The Whimsy Bookworm: A Book Blog from India

Hello!  May is over and I've accumulated a few good books this month.  I've bought 7 books out of 9. One was sent to me for review. The other was a gift my sister received.  Let's see what books I've added to my bookshelves this month.  Books Bought:   Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls  So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson  Magic Seeds by V.S. Naipaul  The Tree Bride by Bharati Mukherjee  3 And a Half Murders by Salil Desai  Boyhood by Bhisham Sahni  The House with Five Courtyards by Govind Mishra  The Liberation of Sita by Volga  We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie  The only thing written by the author that I haven't yet read.  This should be a quick and enlightening read.  This book kept popping up everywhere and I've heard good things about it.  This book is quite slim too and should be a quick read.  More translated fiction for me!  Yay!  This novel was or

Book: 3 and a Half Murders- An Inspector Saralkar Mystery Author: Salil Desai Pages: 328 Publisher: Fingerprint Publishing Read: The paperback edition Read in: 3+ hours Plot Summary:  Two corpses . . . a woman lying dead on her bed,   a man hanging from the ceiling fan.   A suicide note cum murder confession.  And a name . . . Shaunak Sodhi. When the case comes their way, Senior Inspector Saralkar has just been diagnosed with hypertension and PSI Motkar is busy with rehearsals of an amateur play. What appears at first to be a commonplace crime by a debt-ridden, cuckolded husband, who has killed his unfaithful wife and then hung himself, soon begins to unfold as a baffling mystery.  As clues point to a seven-year-old unsolved murder in Bangalore and other leads emerge closer home, Saralkar and Motkar find themselves investigating shady secrets, bitter grudges, fishy land deals, carnal desires, the dead woman Anushka Doshi’s sinister obsession with past life regre

Book: Into The Water Author: Paula Hawkins Publisher: Penguin Pages: 402 How Long It Took Me: 3 days Plot Summary:  In the last days before her death, Nel called her sister. Jules didn’t pick up the phone, ignoring her plea for help. Now Nel is dead. They say she jumped. And Jules has been dragged back to the one place she hoped she had escaped for good, to care for the teenage girl her sister left behind. But Jules is afraid. So afraid. Of her long-buried memories, of the old Mill House, of knowing that Nel would never have jumped. And most of all she’s afraid of the water, and the place they call the Drowning Pool . . . General Thoughts: I have to be honest and say that I was not a fan of The Girl on The Train. I thought it was a little too convenient and in parts way too outlandish. So when this book was announced I was only very mildly interested. But I read the premise and my interest went from mild to high. Anything about witches drowning, creepy o

 Hello!!! Hope your Sunday has been a restful and happy one.  Mine included going to bed only at 8:00 am!  And waking up in the afternoon.  Ah! Upside down Sundays are the very best.  :)  I am right now cooking up some delicious grilled chicken and pasta with marinara sauce.  Yum!  Plus there is ice-cream on the way.  For today's Stationery Sunday post I want to share a quick little haul of a pretty legendary pen. In the planning and stationery world, the Pilot Coleto pens have a loyal fan following. Everyone is always raving about them and now that I have one of my own I can see why!  These pens are seriously brilliant.  Smooth. Easy to ensemble.  Colourful. So customisable.  And Hello Kitty!  I am so smitten!  We got a pack of 10 refills in multiple colours, as seen.  And we got 2 pens to share.  This blue Hello Kitty one is mine and I really, really love it.  My sister too has a Hello Kitty one but in black. I hav

Oh hello there! I hope you are having a wonderful Saturday so far! I thought I'd share what my sister and I are reading this weekend as well as what we are, totally, binge watching right now. I am reading (and determined to finish) Into The Water by Paula Hawkins.  Click on the 'preview' button below to read a chapter for free. Also, if you're thinking of buying the book, click on the 'Buy' link below and it will take you to Amazon. Into the Water is quite riveting so far, but, because it the story unfolds from the perspectives of 12-14 people (I am not kidding!), I often find myself going back and checking who this particular character is when they pop up some 50-60 pages after they were first introduced! So far, quite good.  The sister is reading The Infidel Stain also known as The Printer's Coffin by M.J. Carter.  This is the second book in the Blake-Avery series and she says it is as well-written and gripping as the first. (R

