The Whimsy Bookworm: A Book Blog from India

Hello!  Ah! April.  Where do I even begin?  What a month!  Once again I find myself thinking long and hard at finding things I loved this month and my first impulse was to skip listing faves for this month and let this shitfest of a month be gone and done with. But honestly, even in all this mess, all this uncertainty, fear and anxiety there have been small moments of respite.  Little silver linings.  Finding bread.  Making malpuas .  A perfectly done pocha . A breezy day.  Long afternoon naps.  Cold showers.  Writing again.  Even in all this darkness there were moments of light.  So here are some of my favourite things from this month.  1. Colouring: I can happily just zone out and colour for hours on end and never be bored or lost in my anxious thoughts. This little colouring book has kept me happily occupied and happy for most of this month. So glad I am a little hoarder of colouring books and supplies.  A little something I did

Hello!  Do weekends even count anymore?  Most days I wake up not knowing what day it is, it is only when I am journaling or using my planner do I even glance at dates.  Well!  I guess we are all in the same boat.  Even though everyday is now like the weekend, we like to do a little something special to commemorate the weekends.  A break from washing clothes.  Cooking something special.  Afternoon naps.  &  Reading something good.  This is what my sister and I have been reading this weekend...well mostly today, yesterday was a bit of a TV and film day. Today has been a day full of reading.  My Mother's Lover and Other Stories by Sumana Roy: I bought this book and two other yesterday since Bloomsbury India is having a weekend long sale on select titles. This one was on my wish-list since it cam out a couple of months ago. A collection of short stories, some set in my corner of the world (Dooars) and written by an author from those parts as w

Hello?!  And how are we today?  I hope you are safe and sound and keeping yourself distracted and happy.  I am doing alright.  There are good days and there are days that don't seem to end.  I am her today to make those long days seem a little bit better.  I have 6 books series to jump into right now and escape to.  Most of them are thrillers, 5 out of 6 are  detective series.  One is a saga of family and secrets.  All of these books are perfect to binge on right now, you could read them one after the other and make the most of these days. Seriously, step away from the distressing News and pick up a new books series.  1. The Sam Wyndham Series by Abir Mukherjee: This series is the one I am currently right in the middle of. There are 4 books out in total and I have read the first two books this month and might just go ahead and finish off the the remaining books before the month is up. My sister has been reading these books since 2017 and has loved

Hey all, Hope you guys are staying home and staying safe! We've been home since early March and it feels like a different life where we used to go visit bookstores and restaurants and just be out in the world! Sigh. So, what do you do when you find yourself at home with a little too much time on your hands? Well, you turn to the TV and to online streaming service providers for some fun content. Without any further ado, here are some movies and series that we've been enjoying recently... Panchayat on Amazon Prime Video is a hilarious and heartwarming story of a young Engineer, who finds himself in a tiny village in Uttar Pradesh as the Secretary of the local village Panchayat. The idiosyncrasies of the villagers, the challenges of adjusting to village life and just the sheer madness of a bureaucrat's life make for a hilarious viewing! Solid performances and several laugh-out-loud moments make this series a must-watch! Breeders on Hotstar is a hilarious Bri

Book: Death in the East Author: Abir Mukherjee Pages: 421 Read on: Kindle Read in: 4-5 hours Plot Summary:  Calcutta police detective Captain Sam Wyndham and his quick-witted Indian Sergeant, Surrender-not Banerjee, are back for another rip-roaring adventure set in 1920s India. 1905, London.  As a young constable, Sam Wyndham is on his usual East London beat when he comes across an old flame, Bessie Drummond, attacked in the streets. The next day, when Bessie is found brutally beaten in her own room, locked from the inside, Wyndham promises to get to the bottom of her murder. But the case will cost the young constable more than he ever imagined. 1922, India.  Leaving Calcutta, Captain Sam Wyndham heads for the hills of Assam, to the ashram of a sainted monk where he hopes to conquer his opium addiction. But when he arrives, he sees a ghost from his life in London – a man thought to be long dead, a man Wyndham hoped he would never see again.  Wyndham knows he mus

Blue skies and open spaces to just breathe in.  Flowers. Both outside and at home. Things I Miss.  1. Not worrying constantly.  2. Ordering food on days I didn't feel like cooking.  3. Ice-cream. 4. Travel Plans.  5. Iced drinks.  6. My car. She's sitting unused and unloved.  7. Mail.  8. Packages. Little happy things to open up.  9. Flowers.  10. Seeing my parents. They are in another state, on the other side of the country and I don't know when I'll get to see them next.  11. Wearing cute clothes.  12. Wearing make-up.  13. Buying physical books.  (Not that I need new books but I miss treating myself to a new book every now and again.)  14. Going out without having a mini panic attack.  15. Making any sort of plans for the future. I HATE not knowing what the rest of this year is going to look like.  16. People.  17. Malls. All their noise, the shops, the people and just ordinary thing

