The Whimsy Bookworm: A Book Blog from India

Book: Fangirl Author: Rainbow Rowell Pages: 385 How Long it Took me to Read: 2 days Plot Summary: Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Simon Snow is basically like Harry Potter. Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan . . . But for Cath, being a fan is her life — and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving. Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere. Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to. Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend- Levi, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of ...

Book: Purple Hibiscus Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Pages: 307 Plot Summary:   The limits of fifteen-year-old Kambili’s world are defined by the high walls of her family estate and the dictates of her fanatically religious father. Her life is regulated by schedules: prayer, sleep, study, prayer. When Nigeria is shaken by a military coup, Kambili’s father, involved mysteriously in the political crisis, sends her to live with her aunt. In this house, noisy and full of laughter, she discovers life and love – and a terrible, bruising secret deep within her family. This extraordinary debut novel from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author of  Half of a Yellow Sun , is about the blurred lines between the old gods and the new, childhood and adulthood, love and hatred – the grey spaces in which truths are revealed and real life is lived. Characters : This book has some very strong characters. Our main character, Kambili is however not the strongest of people you'll read ...

Book: The Light Between Oceans Author: M.L. Stedman Pages: 343 Plot Summary:   After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day’s journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season and shore leaves are granted every other year at best, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby.   Tom, whose records as a lighthouse keeper are meticulous and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel has taken the tiny baby to her breast. Against Tom’s judgement, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded tha...

Book: Out of the Easy Author : Ruta Setepys Pages : 346 Plot Summary :  It’s 1950, and as the French Quarter of New Orleans simmers with secrets, seventeen-year-old Josie Moraine is silently stirring a pot of her own. Known among locals as the daughter of a brothel prostitute, Josie wants more out of life than the Big Easy has to offer.   She devises a plan get out, but a mysterious death in the Quarter leaves Josie tangled in an investigation that will challenge her allegiance to her mother, her conscience, and Willie Woodley, the brusque madam on Conti Street. Josie is caught between the dream of an elite college and a clandestine underworld. New Orleans lures her in her quest for truth, dangling temptation at every turn, and escalating to the ultimate test. Characters: The book is full of memorable and kind and generous and really likeable characters.  There is our leading lady/protagonist Josie herself, who has a pretty sad life. Her mother is...

I bought a bunch of classics in the last few weeks. I don't often feel very guilty while books and when the books are classics I don't even remember to feel slightly guilty about my ever-growing TBR pile. And buying pretty classics is just the cherry on the delicious cake!!!  These Vintage Classic books are some of the prettiest books I've ever seen! I only intended to get Little Women but the stunning cover of Good Wives just drew me in :)) I also added 3 new Penguin English Library books to my burgeoning collection!  A good book buying expedition this was! 

I love everything about travel. Packing. Planning. Seeing. Being a tourist. Picture clicking. Shopping. The Peace. The Tranquility. The rejuvenation. I don't even mind the flights...thought sometimes traveling with laptops and tablets is a nightmare during security check! :)  But everything else is divine. I love people watching and just being far away from my regular life and being immersed in a different world.  These pictures are from my last proper vacation in Darjeeling. I was visiting my parents in their/our hometown in West Bengal and Darjeeling is an 8 hour drive away. We spent 3 days there and I loved it. The views and the clean air and just the hills. I love the hills. Darjeeling also has some amazing shopping options for silver jewellery. And I LOVE me some silver jewellery.  Darjeeling made me supremely happy and I cannot wait to go back! 

Book: Wonder Author: RJ Palacio Pages: 342 How Long it took me to Read: 2 days. Plot Summary:   August (Auggie) Pullman was born with a facial deformity that prevented him from going to a mainstream school—until now. He's about to start 5th grade at Beecher Prep, and if you've ever been the new kid then you know how hard that can be. The thing is Auggie's just an ordinary kid, with an extraordinary face. But can he convince his new classmates that he's just like them, despite appearances? Characters: The pages of this book was full of wonderful (no pun intended!) characters.  Our main characters, Auggie is a delight to get to know and read. A 10 year old boy born with a facial deformity is a pretty unique voice and perspective. He has spent his whole life being stared at  and even ridiculed. Starting regular school for the first time, you can almost feel his fear and worry and apprehension. I love Auggie and rooted for him. I read most of the firs...

