I just really liked The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio. Of the three books I've read so far this weekend, it turned out to the be the one that made my mind sit still for awhile. If Willa Cather had told this story, it would have been flat and bleak and cold, but instead it turned into something more celebratory and kind when told by the author.

I finished Lucy Jane Bledsoe's this wild silence last night--so far past my bedtime it wasn't funny. I like Bledsoe's work, she has a firm style of writing, and I enjoyed Working Parts. In the end, however, I ended up feeling a little disappointed that the plot wasn't a little more opaque. I felt almost as if I had already read a synopsis of the story and knew what was going to happen and how it ended before I even started reading.

The jury is still out on Wrong Beach Island. The title put me off initially--too intentionally clever. I think it's hard to just jump into the middle of a series, all the character development tends to happen in the first one or two books, and if you don't take the time to go back and read them, everything feels one-dimensional. I never bought the relationship between Andy and Meg...oh, excuse me, *Maggie* and I generally just thought she wasn't very clever. Another case of feeling like I'd read the plot line before actually reading the book.

On to the next book. Yes, I know I should be doing homework.