May 2018 Wrap Up

Books Read:
Dangerous Mystic by Joel F. Harrington   5/5 stars  (my review here)

If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino    3/5 stars (my review here)

Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare   4/5 stars  (my review here)

The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson  4/5 stars  (my review here)

The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare  1/5 stars  (my discussion here)

The Householder by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala   5/5 stars  (my review here)

The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare  4/5 stars  (my review here)

du Maurier

Audio Books Completed:
The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier    4/5 stars
John and Jean meet and are struck by their identical looks.  Jean takes the other's identity, leaving John to deal with the Frenchman's demanding family.  This is a well-executed, gripping novel that makes the reader eager to read on.  Du Maurier's ability to write natural, believable people and their reactions to extraordinary circumstances is excellent.

Excellent Women by Barbara Pym    5/5 stars
In this sometimes charming, sometimes snarky novel, Pym explores a few months in the life of Mildred Lathbury, one of the "excellent women": thirty-something genteel spinsters who do good works in the parish or neighborhood.  Pym's ability to create comic characters and situations, as well as the everyday, is exceptional.

A History of India by Michael H. Fisher, Ph.D.  (The Great Courses)  5/5 stars
This is not an actual book, but is a 18 1/2 hour course on the history of India from earliest known times up to current day.  The course is well prepared and interesting, and Dr. Fisher, while sometimes halting, is generally a good lecturer.

Great World Religions: Hinduism by Mark Muesse, Ph. D (The Great Courses)  5/5 stars
This is not a book, but a 6 hour series of lectures on the theology of Hinduism and it's 5000 year history.  I was expecting more about the actual practices and more stories about the deities than it contains, but was not disappointed by the overall quality of the course.  Dr. Muesse was an enthusiastic and informative lecturer.

The Case of the Love Commandos by Tarquin Hall 4/5 stars
In this fun and complicated mystery, Vish Puri is asked to help locate the kidnapped Dalit finance of a high-caste woman, and in so doing becomes involved in murder, politics, and caste.  In the meantime, Mummy is convinced she has spotted a criminal on her pilgrimage, and is making a nuisance of herself with the local police.  Hall's prose is well-written and engaging, the characters are believable, and the situations, while far-fetched at times, are intriguing.

Did Not Finish:
My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
There is nothing wrong with this semi-autobiographical book; Durrell writes engagingly and the narrator of the audio book was fantastic.  The problem is with me--the topic, zoology in Greece during the 1930s, just couldn't hold my attention.