Death in Her Hands | 
pickThis was last month‘s book club pick, and surprisingly I ended up reading it twice. This is a character study disguised as a murder mystery, about an old woman spiraling in grief and paranoia. The book is haunting and atmospheric and the writing is excellent, but it isn‘t actually the most enjoyable book. I liked analyzing it more than reading it for pleasure. Definitely experimental and leaves an impact, but not the most fun to read. A soft pick.
Thanks for the tag, @The_Penniless_Author !
1) I think so. Just waiting for a few things to be delivered 🤞
2) I think the tagged has a grocery trip in it. Actually, I think a lot of the books I read have characters visiting grocery stores.
@TheSpineView #Two4Tuesday
pickThis novel opens with Vesta, an elderly widow, finding this note in the woods behind the remote lakeside cottage she recently moved into with her dog Charlie. If you think that this sounds like an intriguing opening to a mystery, you should know from the start that this is not that novel. Because it is initially disappointing to find this isn't the mystery you think you're getting. But the odd character study that emerges is truly unique 👇
As a reward for getting off my ass and going for a mile walk, I stopped by the bookstore and picked this. Having a bookstore a half mile from home is good motivation.
so-so“I felt I needed to hide a little. My mind needed a smaller world to roam.”
- 3⭐️
panWtf did I just listen to? I don't mind books that are primarily internal narrative, nor do I mind unreliable narrators, even slightly neurotic ones. BUT this was a whole new level!
I thought about bailing, but I just wanted to know if I would "know" at the end. Spoiler alert- no, I did not know. I do not know. Lol. Pass.
pickWell, another odd book from OM but isn‘t that what we read her books to encounter- the genre bending, unexplainable ambiguous novel with no clean ending. This is that in spades. “Her name is Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn‘t me. Here is her dead body.” I dare you to walk away from that!
#AlphabetGame Letter D
Moshfegh gets better with every book. I haven‘t read her latest one but this one is so so good.
panMy nails kind of match the book.
Which I won‘t talk about to ruin anything for the next in the #lmpbc - I finished this tonight and it and the other book will be on their way to @phantomx Monday! Sorry I‘ve been so behind 😩
@ImperfectCJ @Jadams1776
#currentlyreading or really #currentlytryingtoread not sure how I‘m liking this one.
And I have the other one (black rabbit hall) finished and ready to go but figured If I can get this finished this weekend I can mail them together on Monday.
#lmpbc
pickThis isn't my favorite Moshfegh, but I like what she does here, playing with the intersection between real life and the life of the mind.
I have several packages to mail out, so I'll hopefully get this out by Saturday with the rest of the stack. #lmpbc #Round14 @allureofbeauty @suvata
Starting this but I have serious reservations about it. 60 pages in... 😕😬
I got some sweet stuff in my #HHS #HauntedHollowSwap from @shortsarahrose ! An adorable card, a bookmark, a tasty-smelling candle, and two books I've been wanting to read and that are just in time to toss into my overnight bag for a teensy road trip! Thank you so much, Sarah, and thank you for hosting, @wanderinglynn !
pan10 // 2021: “The slightest thing delighted him. I wished I could be more like that, and tried to promise myself I‘d work harder to be happier.”
Not my favorite, but I've been told to try another Ottessa Moshfegh piece before making any final judgments. I'm not built to enjoy an unreliable narrator or an open-ended ending!!!
A quick read, nonetheless.
I just finished this and I think it‘s the worst book I‘ve read this year. I‘ve noticed that most reviewers either really love it or really hate it. I just didn‘t get it and the killing of the dog at the end (and the way it was killed) was just unnecessary.
pickThis was a slow burn but the ending has lingered with me for a while... It reminded me a lot of Drive your Plow over the Bones of the Dead, but I preferred this. Written beautifully and with just enough creepiness & quirk.
This checks off my April #bookspin pick for #bookspinbingo ✅
pickUsually when I read a book a second time, I get more clarity/understanding than after my first read. No so with this one. It has the same tension building through the narrative that I so loved in Eileen, but a whole lot more to unpack. Still, I‘d read anything she writes. I can‘t wait for her new book! #audiobook #reread
pickSad story about loneliness and depression. You can see the progression into her own dead switching between whats made up and what's real. Hard to read but felt helps you in some ways to realize how older people aren't able to express how they are feeling as they loose their minds.
