirer“A shaking up in the kaleidoscope of laughter . . . Reading Vonnegut is addictive!”—Commonweal

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No.3
83
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No.4
81

Breakfast of Champions: A Novel

Vonnegut, Kurt
Dial Press Trade Paperback

“Marvelous . . . [Vonnegut] wheels out all the complaints about America and makes them seem fresh, funny, outrageous, hateful and lovable.”—The New York TimesIn Breakfast of Champions, one of Kurt Vonnegut’s most beloved characters, the aging writer Kilgore Trout, finds to his horror that a Midwest car dealer is taking his fiction as truth. What follows is murderously funny satire, as Vonnegut looks at war, sex, racism, success, politics, and pollution in America and reminds us how to see the truth.“Free-wheeling, wild and great . . . uniquely Vonnegut.”—Publishers Weekly

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No.5
80

The Sirens of Titan: A Novel

Vonnegut, Kurt
Dial Press Trade Paperback

“[Kurt Vonnegut’s] best book . . . He dares not only ask the ultimate question about the meaning of life, but to answer it.”—EsquireNominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American ReadThe Sirens of Titan is an outrageous romp through space, time, and morality. The richest, most depraved man on Earth, Malachi Constant, is offered a chance to take a space journey to distant worlds with a beautiful woman at his side. Of course there’ s a catch to the invitation–and a prophetic vision about the purpose of human life that only Vonnegut has the courage to tell.“Reading Vonnegut is addictive!”—Commonweal

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No.6
79

God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian

Vonnegut, Kurt
Seven Stories Press

In what began as a series of quirkily characteristic ninety-second interludes for New York's public radio station, Kurt Vonnegut asks, on behalf of us all, the Big Questions. Could death be a quality? A place? Not an ending but an occurrence that changes those to whom it happens? As a "reporter on the afterlife," Vonnegut bravely allows himself to be strapped to a gurney by his friend Jack Kevorkian and dispatched round-trip to the Pearly Gates. Or at least that's what he claims in the introduction to these thirty-odd comic and irreverent "interviews" with the likes of William Shakespeare, Adolf Hitler, and Clarence Darrow, bringing readers to an entirely new place—a place to which only Vonnegut could bring us.

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No.7
79

Welcome to the Monkey House: Stories

Vonnegut, Kurt
Dial Press Trade Paperback

This collection of Vonnegut's short masterpieces share his audacious sense of humor and extraordinary creative vision. Includes the stories "Where I Live," "Harrison Bergeron," "Who Am I This Time?," "Welcome to the Monkey House," "Long Walk to Forever," "The Foster Portfolio," "Miss Temptation," "All the King's Horses," "Tom Edison's Shaggy Dog," "New Dictionary," "Next Door," "More Stately Mansions," "The Hyannis Port Story," and "D.P."Publishers WeeklyListeners are in for a treat as a masterful cast animates many of Vonnegut's finest short pieces. Vonnegut colors his oft-wondrous works with memorable characters, fantastic realities, pitch-perfect dialogue and heapings of satire and humor-a tall order for any audio actor. But this group of narrators are veterans of screen and stage, each with a unique voice as malleable as clay. It's hard to find fault with this production. Occasionally, Tucci and Irwin oversoften their voices, and listeners may find themselves reaching for the volume. Otherwise, there are very few blemishes. Baker is outstanding in "All the King's Horses" and "The Hyannis Port Story." Strathairn shines on "Tom Edison's Shaggy Dog" and "The Lie." Tucci handles with ease the predominantly male pieces "Go Back to Your Precious Wife and Son" and "Manned Missiles." Irwin inhabits every character. The robust Roberts is both commanding and wry. Given the fertile material and the collective talent of the cast, listeners should expect nothing less than excellence here. They won't be disappointed. Available in paperback from Dell. (June) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

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No.8
78

Bluebeard: A Novel (Delta Fiction)

