The Whimsy Bookworm: A Book Blog from India

Read. Loved. Reviewed!  Read. Adored. Loved. Heart-broken over! I cannot recommend this book enough and I am so glad I finally bought it!  Read and HATED!!! It was terrible. Read and loved. I love Satyajit Ray and reading the original source material behind his wonderful films was just lovely.  Loved this book too. Spooky and very entertaining.  I loveeeee this book. It's so interesting. Annotated. A book within a book! I can't wait to read it!  :)  These are all the books I bought in my first bout of book buying in May, 2014.  I got all these books off of Flipkart.   S- J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst  The Complete Maus- Art Spiegelman  Shadow Play- Shashi Deshpande  Kabul Disco- Nicolas Wild Lamplight- Kankana Basu  The Shock of The Fall- Nathan Filer  14 Stories that Inspired Satyajit Ray- Bhaskar Chattopadhyay  Karachi You A...

Book: This Is What Happy Looks Like Author: Jennifer E. Smith Pages: 416 I Read it on: My iPad I Read it in: 6 hours, across 2 days Plot Summary:  When teenage movie star Graham Larkin accidentally sends small town girl Ellie O'Neill an email about his pet pig, the two seventeen-year-olds strike up a witty and unforgettable correspondence, discussing everything under the sun, except for their names or backgrounds.   Then Graham finds out that Ellie's Maine hometown is the perfect location for his latest film, and he decides to take their relationship from online to in-person. But can a star as famous as Graham really start a relationship with an ordinary girl like Ellie? And why does Ellie want to avoid the media's spotlight at all costs? What I Liked: I really liked the premise of this book- two people (from diametrically different worlds) falling in love over email. Sounds familiar? That's You've Got Mail for you, but, but, but, since You've ...

Kitaab Khana is one of my favourite bookshops in Bombay. It's huge. Well stocked. Pretty as pie and they have a 20% discount on all books! Win win win!!! I try to resist going there very often but I do try going once a month and letting myself go crazy, browse and buy a few books!  This time around, I picked up a mixed bunch of books. 2 children's books. One Neil Gaiman book I've wanted forever. And 2 contemporary fiction titles.  There is some happy reading in my near future! :)

Book: The Yellow Birds Author: Kevin Powers Pages: 226   (around 125 pages on my iPad) I Read It On: My iPad I Read It In: 3 hours Plot Summary:  A novel written by a veteran of the war in Iraq,  The Yellow Birds  is the harrowing story of two young soldiers trying to stay alive. "The war tried to kill us in the spring." So begins this powerful account of friendship and loss. In Al Tafar, Iraq, twenty-one-year old Private Bartle and eighteen-year-old Private Murphy cling to life as their platoon launches a bloody battle for the city. Bound together since basic training when Bartle makes a promise to bring Murphy safely home, the two have been dropped into a war neither is prepared for. In the endless days that follow, the two young soldiers do everything to protect each other from the forces that press in on every side: the insurgents, physical fatigue, and the mental stress that comes from constant danger. As reality begins to blur into a hazy nightma...

Book: Kabul Disco Author: Nicholas Wild Pages: 144 How Long it Took Me to Read: 2 hours. Read on: Paperback Plot Summary:   In 2005, Nicolas Wild, a wandering French writer, found a  job and somewhere to live at the same time. The only  problem was that the place was Kabul, in Afghanistan, a   country left unstable after several destructive years of war.   When the carefree young man arrived at a capital in crisis,  his first mission was to write a comic book explaining the  Afghan constitution to children. His second project was to   work on a recruitment campaign for the Afghan army.  Consequently, he became a privileged observer of the  hesitant reconstruction of the country whilst leading the   unusual life of a Western expat in Kabul. Gradually, he fell  in love with the country and decided to extend his contract  despite the risks of living in Afghanistan. Honest and  perceptive, inquisitive an...

1. A kitty watch...really...what's not to love?! A layered necklace that I got from Forever 21 ages ago and it lay forgotten for a long, long time!  2. Ducks in three colours. These are meant to be paper clips but come on....these are too freaking cute to just be used as paper clips. I use them as bookmarks. They look rather cute, sitting atop a page. They look like they are floating by. Oh ducks!  3. This was a good day. Reading a good book on my Kindle at Starbucks, reading, coffee drinking and wearing pretty rings. A good combination!  4. A pineapple tote from Forever 21. Summer. Fruit. Bright. Pretty.  5. Some of my orange and white Penguin classics. I have I think...5 more of these books. I love how old school these books look! So pretty!  6. I recently read and LOVED, ADORED Maus. A full review will be out soon. 

Book: Between Shades of Gray Author: Ruta Sepetys Pages: 344 How Long it Took Me To Read: 2 days Read On: Physical copy- a Paperback. Plot Summary:   Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin's orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions. Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously--and at great risk--documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, span...

A few weeks ago, the sister and I spent a lovely day book shop hopping, browsing and buying books. Our first stop was Strand Bookstore. A grand old bookstore, a tiny little room crammed full of books. They aren't ordered in any particular way, so browsing in there is a bit of acquired skill. Since it's organised by genre, you have to scan all the shelves to find something you love.  I love this. It means I end up with unexpected treasures.  On this outing, I found some lovely classics. Modern American classics and a Japanese classic I have wanted for a while!  A very successful bookshop hop this!  Also came back with three new Peter Pauper Press books. Love them!  Yay to the joys of buying from a bookshop! 

Book: Maybe Someday Author: Colleen Hoover Pages: 367 I Read It On: My Kindle I Read It In: 4 hours (one sitting. It is that good! ) Plot Summary:  At twenty-two years old, aspiring musician Sydney Blake has a great life: She’s in college, working a steady job, in love with her wonderful boyfriend, Hunter, and rooming with her good friend, Tori. But everything changes when she discovers Hunter cheating on her with Tori—and she is left trying to decide what to do next. Sydney becomes captivated by her mysterious neighbor, Ridge Lawson. She can’t take her eyes off him or stop listening to the daily guitar playing he does out on his balcony. She can feel the harmony and vibrations in his music. And there’s something about Sydney that Ridge can’t ignore, either: He seems to have finally found his muse. When their inevitable encounter happens, they soon find themselves needing each other in more ways than one… Thoughts and Review: Let's get this out of the way- this is...

Book: Total Siyappa: The Sum of Two Wholes Author: Neha Sharma Pages: 224 How Long it Took Me To Read: 2 hours. Read on: My iPad. Plot Summary: This is the love story of Aman (Pakistani Jazz/Sufi singer) and Asha (Indian journalist), who meet and fall in love in London. The book traces their journey from how they meet to courtship to love as well as gives us glimpses into each of their families and friends. Here is the link to the movie's Wiki page .    General Thoughts: This book is an adaptation or rather an extended version of the movie of the same name. The movie, Total Siyappa, released earlier this year and starred Yami Gautam and Ali Zafar. I had seen the trailers of the movie online and on TV but never got around to watching it. The reviews were generally negative and that further kept me from watching the movie. This book was sent to me very kindly by the publishers, Harlequin India, for review purposes. Even though this book was given to me for...