The Whimsy Bookworm: A Book Blog from India

Hello!  July is at it's end.  And what a long and yet quick month it's been.  I can't quite wrap my head around the fact that August is here already!  But we'll get to my plans for August in a later post.  For now let's jump into the things I loved best in July.  You were good July.  There was rain. Cosy days. Reading 21 books!  Blogging frequently.  Watching a ton of movies...31 or so!  Making plans. Journaling.  Art journaling.  You were good July, really good!  Come back soon.  1. Kindle Case/// We got new Kindle cases in July. I especially love my vintage book style Kindle Case. It is so beautiful and it's so well made and pretty affordable, we got ours from Ali Express, which is a fantastic place to find affordable but cute Kindle cases. Do check it out.  2. Bujo Set-Up//// I love how lovely my Bujo looked in July.  I will share the full lay...

Hello!  Today I want to share some of these pastel delights with you. I am a big fan of using slim washi tapes in my journal and my planner. They are perfect to spruce up plain pages and decorate my Bujo as well.  We got all of these floral washi tapes from Ali Express and gosh even their packaging is so freaking pretty!  I just love the whimsy floral illustrations!  So darling!  🌾🌸🌾🌸🌾🌸 Ah flowers!  I couldn't love you anymore if I tried!   I just love how vibrant these are.  A page in my journal dedicated to a happy haul.  All of the tapes in action! 

Book: The Mahabharata Murders Author: Arnab Ray Pages: 304 Read: via the Juggernaut App and Website Read in: 3 hours Publisher: Juggernaut Plot Summary: D uryodhana claims to be reborn. In modern-day Calcutta. A beautiful model. He cuts her open. His DRAUPADI  He hammers surgical needles into his SAHADEVA. The head of NAKULA he severs. Will Detectives Ruksana Ahmed and Siddhanth Singh be able to keep him from his ARJUN, BHEEMA and YUDHISTHIRA? Or will Duryodhana finally win? Things I Liked: 1. The premise of this book is very interesting! A serial killer who thinks he is the reincarnation of Duryodhana and is out to kill, who he thinks, signify the 5 Pandavas ?! What is not to like?! The book had me at 'serial killer'! Seriously!  2. This book has some very cool references and hat-tips to the Mahabharata and these were woven into the narrative quite effortlessly. I particularly liked the way each character was linked to the Pandavas a...

Book: The Memory Watcher  Author: Minka Kent  Pages: 429  Read On: Kindle  How Long it Took Me To Read: 2 days  Plot Summary:   Press, tap, refresh... When Autumn Carpenter stumbles upon the social media account of the family who adopted her infant daughter years ago, she finds herself instantly drawn into their picture-perfect existence.  From behind a computer screen, Autumn watches Grace's every memory, from birthdays to holidays to bedtime snuggles. But what starts as an innocent fascination soon spirals into an addictive obsession that comes to a screeching halt the day the McMullen family closes their Instaface account without so much as a warning.  Frantic and desperate to reconnect with her daughter, Autumn applies for a nanny position with the McMullens, manipulating herself into Grace's life under false pretenses. And it's only then that Autumn discovers pictures lie, the perfect family doesn't exist, an...

Book: Mafia Queens of Mumbai Stories of Women from the Ganglands.  Author: S. Hussain Zaidi with Jane Borges  Pages: 347  Read On: Kindle  Publisher: Tranquebar Press  How Long it Took Me To Read: 3 hours ( I breezed through this book!)  Plot Summary:   From victims to victims to victors, this collection of stories contains intricate details of thirteen women who went on to leave their permanent mark on the face face of the Mumbai Mafiosi. General Thoughts: This really isn't the kind of book I am drawn towards. But I saw it on Kindle Unlimited and thought I'd give it a shot. I had heard good things about it and being from Bombay, reading about it's underbelly seemed appealing.  Things I Liked:  1. I really enjoyed the writing style of this book. The book is simply written and makes for an intriguing and easy read. I breezed through this book in one sitting, I simply couldn't put it down....

Hello!  Today I want to share some of my most and frequently used stationery bits.  I use 2 pencil bags on the regular. What can I say, I am a total pen/stationery nut.  Since it is a lot of stuff in total, I thought I'd split this post up in two parts.  For today's post I want to share the smaller of my pencil bags, the one in which I keep some miscellaneous bits and bobs.  Washi Sampler.  Slim Washi Tapes. Page Flags.  Stickers.  Markers in pastel colours. Calligraphy Pens.  My pencil case/ bag came in a Planner Society Kit and I love it's bright colours.  Let's jump into the stationery goodness shall we?  Here is everything.  These are things I use to plan and journal with, mainly to make my planner pages pretty.  The Calligraphy pens I bought from Crossword. These are the 2.0 and 3.0 kinds. We also have a 1.0 which my sister uses.  The list pad came with a Hap...

