The Whimsy Bookworm: A Book Blog from India

" Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time. " John Lubbock I came across this little restful place in the middle of the forest. It was a perfect spot to sit and read and let the cool breeze wash over me.  I want to go back. With a book and a warm cup of coffee to warm my cold fingers. 

Book: All The Bright Places Author: Jennifer Nevin Pages: 388 Read On: Kindle How Long it Took Me To Read: 4 days Plot Summary:  Theodore Finch  is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him. Violet Markey  lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister’s recent death. When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it’s unclear who saves whom. And when they pair up on a project to discover the “natural wonders” of their state, both Finch and Violet make more important discoveries: It’s only with Violet that Finch can be himself—a weird, funny, live-out-loud guy who’s not such a freak after all. And it’s only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet’s world grows, Finch’s begins to shrink....

Day 50: Today was all about eating leftover birthday cake! I am still tickled silly over my darling little cake. It made me immeasurably happy. I could do with this cake right now. It was so yum. :) Day 51: Some of my winter skincare essentials. I just love my skin in winter, it gets a bit dry but I just love that my skin is so much less oilier than usual. Dryness I can handle. A little cream here, a spot of serum there and oodles of body butter and I am all sorted. Day 52: Pages of my Hobonichi Techo, specially Washi Taped for my birthday! I caught up on some journaling.  Day 53: My very loved Ganesha pendant. I absolutely adore...adore this style of jewellery. Hand-painted art encased in silver. I have a fair amount of these pieces and I love all of them so much!  Day 54: Got my polka socks on and heading out for Tea at a friend's home. Another thing I love about winter is the ability to wear socks!  Day 55: Movie time! Went to th...

Book: The Winter People Author: Jennifer McMahon Pages: 317 Read On: My Kindle How Long it Took Me To Read : 2 days Plot Summary:   West Hall, Vermont, has always been a town of strange disappearances and old legends. The most mysterious is that of Sara Harrison Shea, who, in 1908, was found dead in the field behind her house just months after the tragic death of her daughter, Gertie. Now, in present day, nineteen-year-old Ruthie lives in Sara's farmhouse with her mother, Alice, and her younger sister, Fawn. Alice has always insisted that they live off the grid, a decision that suddenly proves perilous when Ruthie wakes up one morning to find that Alice has vanished without a trace. Searching for clues, she is startled to find a copy of Sara Harrison Shea's diary hidden beneath the floorboards of her mother's bedroom. As Ruthie gets sucked deeper into the mystery of Sara's fate, she discovers that she's not the only person who's desperately loo...

There are several things that give us company in our life. Trusty shoes to cushion our feet. A watch that keeps time for us. A  wallet to hold our treasures.  On this recent spell of traveling, these things have been my constant companions.  A bag ...to hold my many things. I chose this bag for it's size. It's big enough to hold all that I need- wallet, phone, camera, wooly hat, gum, sunglasses and candy. But she is still tiny enough to not get in the way of walks and seeing things. Plus she matches pretty much any outfit I might have in mind. My bag is from Accessorize.   Comfy shoes ...I wore the Cheetah Print shoes especially since I was going to the forest. We were told that Leopards were often spotted where we were staying. Luckily, we didn't happen to see any leopards or cheetahs. My shoes were the only spotted creatures for miles! :) They are comfy and perfect since they hid all the dirt and mud on them.  My shoes are from Westside....

Book: Eleanor and Park Author: Rainbow Rowell Pages: 285 Read On: Kindle How Long it Took Me To Read: 4 hours Plot Summary:  Two misfits. One extraordinary love. Eleanor ... Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough...Eleanor. Park ... He knows she'll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There's a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises...Park. Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. General Thoughts: I am no fan of Rainbow Rowell. Let's get that out of the way. I have read two other books by her and I was incredibly underwhelmed by them. In fact, I quite hated them and ...

Last weekend, I went away to the forest.  And it was wonderful. I spent three days in the middle of nowhere. With trees. Sounds of birds. With a cool breeze. With green grass. With tranquility. With peace. It was wonderful to get away from city sounds and city fumes.  I went there with my family and two sets of uncles and aunts. We laughed and talked and reminisced. We told ghost stories. We gossiped. We talked of grand-uncles and grand-aunts. We talked of family history.  We ate. We drank. And we took in our surrounding. We made friends with the friendly stray pups. We ate simple but delicious Bengali food. I sat on the swing and swung hard. God, I hope I am never old enough to not enjoy the simple joy of a swing! We had a wonderful time!  These pictures are of The Silver Ridge Forest Resort in Lataguri - a forest area in North Bengal. Lataguri is very close to my hometown. A mere hour or so aw...

