The Whimsy Bookworm: A Book Blog from India

  For the last time in 2022... Hello Loves!  And just like that, 2022 is over.  This was a good year. Overall, for most part this has been a decent year for me.  I spent six months with my parents in Jalpaiguri, West Bengal.  And then after 20 months away from home, I came back home, to Mumbai. To my books and my flat and set about finding my way back to my old life,  Before we get to books, let's just talk life shall we?  2022 was different.  Better, so much better than 2021.  I lived in two places.  I spent time with my parents.  Came back home.  Mostly stayed home, I haven't quite shaken off my pandemic mindset, I am hoping to step out and do more in life.  I shopped for little and big things.  Still mostly bought from small businesses.  Got an iPad Mini. A new addition to my reading step-up. I do plan on doing more with it and not just using it to read.  I cooked so much. Like a lot.  Then in April,...

   Hello Loves!  December ends in a few days but my reading for this month, well mainly for this year is all done and dusted.  Ho gaya.  I got to 225 books and it feels like the perfect number to stop at. So I have stopped and reading will now commence only in the New Year.  So I figured I'd get my Reading Wrap-Up for December out of the way and not save it for the end of the month.  So here we are.  December was a good reading month. I read 12 books. I bought nearly the same amount of new books. I allowed myself to be a little indulgent and buy as many books as I wanted to..within reason of course. I also went to a bookshop and came back with five books, which was so wonderful after over two years of no book shop visits!  I read enough.  I read well.  And I did a ton of bookish posts and overall this was a good month reading wise.  OK, let's jump into all the books I read this month.  BOOKS OF DECEMBER 2022:   1. Our...

 Hello Loves!  2022 has been the year of Historical Fiction for me. My sister has always enjoyed reading from this genre, and in the past whenever I've shared one of these posts- you know, Top Historical Fiction Reads, it's usually always just been her picks. I almost never read from this genre and not because I have something against it, I don't, I am just not drawn to this particular type of book. But something changed in 2022, I just fell in love with all things historical fiction, especially Indian Historical Fiction.  Here are our (my sister and mine) favourite HISTORICAL FICTION BOOKS FOR 2022:   1. The Mendicant Prince by Aruna Chakravarti: The life and death, and then mysterious return of the Sanyasi Raja is a tale that every Bengali has an opinion on. Or you've heard of his remarkable life and the court case that went on for years. It is something I've grown up hearing about and so when this book popped up on my radar, I knew I had to read it. I initially ...

 Hello Loves!  Time for a little book haul.  Bought some books a few days ago and I swear there is nothing as nice as opening book mail and dreaming about reading these new books you've added to your shelf. And something about December makes me feel a little less guilty about buying books and adding to my over-flowing shelves.  :)  There are 8 new books I've added to my shelves.  A debut novel that's got so much buzz and it sounds so good.  A young couple is filmed while making out or more, and this video then goes viral in their small town and shenanigans ensue. Scandalous!  Sounds like something I'll enjoy immensely.  Saving this for January. Can't wait.  Some campus tales set at BHU.  I think I'll enjoy this. Stories set on a college campus and slice of life and young people finding themselves and love.  A good time.  Plus I got this for like really cheap.  99 bucks only.  I can't resist a deal!  Read Vol...

  Book: A Bend in the Ganges  Author: Manohar Malgonkar  Pages: 418  Publisher: Harper Collins  Read On: Paperback Edition  How Long it Took Me To Read: 4 days  Plot Summary:  India, 1939. Gian, a Gandhian pacifist, commits a murder; Debi-dayal, an ardent revolutionary, is caught while setting fire to a British plane. Both men are sent to the Andamans penal colony. In the beehive life of the prison, they work in opposite camps-pro-British and anti-British. During World War II, when the Japanese take over the islands, all the convicts suddenly find themselves free. Gian and Debi manage to return to India only to get sucked into the violence of Partition. An epic saga of a nation in transition, A Bend in the Ganges, now available in a stunning new edition, depicts the cataclysmic events leading up to Partition and the conflict that arises between ideologies of violence and non-violence. Things I Liked:   1. I loved reading books set in In...

 Hello Loves!  End of the month means talking about every single book I read this month.  November felt so long...yet I can't quite believe it's done and dusted.  It felt like an activity filled blur.  Of doing things. Reading things.  Finding joys and trying to squeeze in some non-fiction reads for #nonfictionnovember.  I am happy to report, I read four non-fiction books, two volumes of poetry and a book rooted in a real true crime case.  A good, solid reading month.  I read 20 books in total and I am very happy with everything I read.  :)  So let's just jump into it and talk books.  BOOKS OF NOVEMBER 2022:  1. Cultish by Amanda Motell: I love reading about Cults and everything sinister and off-kilter that goes on in these place.  Why do people join?  What makes perfectly normal people willing to give up their free will and follow orders, often to a messy and fatal end?  I have always liked cults and found...