Book: Beneath a Scarlet Sky Author: Mark Sullivan  Pages: 526  Read on: Kindle via Kindle Unlimited  Read in: 6-7 hours over three days  Publisher: Lake Union Publishing  Plot Summary: P ino Lella wants nothing to do with the war or the Nazis. He’s a normal Italian teenager—obsessed with music, food, and girls—but his days of innocence are numbered. When his family home in Milan is destroyed by Allied bombs, Pino joins an underground railroad helping Jews escape over the Alps, and falls for Anna, a beautiful widow six years his senior. In an attempt to protect him, Pino’s parents force him to enlist as a German soldier—a move they think will keep him out of combat. But after Pino is injured, he is recruited at the tender age of eighteen to become the personal driver for Adolf Hitler’s left hand in Italy, General Hans Leyers, one of the Third Reich’s most mysterious and powerful commanders. Now, with the opportunity to spy f...

“I don't know, I don't want to talk as much. It's nicer to think dear, pretty thoughts and keep them in one's heart, like treasures. I don't like to have them laughed at or wondered over.”  These end pages are gorgeous as always in the case of these Puffin in Bloom editions.  “I went looking for my dreams outside of myself and discovered, it's not what the world holds for you, it's what you bring to it.”  “It's been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will.”  Another beauty from my Puffin in Bloom boxset.  Book: Anne of Green Gables  Author: L.M. Montgomery  Pages: 300 First Published in 1908  Plot Summary:   Everyone's favourite redhead, the spunky Anne Shirley, begins her adventures at Green Gables, a farm outside Avonlea, Prince Edward Island. When the freckled girl realises that the elderly Cuthberts wanted to adopt a...

Book: The Woman on the Orient Express Author: Lindsay Jane Ashford  Pages: 332 Read on: Kindle {via Kindle Unlimited} Read in: 3-4 hours  Publisher: Lake Union Publishing  Plot Summary:  Hoping to make a clean break from a fractured marriage, Agatha Christie boards the Orient Express in disguise. But unlike her famous detective Hercule Poirot, she can’t neatly unravel the mysteries she encounters on this fateful journey. Agatha isn’t the only passenger on board with secrets. Her cabinmate Katharine Keeling’s first marriage ended in tragedy, propelling her toward a second relationship mired in deceit.  Nancy Nelson—newly married but carrying another man’s child—is desperate to conceal the pregnancy and teeters on the brink of utter despair.  Each woman hides her past from the others, ferociously guarding her secrets. But as the train bound for the Middle East speeds down the track, the parallel courses of their live...

If you follow me on Instagram, then it will be no secret to you that I love all things floral! Secretly, or not-so-secretly, I am a floral-print loving old British lady! I thought I will share these beautiful vintage floral ephemera that I ordered from From Katrin With Love a month or so ago. She has the most amazing collection of vintage ephemera and her floral and nature-themed paper kits are to die for! Seriously! Plus, she offers free shipping. Here's what we ordered: We ordered four sets of floral paper kits. Each of them have paper cuttings from various sources, stamps, larger paper pieces, cards and such little bits and bobs.  Here's a closer look at Sets 1 and 2.. Look at those pretty flowers and stamps.. Here's another look at them! Love, love!  Another closer look. I, especially, love the floral stamps!  Sigh! Aren't they beautiful!  If you are into flowers or just use ephemera and vintage papers in your...

Hello!  Hope this Saturday is treating you well.  My Saturday is off to a good start.  A night of sleeping well and a morning full of rain and drizzle.  :)  Today I want to share a little haul of stamp inks I recently acquired.  I already have quite a few stamp inks in various forms, like distress inks and regular ones like pigments.  I did a haul of Tim Holtz Distress Ink on the blog in December.  My sister and I love stamping. It is such an easy way to add some art and colour to your planner/journal pages.  I will soon do a stamps and inks post on the blog.  For now on to the new inks we have.  Even though we have a lot of coloured inks, we were running low on a basic black ink. The one we had was quite old and was nearly dry.  We got 2 of these Pigment Stamp Pads and they are so incredibly pigmented. The olive is such a pretty colour and the black is a wonderful deep and dark black....

Book: The Liberation of Sita Author: Volga Translator: T. Vijaykumar Pages: 132 (the stories are only 72 pages long) Publisher: Harper Collins India Read On: Paperback How Long it Took Me To Read: 1 day Plot Summary:   Valmiki's Ramayana is the story of Rama's exile and return to Ayodhya, a triumphant king who will always do right by his subjects.   In Volga s retelling, it is Sita who, after being abandoned by Purushottam Rama, embarks on an arduous journey to self-realization. Along the way, she meets extraordinary women who have broken free from all that held them back: husbands, sons, and their notions of desire, beauty and chastity. The minor women characters of the epic as we know it Surpanakha, Renuka, Urmila and Ahalya steer Sita towards an unexpected resolution. Meanwhile, Rama too must reconsider and weigh out his roles as the king of Ayodhya and as a man deeply in love with his wife.  A powerful subversion of India s most popular tal...

Hello!  This top was love at first sight!  I mean the print is too cute to pass up.  Plus, it's so comfy and cozy!  I also really like the rest of the elements of this outfit of mine.  What I Wore/// Top: H & M  Shoes & Socks: Forever 21   Bag: Chumbak  Necklace: Accessorize  Scarf: Zara  I wore this outfit on a long day and I was comfortable morning till night!  When it comes to dressing I am all about the comfort and wearability!  Also cute little quirky details don't hurt either!  :)