The Whimsy Bookworm: A Book Blog from India

Book: The Optician's Wife Author: Betsey Reavley  Pages: 225  Read on: Kindle via my Kindle Unlimited subscription  Read in: 2 hours  Plot Summary:  Can you ever really know someone? When Deborah, an unpopular seventeen-year-old, meets the charming and handsome Larry, he sweeps her off her feet. The trouble is Larry has a secret. Then a series of grisly murders cast a shadow over everything. As Deborah’s world starts to fall apart she begins to suspect the man she loves of a terrible betrayal. And to keep their marriage alive, sacrifices must be made. Things I Liked:  1. The premise was interesting. It hinted that secrets people kept, even within a relationship as intimate as marriage is. It also  hinted at one of the two people- Deb or Larry- being a serial killer or being involved in some way with serial killings. So, I thought this book would be quite interesting.. perhaps some kind of a spin on how t...

Hello!  It's Friday and it's time to list some of my favourite things!  This Friday has been a rainy little day. :))) Yay!  Let's jump into some of my favourites shall we... 1. Sun-kissed Books! Both by Ruskin Bond.  Both signed. Both I need to read soon! 2. Owl Bag/// She is precious but way too tiny for me to carry out and about as a bag, so I use her to carry jewellery when I travel.  3. Mr. Fox//// A cutie to boot! I got him from Claire's. Love him! 4. Sunsets the colour of Marmalade. 5. A bunch of adorable stickers I found in an activity book for children. Gah! These are almost too cute to use...but I have used a couple and they are lovely. This is from Accessorise. Happy Friday everyone.  Mine has been an eventful one..well full of misadventures for sure.  My bedroom fan randomly turned itself off last night at about 3:30 am. Even though the AC was working fine...it's just odd without the ...

Hello!  Oh! Take me back to the hills.  Back to the lush green hills. I am feeling all nostalgic today. Not just for the hills. But for other things too. I was just going over the places I went to Bangalore...trying to remember all the cafes and restaurants I went too.  It's just one of those days.  :)  All of these pictures were taken in Dhanolty Eco Park in Landour.  Seen here, apart from the magnificent views, my Fossil Sydney Satchel, my sister's Chic Sparrow fauxdori and a fern I foraged from the woods.  :) 

Book: The Detective's Daughter Author: Lesley Thomson Pages: 470 Read on: Kindle (as part of my Kindle Unlimited subscription) Read in: Over 2-3 days Plot Summary:  Kate Rokesmith's decision to go to the river changed the lives of many. Her murder shocked the nation. Her husband never pressed charges and moved abroad under a cloud of suspicion. Her son, just four years old, grew up in a loveless boarding school. And Detective Inspector Darnell, vowing to leave no stone unturned in the search for her killer, began to lose his only daughter. The young Stella Darnell grew to resent the dead Kate Rokesmith for capturing her father's attention in a way she never could. Thirty years later, Stella is dutifully sorting through her father's attic after his sudden death. The Rokesmith case papers are in a corner gathering dust: the case was never solved. Stella knows she should destroy them. Instead, she opens the box, and starts to read. Things I Liked:  ...

Hello!  For this week's Monday Moods...I want us to stop and smell the roses.  These roses were all rain soaked and gorgeous in the gardens of the tea garden bungalow.  I spend a good amount of time just walking through the rose garden taking in the beauty.  :)  Have a wonderful week ahead folks.  I started this week on a bit of a high note.  I reached my GoodReads goal of reading 100 books!  Yay!  It took a little longer this year. Normally I get to 100 books by June. But this year has  been full of travel and other distractions and books have taken the slightest of backseats. But still, 100 books read already in the year is a good thing be. A good thing!  So excited to make my challenge.  Now I am free to read what I want to. Re-read and read big, fat huge books!  Ah!  Good things all. 

Hello!  The weekend is upon us.  This weekend the plan is to read, read and read some more.  :)  For this edition of Weekend Reads , I also want to include what my sister is reading.  She is reading... The Crow Girl by Erik Axl Sund . A dark, psychological thriller that is  garnering a lot of good reviews and hype.  And it has a cannibal element!  :0 My sister is a few pages in and she is sufficiently creeped out :)  It's good she says, dark and creepy and good!  But it's a chunk of book. So find a comfy spot before you embark on this book!  As for me I am still making my way through The Book of Gold Leaves by Mirza Waheed .  A book set in Kashmir. About two lovers against the backdrop of violence, conflict and strife.  I am only 62 pages in and really enjoying the writing and the story telling. However it is a little slow. Like there is a lot of descriptions and it's a ...

Book: Ghachar Ghochar Author: Vivek Shanbag Translated By: Srinath Perur Pages: 115 Read On: Hardback How Long it Took Me To Read: 2 days Plot Summary:  'It's true what they say - it's not we who control money, it's the money that controls us. When there's only a little, it behaves meekly; when it grows, it becomes brash and has its way with us.' From a cramped, ant-infested house to a spacious bungalow, a family finds itself making a transition in many ways. The narrator, a sensitive young man, is numbed by the swirl around him. All he can do is flee every day to an old-world cafe, where he seeks solace from an oracular waiter. As members of the family realign their equations and desires, new strands are knotted, others come apart, and conflict brews dangerously in the background. Masterfully translated from the Kannada by Srinath Perur, Ghachar Ghochar is a suspenseful, playful and ultimately menacing story about the shifting consequences...