Book: The Hotel Nantucket Author: Elin Hilderbrand  Pages: 416  Read on: Kindle  Read in: ~4 hours  Plot Summary:  After a tragic fire in 1922 that killed 19-year-old chambermaid, Grace Hadley, The Hotel Nantucket descended from a gilded age gem to a mediocre budget-friendly lodge to inevitably an abandoned eyesore — until it's purchased and renovated top to bottom by London billionaire, Xavier Darling.   Xavier hires Nantucket sweetheart Lizbet Keaton as his general manager, and Lizbet, in turn, pulls together a charismatic, if inexperienced, staff who share the vision of turning the fate of the hotel around.  They face challenges in getting along with one another (and with the guests), in overcoming the hotel's bad reputation, and in surviving the (mostly) harmless shenanigans of Grace Hadley herself — who won't stop haunting the hotel until her murder is acknowledged. Things I Liked:  1. The Hotel Nantucket is a very heartwarming, fun...

 Hello Loves!  My way of celebrating any kind of festival is by doing the thing I love best ~ buying books.  This Diwali I bought myself six books to celebrate.  :)  So let's do a little book haul shall we?  Yes, we shall.  A Bengali classic. Taranath Tantrik is someone I've heard of and even seen a TV show based on. This collection was on my radar since it came out earlier this year. Seven stories about black magic, ghosts, ghouls and demons. This was my read this Diwali and it was fun.  Something light and easy, breezy. Might save this for December or January, I have heard such good things about this book and I hope it lives up to the hype.  This one sounds like it's just up my alley. Indian families and their million and one issues. Can't wait to read it soon.  A chunky little book I cannot wait to read.  I have had this on my wishlist for a while and I am so happy I finally got it.  A fable from one of my favourite writers ...

  Book: Normal Family  Author: Chrysta Bilton  Publisher: Little Brown & Co.  Pages:  336   Read On: iPad  How Long it Took Me To Read: 3 days  Plot Summary:   For most of her life, Chrysta Bilton was one member of a small, if dysfunctional, family of four. There was her sister, Kaitlyn, her hedonistic, glamorous, gay mum Debra, and Jeffrey, who Debra hand-picked, in an LA hairdressers, to be the father of her children. During Chrysta's unstable childhood, Debra struggled to keep the family afloat and Jeffrey wandered in and out of their lives. Then, in her twenties, Chrysta discovered that her father had secretly donated his sperm over 500 times - and that she had at least 35 other siblings. A Normal Family  is a captivating coming-of-age memoir about Chrysta's reckoning with the secrets both parents had carefully kept from her. Heartfelt, warm and funny, it's a story of embracing the family we have, in all the forms we fi...

  Hello November!  Hello Fall!  Hello Scorpio Season!  Hello Sister's Birthday Month!  :)  I am happy you are here November.  I started my month with doing the things I usually do on the first day of the month.  I set up my Bujo pages, did up my journal and even set up my Book Journal for the month.  A very stationery heavy morning and the kind of thing I love.  November Page in my Bujo.  Added some autumnal colours and a little doggo in a sweater!  Too cute.  Of course I did a little bit of reading.  I am still reading my Halloween Read but I also started on a new book in honour of Non-Fiction November.  I adore this little Niffler dude on my bookmark. He's most cute.  The Book of Indian Ghosts by Riksunder Banerjee: I started reading this for Halloween and I am still reading this and loving this deep dive into all kinds of ghosts found in India. Such a good read.  Cultish by Amanda Montell: My first...

 Hello Loves!  October is over and now we step into the weekend of the year.  Time just keeps on running on by.  October was a busy month.  It started with a festival- Durga Pujo and ended with another- Diwali.  In the middle there was Lokkhi Pujo and this whole month has been doing things for the home and just letting the festivity wash over you.  It's a been a good month.  And when a month is busy, reading takes a little bit of a backseat, as in, it's not something I do a lot of and it's not what I am constantly thinking of.  I read a lot this month.  A LOT.  33 books in total.  And frankly I am surprised by it.  But..but but...most of these books were steamy romance books.  What have I become?! My 14 year old self again?!  I read a romance novel a night for 15 days straight.  Straight!! I think life got busy and I just escaped into my romances, it also helped that I read them so darn fast. I made the most...