Book: We Need To Talk About Kevin Author: Lionel Shriver Pages: 400 I read it on: My Kindle I read it: Across a few days Plot Summary:  Eva never really wanted to be a mother - and certainly not the mother of the unlovable boy who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker, and a much-adored teacher who tried to befriend him, all two days before his sixteenth birthday.  Now, two years later, it is time for her to come to terms with marriage, career, family, parenthood, and Kevin's horrific rampage in a series of startlingly direct correspondences with her estranged husband, Franklin.  Uneasy with the sacrifices and social demotion of motherhood from the start, Eva fears that her alarming dislike for her own son may be responsible for driving him so nihilistically off the rails. Thoughts: I should always go with my instincts when it comes to picking up books. We need to talk about Kevin  is a book that I have picked up a...

Book: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves Author: Karen Joy Fowler Pages: 310 I read it on: My Kindle I read it in: 8 hours across a few days Plot Summary:  Meet the Cooke family. Our narrator is Rosemary Cooke. As a child, she never stopped talking; as a young woman, she has wrapped herself in silence: the silence of intentional forgetting, of protective cover. Something happened, something so awful she has buried it in the recesses of her mind. Now her adored older brother is a fugitive, wanted by the FBI for domestic terrorism. And her once lively mother is a shell of her former self, her clever and imperious father now a distant, brooding man. And Fern, Rosemary’s beloved sister, her accomplice in all their childhood mischief? Fern’s is a fate the family, in all their innocence, could never have imagined. What I Liked: Quick list: The premise of this book seemed really, really interesting. A family that's a shadow of its former self, a girl who is no lo...

This was a pretty amazing week. It included travel and my birthday. So in some ways this was a near perfect week!  I went to a Forest Resort and stayed in a little cottage in the middle of the forest. I took long walks. Mulled over story ideas and heard ghost stories. It was wonderful.  I turned a year older and spend my birthday with family and having a bit of a feast.  It was a really nice week!  Let's see my week in pictures.  Day 43: It was mostly a day preparing for travel, doing mundane but important tasks like charging camera batteries and my Kindle. Snapped this picture of these gorgeous Jagganathji idol. Made of wood and handcrafted. Love the use of colour and how adorable these idols look. We also have owls of a similar kind and I love them.  Day 44: Lataguri...we arrived here in time for lunch. But first we took a long walk in the resort and I snapped a ton of pictures. I also spend an unnaturally long time on the...

I've lived in Bangalore for 5 years.  It's a city I love and a city I miss dearly.  The last time I was in Bangalore, in September 2012, mere six months after having left it. The sister I stayed at The Leela Palace Hotel. A stunningly beautiful place to spend a few days and feel all pampered and relaxed. While we lived in Bangalore, we often went to the Galleria for a spot of shopping- at Anokhi- and to The Oxford Bookstore and Cha Bar. We always marveled at the beauty and magnificence of the place and said we should someday come and spend a weekend there. But we never did. It always feels a little silly to stay in a hotel in our own city. :) So we never did.  Then we found ourselves in Bangalore for a long weekend and it was the perfect time to do something we've wanted to do for absolute ages.  We stayed here for four days and had the best time in the world. These are some of the pictures I snapped ther...

Book: The Miniaturist Author: Jessie Burton Pages: 416 I read it on: My Kindle I read it in: 8-9 hours across a couple of days Plot Summary:  On a brisk autumn day in 1686, eighteen-year-old Nella Oortman arrives in Amsterdam to begin a new life as the wife of illustrious merchant trader Johannes Brandt. But her new home, while splendorous, is not welcoming. Johannes is kind yet distant, always locked in his study or at his warehouse office-leaving Nella alone with his sister, the sharp-tongued and forbidding Marin. But Nella's world changes when Johannes presents her with an extraordinary wedding gift: a cabinet-sized replica of their home. To furnish her gift, Nella engages the services of a miniaturist-an elusive and enigmatic artist whose tiny creations mirror their real-life counterparts in eerie and unexpected ways . . . Johannes' gift helps Nella to pierce the closed world of the Brandt household. But as she uncovers its unusual secrets, she begins to unde...