Vonnegut, Kurt
Dial Press Trade Paperback

Broad humor and bitter irony collide in this fictional autobiography of Rabo Karabekian, who, at age seventy-one, wants to be left alone on his Long Island estate with the secret he has locked inside his potato barn. But then a voluptuous young widow badgers Rabo into telling his life story—and Vonnegut in turn tells us the plain, heart-hammering truth about man’s careless fancy to create or destroy what he loves.Publishers WeeklyIn this, the most intimate of Vonnegut's 13 novels, he brings back ``the erstwhile American painter Rabo Karabekian, a one-eyed man'' who played a minor role in Breakfast of Champions. At 71, Karabekian is leading an oyster's life, albeit in an East Hampton mansion stocked with modern masterpieces. Most of the friends with whom he launched the Abstract Expressionist movement have died, as has his wife of many years; his faith in his artistic ability has vanished as well. It remains for an irritant in the form of a determined younger woman to oust his customary melancholy. Circe Berman is an author of teenage fiction with ``relevant'' themes and a rearranger of Karabekian's home and creative energies. She soon has him writing his memoirs, which he titles Bluebeard; and it is a pearl of a book. Karabekian recalls his parents' exodus to California from Turkish Armenia following the first mass murder of what will become ``the genocide century,'' his introduction to both art and sex during an apprenticeship with a mad New York illustrator, Gregory, and his mistress, Marilee, the loss of his eye and a few more illusions in World War II and his subsequent role as an artist manque. Like lost lives, Karabekian's is a constant blending of regret and hope but Vonnegut has graced it with a touching denouement that suggests that even in our own particular kingdom of the blind, a one-eyed man can be king. (October)

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No.9
78

A Man Without a Country

Vonnegut, Kurt
Random House Trade Paperbacks

A Man Without a Country is Kurt Vonnegut’s hilariously funny and razor-sharp look at life (If I die--God forbid--I would like to go to heaven to ask somebody in charge up there, ‘Hey, what was the good news and what was the bad news?), art (To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it.), politics (I asked former Yankees pitcher Jim Bouton what he thought of our great victory over Iraq and he said, ‘Mohammed Ali versus Mr. Rogers.’), and the condition of the soul of America today (What has happened to us?). Based on short essays and speeches composed over the last five years and plentifully illustrated with artwork by the author throughout, A Man Without a Country gives us Vonnegut both speaking out with indignation and writing tenderly to his fellow Americans, sometimes joking, at other times hopeless, always searching.Kurt Vonnegut is among the very few grandmasters of contemporary American letters, without whom the very term American literature would mean less than it does. His novels include Cat’s Cradle and Slaughterhouse Five, among so many others. Projects with Seven Stories Press in recent years include God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian and, with Lee Stringer, Like Shaking Hands with God, a book about writing. His most recent novel is Timequake (1997).

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No.10
78

Player Piano: A Novel

Vonnegut, Kurt
The Dial Press

“A funny, savage appraisal of a totally automated American society of the future.”—San Francisco ChronicleKurt Vonnegut’s first novel spins the chilling tale of engineer Paul Proteus, who must find a way to live in a world dominated by a supercomputer and run completely by machines. Paul’s rebellion is vintage Vonnegut—wildly funny, deadly serious, and terrifyingly close to reality.Praise for Player Piano“An exuberant, crackling style . . . Vonnegut is a black humorist, fantasist and satirist, a man disposed to deep and comic reflection on the human dilemma.”—Life “His black logic . . . gives us something to laugh about and much to fear.”—The New York Times Book Review

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No.11
77

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater: A Novel

Vonnegut, Kurt
Dial Press Trade Paperback

Eliot Rosewater—drunk, volunteer fireman, and President of the fabulously rich Rosewater Foundation—is about to attempt a noble experiment with human nature . . . with a little help from writer Kilgore Trout. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater is Kurt Vonnegut’s funniest satire, an etched-in-acid portrayal of the greed, hypocrisy, and follies of the flesh we are all heir to.