pickOne part cozy mystery, one part rambling library patron‘s conspiracy theories, and one part fuck you to the patriarchal voices in our heads, I LOVED THIS BOOK.*
panI really gave this a chance. It was shortlisted for the Staunch book prize which is for a thriller that doesn‘t feature any violence towards women. Even though nothing (absolutely nothing) happens in the book in terms of violence, a lot still goes on in the mc‘s head so we‘re still reading about a woman being brutally murdered because Vesta imagines it 🤷♀️ read if you want, I‘ve just wasted the week on this and I‘m actually naffed off 😩😂
so-soThis author - I always like her writing style but hate her stories. This is the stream-of-consciousness of an older woman, recently widowed from a egotistical, controlling husband. She creates a world in her head and eventually we come around to her recognizing her true feelings about her deceased husband, but it was a bit of a slog to get there. 2⭐️
panMonotonous. This was the second book by this author I really did not like at all. The other-My Year of Rest and Relaxation- I couldn‘t get through. Others may enjoy but I won‘t try another by the same writer. 🤷🏼♀️
Thank you @Smarkies for the Moshfegh which I've been coveting for so long! 😍 Plus the chocolate that I can't wait to eat and the kind message in the card 💕
A lovely treat to have as January gets going; thank you @bookish_wookish for organising 🙂 #LittleChristmasSwap #LCS
Day 10 of #12booksof2020
My favorite by Moshfegh. I loved the main character and the way the reader follows close while she‘s doing her daily chores. So close that we note all that deviates from those routines. Loved it.
so-soI wanted to love this as much as her other novels, but I didn‘t. A murder mystery without a body (or much of a mystery), and with most of the novel taking place in the head of an old woman whose imagination gets the best of her. I suspect other novelists will appreciate the construct more. I usually love novels about difficult women but this one fell flat for me.
"Walter and I had shared a mind, of course. Couples get that way. I think it has something to do with sharing a bed. The mind, untethered during sleep, travels up and away, dancing, sometimes in partners. Things pass back and forth in dreams."
pick⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
There were a few things about this book that reminded me a lot of Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, a book I really enjoyed and would highly recommend, but it still did its own thing. The story was a bit meta with an unreliable narrator, which were two aspects I liked. The beginning grabbed me, but I was bored for a good chunk in the middle before things finally clicked for me again toward the end. So it was a bit of an ⬇️
so-soSo much potential. Such a page tuner. Then a big fizzle ending. The writing is beautiful and engaging so not a total loss. 3 stars... next!
Soooo that's got to be the most bizarre line I have read in a long time.
pickOttessa Moshfegh is such a must-read author for me ❤️
In this one, the main character is a little more relatable than in her previous works I‘ve read (old lady living by the lake with her 🐶? ✅ Definitely me in a few decades!)
It‘s also a testament to Moshfegh‘s skill to write so much intensity and suspense with little outward dialogue or action.
A cozy mystery - a mysterious note, an old lady and her dog - or something much sadder? Or Both?
#BookReport 43/20
Three books done and three winners also. So, a good week!
pickFinished this, my 6th read for #Screamathon, today. I am a fan of Moshfegh‘s characters, and find Vesta Gul to be among her most “appealing”. I was rooting for her.
pickNo one can write about loneliness like Moshfegh can. Vesta is an elder woman living with her dog in a secluded cabin. When she finds a mysterious note in the woods she decides to solve the mystery. While investigating, her loneliness is obvious and poignant, like when she describes the futility of running a bath when her body now seems “so little, a little thing I had to keep clean, like washing a single dish one uses constantly.” Continued ⬇️⬇️
1. Saga: Book One and Death in Her Hands
2. Annihilation
3. Vagina Problems
#weekendreads
so-soI‘m so conflicted with this one. The writing is brilliant. You get a true feel of the main character, Vesta Gul, and her life, current and past with her former husband, Walter. It starts of normal enough and becomes a meandering, almost unhinged mess, which clearly reflects the character‘s mind. But I‘m left feeling...unfulfilled? I wanted more.
pickThe story begins with a murder, but if you expect a typical murder mystery, you‘ll be frustrated. I see how this has polarising reactions..at times I was impatient with Vesta for dwelling too much on her ‘theory‘ and ‘investigation‘. As her narrative drifts, she looks back on her life, and multiple layers of her dark past are revealed. It‘s another story of loneliness and isolation from Moshfegh, but it‘s also of how ⬇️
#Booked2020 #newin2020
I just love how Ottessa writes characters whose most of the dialogue is in their heads.
I‘ve had this on my TBR for months now and I just keep delaying my hold, so maybe now is the time I‘m ready for it.
bailed
