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If you like reading essays about California, a great follow-up to "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" is Eve Babitz’s collection "Slow Days, Fast Company". Like Didion, Babitz is a documentarian of California in the 1960s and 70s, but sort of the Dionysus to Didion’s Apollo--in Eve Babitz’s work it’s all fun, sunsets, and flirting with Jim Morrison at the Whisky-a-Go-Go. A summer breeze of a collection.--Griffin
If you appreciate "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" for Didion’s sparse, evocative prose, you may also enjoy "Speedboat", a novel by Renata Adler. Adler worked as a film critic for the New Yorker before publishing this book, and her novel captures the mood and essence of urban life in the late 1970s through prose that is spare, sinister, and incredibly vivid.--Griffin
If you enjoyed "Slouching Towards Bethlehem", and perhaps seek a different perspective on the cultural life of California, you might be interested in "The Tide Was Always High". This series of essays and interviews, published by the University of California Press, presents a history of Latinx influence on the music and pop culture of Los Angeles since the eighteenth century.--Griffin
If you liked "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" for its unique, wide-ranging collection of topics, you could check out Tiffany Midge’s "Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese". Midge, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, published this essay collection in 2019. In it she presents a series of wide-ranging meditations on politics, feminism, and identity, all while being absolutely hilarious. One of the freshest and most enjoyable works of social commentary out there right now.--Griffin
If you just really love Joan Didion, and want to become even more immersed in her work and her legacy, you might consider a 2019 release called "Slouching Towards Los Angeles: Living and Writing by Joan Didion’s Light". This book gathers together original essays inspired by and dedicated to Didion, and represents a collective love letter to one of our most celebrated storytellers.--Griffin