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No.12
77

Galapagos: A Novel (Delta Fiction)

Vonnegut, Kurt
Dial Press Trade Paperback

a Small Group Of Apocalypse Survivors Stranded On The Galapagos Islands Are About To Become The Progenitors Of A Brave New Human Race. Vonnegut Is A Post-modern Mark Train. . . . Galapagos Is A Madcap Genealogical Adventure.--new York Times Book Review.the New York Times - Lorrie Moorealthough Certainly The Novel Has Something To Do With The Giant Crush America Has On Celebrity, The Famous People Never Really Do Make It Into The Story, And What We End Up With Is A Madcap Genealogical Adventure - A Blend Of The Old Testament, The Latin American Novel And A Lot Of Cut-up Comic Books - Employing A Cast Of Lesser-knowns That Includes A Schoolteacher Named Mary Hepburn, An Ecuadorean Sea Captain Named Von Kleist, A Former Male Prostitute Named James Wait (whose Skin Color Is ''like The Crust On A Pie In A Cheap Cafeteria''), A Dog Named Kazakh (who, ''thanks To Surgery And Training, Had Virtually No Personality''), Plus A Narrator Who Turns Out To Be None Other Than The Son Of Kilgore Trout, That Science Fiction Hack From Mr. Vonnegut's Earlier Books.

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No.13
77

The New York Times bestseller from the author of Slaughterhouse-Five—a “gripping” posthumous collection of Kurt Vonnegut’s previously unpublished work on the subject of war and peace.A fitting tribute to a literary legend and a profoundly humane humorist, Armageddon in Retrospect is a collection of twelve previously unpublished writings. Imbued with Vonnegut's trademark rueful humor and outraged moral sense, the pieces range from a letter written by Vonnegut to his family in 1945, informing them that he'd been taken prisoner by the Germans, to his last speech, delivered after his death by his son Mark, who provides a warmly personal introduction to the collection. Taken together, these pieces provide fresh insight into Vonnegut's enduring literary genius and reinforce his ongoing moral relevance in today’s world.Includes an Introduction by Mark Vonnegut

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No.14
77

Hocus Pocus

Vonnegut, Kurt
Berkley

From The Author Of Timequake, This Irresistible Novel (cleveland Plain Dealer) Tells The Story Of Eugene Debs Hartke-vietnam Veteran, Jazz Pianist, College Professor, And Prognosticator Of The Apocalypse. Kurt Vonnegut.

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No.15
77

Deadeye Dick: A Novel

Vonnegut, Kurt
Dial Press Trade Paperback

Deadeye Dick is Kurt Vonnegut’s funny, chillingly satirical look at the death of innocence. Amid a true Vonnegutian host of horrors—a double murder, a fatal dose of radioactivity, a decapitation, an annihilation of a city by a neutron bomb—Rudy Waltz, aka Deadeye Dick, takes us along on a zany search for absolution and happiness. Here is a tale of crime and punishment that makes us rethink what we believe . . . and who we say we are. A funny, chillingly satirical look at the death of innocence. Rudy Waltz, a.k.a. Deadeye Dick, takes readers on a zany search for absolution and happiness in this tale of crime and punishment that makes us rethink what we believe and who we say we are. "Vonnegut is . . . a zany but moral mad scientist."--Time. Reissue.

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No.16
76

Slapstick or Lonesome No More!: A Novel

Vonnegut, Kurt
Dial Press Trade Paperback

This hilarious, wickedly irreverent farce presents an apocalyptic vision seen through the eyes of the current King of Manhattan (and last President of the United States).

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No.17
76

“An anthology in which Vonnegut freely quotes himself on everything from art and architecture to madness and mass murder...Uncompromising.”—Los Angeles Times“Honest and scarily funny, and it offers a rare insight into an author who has customarily hidden his heart.”—New York TimesHere we have a collection of essays and speeches by me, with breezy autobiographical commentary serving as connective tissue and splints and bandages. Here we go again with real life and opinions made to look like one big, preposterous animal not unlike an invention by Dr. Seuss...—Kurt Vonnegut, from Fates Worse Than Death

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No.18
76

Timequake

Vonnegut, Kurt
Berkley

there's Been A Timequake. And Everyone—even You—must Live The Decade Between February 17, 1991 And February 17, 2001 Over Again. The Trick Is That We All Have To Do Exactly The Same Things As We Did The First Time—minute By Minute, Hour By Hour, Year By Year, Betting On The Wrong Horse Again, Marrying The Wrong Person Again. Why? You'll Have To Ask The Old Science Fiction Writer, Kilgore Trout. This Was All His Idea.valerie Sayershighly Entertaining. -- ny Times Book Review

