SIX WEEKS TO LIVE (Catherine McKenzie) - March 23/22

 It felt like I was reading this forever. The plot is fine but McKenzie stretches everything to its breaking point, to the extent that the novel feels twice as long as necessary. And I was never able to completely separate the three sisters. The thriller elements are absent until the very end, but I had completely checked out by that point. ** out of ****

CHILLY SCENES OF WINTER (Ann Beattie) - March 10/22

 I'm pretty conflicted on this one. On the one hand, it's absolutely a vivid portrait of a fairly memorable figure and Beattie does a superb job of getting into his head. He's such a weird loner that I couldn't help but occasionally relate to him. But on the other hand, the book is really, really long and packed with descriptive passages. And the ending made me scratch my head. But oddly enough, I could see myself re-reading this some day. **1/2 out of ****