The Whimsy Bookworm: A Book Blog from India

Hello!  Here we are on the very last day of August, which honestly has just whizzed up. I still feel like the first week of August was just yesterday.  I suck at doing proper monthly wrap-ups, its one area of my bookish life I fail miserably at. But this month, I wanted to be better and document my month of reading only Indian books. It's one of my favourite reading months of the entire year, one that I look forward to and plan for months in advance.  So let's just jump into it.  I have read 16 books in total.  Which is good...kinda...I was honestly expecting to read way more, but August was oddly busy and I didn't read nearly as much as I thought I would, mainly because I read Indian books wayyyy faster than books from anywhere else in the world.  But..I read some amazing books, so I am not complaining.  1. The Adventures of Kakababu Vol. I  by Sunil Gangopadhyay: I started my reading month with a slice of Bengal and ...

Hello!  In case you didn't know this about me I have lived in Lucknow for five years.  The land of chikankari . When we first moved to Lucknow, in the first year itself we went bananas for chikankari and bought all kinds of things with the intricate and sublime embroidery. Frocks, kurtas, cushion covers and sarees for Maa. We were in love.  I remember my first ever chikan kurta, it was baby pink and so pretty. Over time I think I've had every colour they had on offer- pale pista green, light blue, purple and yellow. My sister had an even larger collection, especially when she moved to Delhi for college.  Then we moved back to Bombay and eventually I grew out of all my chikankari clothes. Dad would sometimes go to Lucknow for work and get us a kurta once in a while. I always took my chikankari clothes for granted, it was such a staple from my childhood.  And then years later I would see chikankari in Fabindia or in fancier boutiques...

Hey everyone! Wanted to share some new bookmark loves from The Ink Bucket . These are tiny and cute and have pompoms! So, what's not to love?! This is a set of 5 botanical/ floral-themed bookmarks and they are so pretty and well-made! They are not tall, more like 3.5 inches tall, but the pompoms lend themselves well to be stuck out of the book, so that you don't lose your place in it! Hope you have a lovely Friday, peeps! :)

Book: The Turn of the Key Author: Ruth Ware Pages: 337 Publisher: Simon and Schuster Read On: Kindle How Long it Took Me To Read: 5-6 hours Plot Summary:  When she stumbles across the ad, she’s looking for something else completely. But it seems like too good an opportunity to miss—a live-in nannying post, with a staggeringly generous salary. And when Rowan Caine arrives at Heatherbrae House, she is smitten—by the luxurious “smart” home fitted out with all modern conveniences, by the beautiful Scottish Highlands, and by this picture-perfect family. What she doesn’t know is that she’s stepping into a nightmare—one that will end with a child dead and herself in prison awaiting trial for murder. Writing to her lawyer from prison, she struggles to explain the unravelling events that led to her incarceration. It wasn’t just the constant surveillance from the cameras installed around the house, or the malfunctioning technology that woke the household with booming ...

Hello!  I love decorating my planner pages at the stat of a new week. It's one of the most grounding and calming practices I do without fail. Sit down, pull out my planner supplies, my planner and get started. Make the pages pretty and also fill them with things I need to do and things I've already done. It's both my planner and my journal, a way to document my days.  Here are my pages for August.  My main things/// Planner from The Ink Bucket  Pens held snuggly in a pen slip from Lyra And Co.  Pencil Bag from La Dolce Vita. Stationery Pouch from Cute Things from Japan.  Pens from Zebra Sarasa, Lamy, Pilot and Zebra Mildliner.  Bought from various places, but mainly Etsy shops.  On the Pages Now.  August started with this beautiful quote from Rumi.  Added a sticker on the Goals and Intentions Page.  Stickers on hand to make my pages pretty as can be.  The girl s...

Hey, hey! It's another weekend! Happy Janmasthami, if you celebrate it! We had a nice little celebration at home with prayers and mithai ( sweets) ! My sister and I have picked out our weekend reads and here's what they are.... I am reading The Body Myth by Rheea Mukherjee.  Plot Summary:  Mira is a teacher living in the heart of Suryam, the only place in the world the fickle Rasagura fruit grows. Mira lives alone, and with only the French existentialists as companions, until the day she witnesses a beautiful woman having a seizure in the park. Mira runs to help her but is cautious, for she could have sworn the woman looked around to see if anyone was watching right before the seizure began. Mira is quickly drawn into the lives of this mysterious woman Sara, who suffers a myriad of unexplained illnesses, and her kind, intensely supportive husband Rahil, striking up intimate, volatile and fragile friendships with each of them that quickly become something more. ...

I've been trying to explore Netflix a bit more in an effort to find new and interesting shows to watch. In that process, here are five new (to me) crime thrillers that are totally binge-worthy! In no particular order: Mindhunter  If you've been reading this blog for a while, then you'll know that we love Criminal Minds- the TV show set in the Behavioural Analysis Unit of the FBI. So, when we learnt that Mindhunter is the story of the actual Behavioural Sciences Unit started interviewing serial killers to learn more about their psyche and what triggers them to commit acts of brutality that were so new, scary and unimaginable! The show is absolutely fantastic! The build up of the narrative, the little parallel glimpses that we are getting into the genesis of one notorious serial killer and the actual re-creation of the interviews with convicted serial killers themselves! Highly, highly recommend! Marcella Marcella is a police detective just getting bac...

Hello!  Hope you are doing super duper well this fine August day!  Isn't August just rushing by?!  So I figured it's time to share all of the beautiful books I bought in July, some of them, four, I've already read.  I am particularly happy with these bunch of books, but I say that every month! But still...a gorgeous bunch of books that I can't wait to read sooner rather than later.  BOOKS BOUGHT/// 1. Bhaunri by Anukrti Upadhyay  2. Daura by "  3. The Night of Broken Glass by Feroz Rather  4. The Adventures of Kakababu Vol. I by Sunil Gangopadhyay  5. The Far Field by Madhuri Vijay  6. The Teenage Diary of Jodh Bai by Subhadra Sen Gupta  7. Friends from College by Devapriya Roy  8. How the Sea Became Salty by Sudha Murty  9. The Confessions of Frannie Langdon by Sara Collins Read. Loved.  It's odd, short and intense in the best way possible.  So g...