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No.19
76

Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons: (Opinions)

Vonnegut, Kurt
Dial Press Trade Paperback

Science Fiction -- Brief Encounters On The Inland Waterway -- Hello, Star Vega -- Teaching The Unteachable -- Yes, We Have No Nirvanas -- Fortitude -- There's A Maniac Loose Out There -- Excelsior! We're Going To The Moon! Excelsior! -- Address To The American Physical Society -- Good Missiles, Good Manners, Good Night -- Why They Read Hesse -- Oversexed In Indianapolis -- The Mysterious Madame Blavatsky -- Biafra: A People Betrayed -- Address To Graduating Clas At Bennington College, 1970 -- Torture And Blubber -- Address To The National Institute Of Arts And Letters, 1971 -- Reflections On My Own Death -- In A Manner That Must Shame God Himself -- Thinking Unthinkable, Speaking Unspeakable -- Address At Rededication Of Wheaton College Library, 1973 -- Invite Rita Rait To America! -- Address To P.e.n. Conference In Stockholm, 1973 -- A Political Disease -- Playboy Interview. Kurt Vonnegut. Essays.

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No.20
76

Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage

Vonnegut, Kurt
Dial Press Trade Paperback

in This Self-portrait By An American Genius, Kurt Vonnegut Writes With Beguiling Wit And Poignant Wisdom About His Favorite Comedians, Country Music, A Dead Friend, A Dead Marriage, And Various Cockamamie Aspects Of His All-too-human Journey Through Life. This Is A Work That Resonates With Vonnegut’s Singular Voice: The Magic Sound Of A Born Storyteller Mesmerizing Us With Truth.

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No.21
76

Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction

Vonnegut, Kurt
Penguin Publishing Group

From the acclaimed author of Slaughterhouse-Five, Cat's Cradle, and Breakfast of Champions comes a compilation of twenty-three never-before-collected short stories.These vignettes of American life draw on Kurt Vonnegut's World War 2 experiences and the resolute optimism of the country after the war. Together, they present a poignant and humorous portrayal of an America peopled with overzealous high school band directors and their students, rebellious housewives, and boasting salesmen, soldiers misplaced during the war and people lost in their own gadget-filled homes.In an era before television, Kurt Vonnegut found a ready and willing audience in the readers of such magazines as Collier's, The Saturday Evening Post, Cosmopolitan, Argosy, and Redbook. These rare, rediscovered tales gives us a glimpse into a more innocent America—and into the developing genius of one of the greatest writers of our time.

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No.22
76

Complete Stories

Vonnegut, Kurt
Seven Stories Press

The Complete Short Stories Of Kurt Vonnegut-- War -- Women -- Science -- Romance -- Work Ethic Versus Fame And Fortune -- Behavior -- The Band Director -- Futuristic. Kurt Vonnegut ; Collected And Introduced By Jerome Klinkowitz & Dan Wakefield ; Foreword By Dave Eggers. Includes Bibliographical References.

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No.23
76

Look at the Birdie: Short Fiction

Vonnegut, Kurt
Dial Press Trade Paperback
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No.24
76

While Mortals Sleep: Unpublished Short Fiction

Vonnegut, Kurt
Dial Press Trade Paperback

NATIONAL BESTSELLER Foreward by Dave Eggers These previously unpublished, beautifully rendered works of fiction are a testament to Kurt Vonnegut’s unique blend of observation and imagination. Here are stories of men and machines, art and artifice, and how ideals of fortune, fame, and love take curious twists in ordinary lives. An ambitious builder of roads fritters away his free time with miniature trains—until the women in his life crash his fantasy land. Trapped in a stenography pool, a young dreamer receives a call from a robber on the run, who presents her with a strange proposition. A crusty newspaperman is forced onto a committee to judge Christmas displays—a job that leads him to a suspiciously ostentatious ex-con and then a miracle. Featuring a Foreword by Dave Eggers, While Mortals Sleep is a poignant reflection of our world as it is and as it could be.

