The Larnach's - Owen Marshall

I read this book in anticipation of a trip to Otago, where we plan to visit the Larnach Castle.  I was interested in knowing more about the family that lived there and this book fit the bill.  Unfortunately, I didn't love the rambling style (read like a journal entry).  And, while the characters initially appealed, they quickly grew quite tiring.  My issue with the characters however, can not be blamed on author Owen Marshall as this is an account (though thfictionalised) of real people.

Essentially, this tells the story of a young bride who marries the much older William Larnach and subsequently falls in love and pursues an affair with his son Dougie (with very severe consequences).  The two characters in many ways seem oblivious to the consequences of their actions, so I struggled to form a connection with either of them.  The book is told from the perspective of the bride Conny and Dougie, each of whom ultimately seem very self-involved.  I did initially appreciate the suffragist angle related to Conny, but even that could only take her character so far before she became distasteful.

I suppose that I'm happy that I did this read in advance of our trip, but don't know that I'd recommend the book to anyone else.

Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

I haven't read Mark Twain since being in junior high school. And now I know why.

I started reading this book with expectations that it would be wonderful; it is Mark Twain after all. But for about the first half of the book, there wasn't much plot, and the narrator simply explains, in painfully exquisite detail, what it is like within King Aurthur's court. Not story, just descriptions.

The story finally gets going about half way in, but pretty much peters out at the end with a quick wrap up rather than a well thought out narrative.

I may try out some of Mark Twain's better known literature in the future, but this one kind of left a bad taste in my mouth.

2/5

Secrets of Eden - Chris Bohjalian

I usually really enjoy Chris Bohjlian.  Midwives, Law of Similars, etc. were all quite good.  The Secrets of Eden however, did not do it for me at all!  I did finish reading it, but only to confirm that I had correctly guessed the ending.  I had.  This is perhaps one of my larger problems with the book--it was very predictable.  Also, though, there was a new-agey character in it, who was really flaky and whom I could not bear reading about.  In a nutshell, the book was about  a murder-suicide and was told from the perspective of four people: the minister who had been involved with the family, the cop investigate the crime, the new-agey woman, and the daughter of the murder-suicide victims.  The author tries to get you to a different truth with each character and this progresses the book.  This was approach was done much better in Stone's Fall by Iain Pairs.  I suggest picking up that book instead.

2/5 Stars.