The Whimsy Bookworm: A Book Blog from India

 Hello March!  Be Kind. Be Good. Be Gentle. Maa ❤️ A little reading. Some citrus.  Maa’s birthday. Feeling a little under the weather. 

  Happy Women's Day ♀🌹👩♀🌹👩♀🌹👩  All women, everywhere deserve a life with respect and dignity and safety.  Here's what my day looked like today:  Sti reading this book that I'm enjoying quite a bit.  A spot of rest and relaxation.  Some planner catching up.  Praying to Shivji.  Some cute things.  New pouches for my pens and things.  A simple and good day 💛✨🙏🌿📖🌻💛

 Hello Loves.  Time for a little book haul.  I bought three books and had one book sent to me from the publishers.  So let’s jump in.  A Star Named Bibha and Other Stories by Anwesha Sengupta, Supurna Banerjee and Simantini Mukhopadhyay ~ A beautiful book about some incredible Indian women. Perfect to read during Women’s History Month.  There are gorgeous portraits and I am reading excited to jump into this amazing book.  Visitors to the House by Shashank Gupta, this one is a novel told in five parts and five perspectives. About a family and from the voices of members of the family. I love this sort of thing and I am really excited to read this.  Savitribai Phule by Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta, another biography about a real hero and a woman we (Indian women) owe so much to. I am soooooo excited to read this soon. Another worthy read for Women’s History Month.  The Earthquakes Late Anti-Stories by Subimal Misra, translated by V. Ramaswamy.  T...

 March Begins.  With gentle days. Books. Coffee. Organising my Book Cart. Spring Cleaning.  & Joy ✨🌿✨ Moments of calm and peace.  A saffron candle from Ekatra.  A stack of March hopefuls.  And a cup of coconut water.  My pretty book mark and my gorgeous current read that I am really enjoying.  Some ( a lot) new additions to my elibrary.  Spring Book Releases making me so excited.  All I want to do is read and read and read.  A sweet little friend. 💛🐘💛

 Hello Loves!  I know, I know..this post is beyond late. I don't even know what happened, I read such amazing books in March and I was dyinggg to talk about them. But..well. Here we are. Almost at the end of April and talking about my March reads!  I guess better late than never.  Chalo, let's just jump into my March books.  I read 16 books in March and all written by women in honour of International Women's Day and Women's History Month. It's the easiest reading goal/theme/challenge because I end up reading a ton of women's writing in any case. So this month is a month of easy, breezy and happy reading for me.  I read some incredible books and let's just jump right into it.  Let's go.  BOOKS OF MARCH 2023:   1. Daughters of Madurai by Rajashree Variyar: Loved this book about a mother and daughter and deep seated family secrets. Did a full review for this this, which you can read here.   4/5  2. I Have Some Questions for You by Reb...

  Book: The Blind Matriarch  Author: Namita Gokhale  Publisher: Penguin India  Pages: 208  Read On: Hardback Edition  How Long it Took Me To Read: 3 days (with many breaks)  Review: In the time between me buying this book and finally getting around to reading it, I had sort of forgotten what this book was exactly about (major bookish problems!). So I went into this pretty blind (pun not intended at all). And it took me by surprise. I found myself back in time. A time we have all lived through and survived and dealt with in our own ways. The Pandemic.  2020.  Honestly, even reading that gets my heart going.  It's some kind of PTSD to even think about the days of stress, checking yourself for symptoms and washing everything in sight and disinfecting within an inch of your life.  God, I don't think we give ourselves enough credit for making it through those days.  Of course, those of us who were lucky to make it through and...

  Book: The Daughters of Madurai  Author: Rajasree Variyar  Pages: 336 Publisher: Union Square & Co.  How Long it Took Me To Read: 2 days  Read On: Kindle  Plot Summary:   Madurai, 1992.  A young mother in a poor family, Janani is told she is useless if she can’t produce a son—or worse, if she bears daughters. They let her keep her first baby girl, but the rest are taken away as soon as they are born, and murdered. But Janani can’t forget the daughters she was never allowed to love . . . Sydney, 2019.  Nila has a secret; one she’s been keeping from her parents for too long. Before she can say anything, her grandfather in India falls ill, so she agrees to join her parents on a trip to Madurai. Nila knows little about where her family came from or who they left behind. What she’s about to learn will change her forever. While  The Daughters of Madurai  explores the harrowing issue of female infanticide, it’s also a universal ...

 Hello March!  Hello Spring!  Hello the Season of Iced-Drinks and cold showers and warm days.  And Hello Women's History Month and reading only Women Writers all month long.  I am doing #FemmeMarch again and I am looking forward to all the amazing stories and voices I'll read this month.  Hello March!  Be Good!  Be Gentle!  Be Kind!  Be Fun!  I am happy you are here March!  :)  Here is what I am reading to kickstart my reading for Femme March.  The Daughters of Madurai by Rajashree Variyar is a story told partly in 1993 and 2019. About a young mother battling against  gender based discrimination and the fear of female infanticide. It's the perfect book to read during this month. A book about a reality so many women face in India even today. The pressure of producing a male child, a boy to carry forth the family name and being glory to the family. A world where even in 2023, having a girl child is seen as a misfo...

 Hello Loves!  March is over and it has been a month of reading women, some absolutely incredible women writers for #FemmeMarch and I have thoroughly enjoyed myself.  :)  What a great reading month this has been.  I read all women and snuck in one male author and guess what it was a bust! Should have stuck to reading only women.  I read 15 books and 8 beautiful children's books/picture books.  I even bought a few books and they've all arrived today. (What a great way to end my month!)  Read a memoir.  Re-read an old favourite.  Read physical books.  Read short stories.  Read some translated works.  A thriller.  A horror.  Historical fiction.  A wonderful mix of genres and style.  A good good month.  So let's just into it shall we?  MARCH READING WRAP-UP:  1. I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys: I started my month with a very time appropriate read and with a book by one of my favourite writ...

 March is slowly coming to a end and these last few days of the month have been good to me. First up, it's been raining, giving us a much needed respite from the heat. We are supposed to have rains all week and I am so grateful to have a break from summer. Today already feels so cool and has me reaching for my quilt.  Bliss.  The last few days have included some bizarreness, what with people slapping people at the Oscars! For shame!  I still can't quite believe that really happened!!!  Apart from Pop Culture meltdowns, there has been happy mails, good meals and some seriously good reading.  My dearest Anupriya sent me some belated birthday presents in the mail and they made my day. Little things that I love so much.  A pouch. (Which I am already using to store my Washi Tapes)  Scrunchies.  Soap.  Two adorable bookmarks.  A notebook. A coaster.  A fridge magnet.  All lovely and most of it comes from her mind and her incredi...