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No.25
76

Kurt Vonnegut: Letters

Vonnegut, Kurt
Dial Press Trade Paperback
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No.26
76

Happy Birthday, Wanda June: A Play

Vonnegut, Kurt
Dial Press Trade Paperback

“Richly and often pertinently funny [with] a sure instinct for the carefully considered irrelevance . . . a great deal of incidental hilarity [and] inspired idiocy.”—The New York TimesHappy Birthday Wanda June was Kurt Vonnegut’s first play, which premiered in New York in 1970 and was then adapted into a film in 1971. It is a darkly humorous and searing examination of the excesses of capitalism, patriotism, toxic masculinity, and American culture in the post-Vietnam War era. Featuring behind-the-scenes photographs from the original stage production, this play captures Vonnegut’s brilliantly distinct perspective unlike we have ever seen it before.“A great artist.”—The Cincinnati Enquirer

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No.27
76
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No.28
76

One of the great American iconoclasts holds forth on politics, war, books and writers, and his personal life in a series of conversations, including his last published interview. During his long career Kurt Vonnegut won international praise for his novels, plays, and essays. In this new anthology of conversations with Vonnegut—which collects interviews from throughout his career—we learn much about what drove Vonnegut to write and how he viewed his work at the end. From Kurt Vonnegut's last interview Is there another book in you, by chance? No. Look, I’m 84 years old. Writers of fiction have usually done their best work by the time they’re 45. Chess masters are through when they’re 35, and so are baseball players. There are plenty of other people writing. Let them do it. So what’s the old man’s game, then? My country is in ruins. So I’m a fish in a poisoned fishbowl. I’m mostly just heartsick about this. There should have been hope. This should have been a great country. But we are despised all over the world now. I was hoping to build a country and add to its literature. That’s why I served in World War II, and that’s why I wrote books. When someone reads one of your books, what would you like them to take from the experience? Well, I’d like the guy—or the girl, of course—to put the book down and think, “This is the greatest man who ever lived.”

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No.30
76

Kurt Vonnegut Used To Like To Say, Practicing An Art Form Is A Way To Grow Your Soul. He Would Screw Up His Lips Into A Prune Face After He Said This Because Of How Important He Believed This Idea To Be. Pity The Reader Is The Very Embodiment Of That Idea, A Book About Writing And Life And Why The Two Go Together. It Includes Rare Photos And Reproductions, Vonnegut's Own Account In His Own Words Of How He Became A Writer And Why It Matters, And Previously Untold Stories By And About Vonnegut As Teacher And Friend. It Turns Out He Was Generous To A Fault About Students' Writing, Idiosyncratic, A Bit Tortured And Always Creative As A Teacher, And Here In This Book That Portrait Becomes Our Gateway Into Getting To Know Kurt Vonnegut Better Than We Ever Have Before As A Human Being. Vonnegut Recounts That His Favorite Work Of Art Among All Those His Children Produced So Far Is A Letter His Daughter Nanette Wrote To A Disgruntled Customer, After He Had Tormented A New Waitress At The Restaurant Where She Had Just Started Working, And Then He Shares The Letter With Us. Thus He Illustrates His First Writing Rule: Find A Subject You Care About. This Book Is Full Of Such Rare, Intimately Teachable Moments, And They Add Up To Something Special. Pity The Reader Indeed.

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No.31
76
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No.32
76
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No.33
76

Sun Moon Star

Vonnegut, Kurt
Triangle Square

Sun Moon Star is the story of the birth of Jesus--as told by Kurt Vonnegut. This children's book takes the newborn Jesus' perspective, offering beautiful and insightful descriptions of the world from someone newly born into it. In this book, we follow Jesus and meet the people most important to his life--presented in new and surprising ways.A powerful departure from Vonnegut's more adult work, Sun Moon Star gives readers a rare glimpse of the writer's talent in a format that's unique and unexpected. Originally published in 1980, the book is long out of print, but is available as an E-book.

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