After a a bunch of books I bought from Landmark, I only bought these 5 books from Flipkart. I like when I can say things like this- only 5 books! :)

Book: The Red Book Author: Deborah Copaken Kogan Pages: 368 Time it took me to read: 4 hours  Plot Summary:  Clover, Addison, Mia, and Jane were roommates at Harvard until their graduation in 1989. Clover, homeschooled on a commune by mixed-race parents, felt woefully out of place, both among the East Coast elite and within the social milieu of her prep-schooled beau, Bucky. Addison yearned to shed the burden of her Mayflower heritage, finding escape in both art and in the arms of another woman. Mia mined the depths of her suburban ennui to enact brilliant performances on the Harvard stage, including a heartrending turn as Nora in  A Doll’s House . Jane, an adopted Vietnamese war orphan, made sense of her fractured world through words, spending long hours as an editor at the Crimson. 
Twenty years later, all their lives are in free fall. Clover, once a securities broker with Lehman, is out of a job and struggling to reproduce before her fertility window slams...

1. Out of the Easy- Ruta Sepetys: Already read this and loved it. Will do a review soon. 2. Wonder- RJ Palacio: Also read and loved. A review will be up later this week. 3. Saving June- Hannah Harrington 4. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children- Ransom Riggs (RR) 5. Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix- JK Rowling  (RR) 6. The Murders in Rue Morgue and Other Stories- Edgar Allan Poe 7. Little Women- Louisa Mary Alcott 8. And the Mountains Echoed- Khaled Hosseini 9. The Lowlands- Jhumpa Lahiri (YAY! She is my favourite author and I am so pleased to read her new book!!!) 10. Mine Till Midnight- Lisa Kleypas 11. Seduce Me at Sunrise-   " 12. Tempt Me at Twilight-    " 13. Married by Morning-     "          {I meant to read only the first 2 books of this series but read 4 instead! Sweet books and good fun easy read!} 14. The 13 Problems- Agatha Christie 15. The Kalahari Typing School for Men- Alexander McCall Smith...

One hot afternoon, I found myself at Landmark Bookstore. I had 2 hours to kill before meeting friends and I spent those 2 hours browsing the book aisles and doing what I seem to do well...buy books! The good thing is that Landmark had a huge sale going on, one of those buy 2 and get one free. So I hit the Sale and I hit it good!  The Landmark store in Bangalore is one of my favourite bookstores in India. I have spent many a happy hour or more browsing along the shelves and finding lovely books! :) The store in Bombay is good too but not as amazing as their Bangalore store.  I bought some amazing books and some Tinkle comics on sale too. I love me some Tinkle comics...they remind me of my childhood and of long train journeys where I read these comic books to keep myself entertained. It's fun reading these, even as a grown-up.

Book: I am the Messenger Author: Markus Zusak Pages: 360 Time it took me to read: 3 hours   Plot Summary:  Ed Kennedy is an underage cabdriver without much of a future. He's pathetic at playing cards, hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey, and utterly devoted to his coffee-drinking dog, the Doorman. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery. That's when the first ace arrives in the mail with what looks like three addresses. What does Ed need to do with them? Does he need to go check out those addresses? But then what? So, Ed goes and looks at each of the addresses mentioned in the card.   That's when Ed becomes the messenger. Chosen to care, he makes his way through town helping and hurting (when necessary) until only one question remains: Who's behind Ed's mission? Characters: There is Ed, of course. 19, laid back, lost and confused. He spends his days, illegally, driving a cab and spe...