1. First Pages of New Notebooks.  I love doing some minimal decoration and using stickers to brighten up the first pages.  :)  2. Three New Agatha Christie Books added to my shelves.  Aren't these just things of joy?!  3. New Colour Pencils.  These are the Staedtler Luna Water Colour pencils.  I am so in love with them.  :)  4. Harry Potter Colouring Book. :)  5. Adorable Little Bookmarks.  This one is made from recycled elephant poo!  Also Sondhoo might be my spirit animal.  :) Have a lovely weekend folks. I intend to read a lot, my reading has been a little slow and I would like to amend that.  :) 

Hello!  July is long gone and now it's time to list all the things I've loved in July.  July was a long month where there was a lot of cleaning and getting used life back in Bombay after a month long holiday in my parent's hometown.  It involved a lot of reading. Hobbling on my torn ligament leg...no fun in the least.  Enjoying the rains. July was a good month.  Let's see some of my favourite thing in July.  1. Chic Sparrow Traveller's Notebook in Joy/// Ah! I am in love with this fauxdori. I love how well made it is and I love the colour. This one stays in my handbag and is a nifty place to take notes and make lists. So much in love with this!  2. Bagh-e-Bahar Colouring Book/// I finally got my hands on this gorgeous colouring book in July and have coloured in a few pages.  It really is utterly gorgeous and a great to relax and unwind.  3. Bombay Rains//// The monsoon in Bombay really is a thi...

Hello!  Happy Independence Day.  Happy day of birth to my glorious country. :)  I've been slightly MIA on here.  My home was under some semi-serious duress.  We had plumbing work going on in the entire wing of my apartment building. So there was drilling, clanking and dust everywhere. Ugh! Not fun!  But what is fun is a book haul. I got these books from Amazon and I ordered them in end of July but they arrived in August. So it is technically my August book haul. I loved these books, I've already read 2 of these books and you can find the reviews right below this post. :)  Let's see the books I've added to my life.... Books Bought... Before We Visit The Goddess--- Chitra Divakaruni Banerjee  The Bones of Grace--- Tahmima Anam  My Childhood--- Maxim Gorky  The Crow Girl--- Erik Axl Sund  Happy reading in my future.  I am especially looking forward to Crow G...

Book: The Bones of Grace Author: Tahmima Anam Pages: 404 Read On: Hardback How Long it Took Me To Read: 3 days Plot Summary:   'Anwar told me that it wasn't until he almost died that he realised he needed to find the woman he had once loved. I've thought about that a lot in the last few years, that if Anwar hadn't worked on that building site, he might never have gone looking for Megna, and if he hadn't done that, I might still be in the dark about my past. I've only ever been a hair away from being utterly alone in the world, Elijah, and it was Anwar who shone a light where once there was only darkness.' The Bones of Grace. It is the story of Zubaida, and her search for herself. It is a story she tells for Elijah, the love of her life. It tells the story of Anwar, the link in Zubaida's broken chain. Woven within these tales are the stories of a whale and a ship; a piano and a lost boy. This is the story of love itself.   General T...

Book: Before We Visit The Goddess Author: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Pages: 208 Read On: Hardback How Long it Took Me To Read: 2 days Plot Summary:  A beautiful, powerful new novel from the best-selling, award-winning author of  Sister of My Heart  and  The Mistress of Spices  about three generations of mothers and daughters who must discover their greatest source of strength in one another—a masterful, brilliant tale of a family both united and torn apart by ambition and love. The daughter of a poor baker in rural Bengal, India, Sabitri yearns to get an education, but her family’s situation means college is an impossible dream. Then an influential woman from Kolkata takes Sabitri under her wing, but her generosity soon proves dangerous after the girl makes a single, unforgivable misstep. Years later, Sabitri’s own daughter, Bela, haunted by her mother’s choices, flees abroad with her political refugee lover—but the America she finds is vastl...

Hello!  Today I want to share a make-up haul on here. I got these a few months ago now form Nykaa.   The Nykaa nail paints were popping up all over my Instagram Explore page and I really loved the creamy, very summer appropriate colours.  I went over to the site and put a couple of colours in my cart. And I am so glad I did. The colours are lovely. Creamy pastel-y delights. They are opaque and last for nearly a week on my nails. I really love them. And I might go and pick up some more colours. :)  And I couldn't resist getting a Make-Up Revolution eye shadow palette. I love eye-shadows. I love the colours and even the staying on power is pretty decent. Sadly I haven't used this palette nearly as much as I should have because shortly after buying it, I bought a MAC palette which I am obsessed with and which I use allll the time! But I do love the colours and I can't wait to play around with it some more. Hope you guys are having ...