Book: Homegoing Author: Yaa Gyasi Pages: 315 Publisher: Penguin Random House Read On: Hardback How Long it Took Me To Read: 2 days Plot Summary:   Effia and Esi: two sisters with two very different destinies. One sold into slavery; one a slave trader's wife. The consequences of their fate reverberate through the generations that follow. Taking us from the Gold Coast of Africa to the cotton-picking plantations of Mississippi; from the missionary schools of Ghana to the dive bars of Harlem, spanning three continents and seven generations, Yaa Gyasi has written a miraculous novel - the intimate, gripping story of a brilliantly vivid cast of characters and through their lives the very story of America itself. Epic in its canvas and intimate in its portraits,  Homegoing  is a searing and profound debut from a masterly new writer. General Thoughts: This book was everywhere and everyone was reading it and talking about it and raving about it. I wanted to g

Hello!  My April Favourites are coming very late in the day. I almost thought I'd skip this month but I did love a few things in April that I want to share/ talk about.  So let's jump into it... April Favourites!  1. Reading Bengali Books All Month Long/// I really enjoyed reading only Bengali books all month long in April.  A great way for me to make my way through a bunch of unread books on my TBR and a great way for me to celebrate Bengali New Year.  2. Smoothie Season/// April was all about the smoothies for me.  I drank a lot of smoothies to beat the heat and on days I wanted to skip breakfast.  My favourite smoothie was a Banana-Peanut Butter-Chocolate smoothie that I whipped up the most. I also am still madly in love with my Good Earth Mug!  3. Summer Dressing/// I loved wearing Indian clothes in the most spring colours all month long.  Indian summers can only be survived by donning Indian fabrics. Cotton, mul, line

Hello!  I have been meaning to dip my toes in the Bullet Journaling (Bujo) world for a while now.  But the traditional way to doing it, what with keys and symbols and the like seemed way too intimidating. So I kept away.  To be fair, I think I did my own little version of Bujo all though 2014, when every 3 months I'd move into a new journal and make it my own. I didn't have a traditional planner all year around and by the end of 2014, I had used by some 4-5 empty notebooks of mine, which was my main goal in going planner-less.  But for this year, starting in May I felt really inspired to Bujo in a small way and see how I felt about it.  Here is my basic Bujo set for May.  This is the notebook I've chosen for my Bujo this month.  It's a passport sized notebook I got from Filter from a brand called Literarian.  It has both single ruled and grid paper.  The paper quality is decent, it can take gel pens but is not too good with markers and ink

Book: City of Death Author: Abheek Barua Pages: 263 Publisher: Juggernaut Books  Read On: Hardback How Long it Took Me To Read: 2 days Plot Summary:   On a muggy monsoon afternoon Sohini Sen gets a call from the chief minister's office. A young woman from a well-connected family in the city has been found brutally murdered. Sen is brought back from a bureaucratic wasteland to the thick of the action. An intelligent and intuitive investigator who struggles with addiction and depression, Sen is ill-prepared for an investigation that is a political minefield with TV anchors and tabloids baying for blood. As various interested parties, armed with power and money, try to manipulate the murder enquiry. Sen is forced to question the very possibility of justice.  A moody atmospheric novel that is as much about the Indian city and the dark depth of the human mind as it is about crime and investigation, City of Death marks the debut of a brilliant new voice. Gen

Hello!  How is your Saturday treating you?  Mine has been exceptionally relaxing.  Reading- The Living by Anjali Joseph.  Chilling.  Eating good food- Chocolate Peanut Butter Oats and a cheeky pizza for lunch.  Ah bliss!  :)  Today I want to share 2 of my newest bag loves!  Nothing makes my bag loving heart happier that finding a bag I love.  These beauties are from Pure Ghee Designs .  I've had my eye on these gorgeous bags for a while now. I loved the colours and how simple and clean the design is.  I ultimately chose a mint/turquoise tote for myself, since I recently had to throw out a mint bag that was completely ruined. So I had room in my life and closet for mint coloured bad. This one fit the bill. This is called the Quilted Metro Work bag .  I love, LOVE the colour and how thoughtfully it's designed.  There is ample space to carry around your essentials and it has pockets inside to keep your stuff organised. The pockets outside