 Hello, hello! Sharing a little haul of a few cute things that we'd received in the mail before the Lockdown! These totes and pouches are from an indie Kolkata-based brand called 'The Yellow Curtain. We placed our order through their Instagram account, but they also have a website. These cute kettles are on a tote bag. We love tote bags because they are so handy in carrying extra items when you are carrying a small sling bag or satchel and also very useful for grocery and other shopping.  The second tote bag is adorned with this pakha (Bengali) or palm leaf fan print. These pakhas or pankhas (Hindi) take me back to hot Calcutta summers when loadsheddings (power cuts) were a part and parcel of our daily lives! *shudder* I am sure you would've seen Calcutta's iconic Taana Rickshaws/ manually pulled Rickshaws? If not, this is pretty much what it looks like! Instead of a cycle mechanism pulling it along, a man pulls it along. There are very

Hello!  How are thing with you?  The last few days have gone by in a blur. I swear, I intended to be better at blogging during this time. Write more. Do more reviews.  But..honestly...between all the house work, cooking and worrying constantly being productive is too much of an ask.  I applaud anyone who's making the most of these days and learning something new and diminishing their TBR, but me..I am allowing myself to feel the things I am feeling, losing myself in a good book or two and just cooking up comfort food.  That's how I am coping.  A journal entry apt for this occasion.  Our lockdown has been extended till the 30th of April, it came as no surprise. My city is struggling, the cases are above 1000 and this lockdown is absolutely necessary. Devastating but needed. I am no stranger to being homebound. I am happy to be home. It's just this whole stress and worry and scarcity of things that bothers me.  Add to that our bedroom AC has die

Hello!  This Monday, I've decided to turn my frown upside down.  After waking up early-ish to a hot April morning, I breezed through my chores.  Dishes Done.  Clothes Washed.  Birds Fed. ( I feed the sparrows and pigeons and parrots from my window, this morning they feasted on some peanuts.)  Breakfast and Coffee had.  I was feeling happy and fresh and positive.  And then I decided to treat myself to some new books...ebooks obviously.  I saw that Harper Collins had a bunch of ebooks for over 50% off on Amazon and I hopped over and added some books to my cart and some others to my wish-list.  I got 10 books in total.  9 from Harper Collins.  1 from Rupa.  I got most of them on 60% off and I am pleased as can be.  I don't intend to buy a ton of books, both during this mess and even after.  In fact, I don't see myself buying much of anything till Pujo...or maybe not even then. Because, honestly we don't yet know what this pandemic will

Hello!  How is your weekend going?  I'll be honest, I am wiped.  I think all this extra work (home chores) is kinda getting to me now.  But it's OK..I am home, I am safe and I am doing my best.  I have been reading as and when I find time and it's been helping, like it always does.  My sister is slowly reading, rather re-reading The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie . This book is incredible. I re-read it last year and loved it. It's a little slow. Told through a character's journal, this is a little different than your usual Poirot books. An interesting locked room mystery set in a little English village, where an in-retirement Poirot is called upon to solve the murder of the village's richest man- Roger Ackroyd.  My sister is nearly done with this and will then start on her next read, The Woman in the Mirror by Rebecca James.  I finished reading Wonder World and Other Stories by Sunil Gangopadhyay earlier this evenin

Hello!  I don't usually make elaborate TBRs anymore. For a while there, a couple of years ago, I was a pretty diligent TBR maker and then I kinda just stopped. For no real reason, I just stopped making TBRs. I read books as and when I feel like them and it works for me just fine.  But for special occasions or to adhere to a reading theme, a TBR is a good idea be.  So for this month and for reading only Bengali books all month long, I figured I take a good look at my shelves and make a TBR to guide my reading and make life a little easier.  So here is everything I hope to read this month.  APRIL TBR///  1. The Circle of Reason by Amitav Ghosh.  2. The Song Seekers by Saswati Sengutpa.  3. A Life Less Ordinary by Baby Halder.  4. A Life Long Ago by Sunanda Sikdar.  5. In the Name of the Mother by Mahashweta Devi.  6. Sister of my Heart by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. (RR)  7. Wonderworld and Other Stories by Sunil Gangapadhyay.  8.

Hello April!  I am happy you are here. Hello Summer!  Hello more days of Lockdown!  Hello Bengali New Year!  Hello Reading only Bengali Books and Bengali Authors all month long!  I am hoping and praying that this month is happier than the last few weeks and I hope it is one where we find some semblance of our normal again.  Be Good April.  Be Kind.  Be Gentle.  ⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘ This has been me today...a sloth.  I am so sleepy since I didn't get a lot of sleep last night..4 hours or so. All of today was spent in a daze of sorts.  I did a little bit of reading. I am still reading my last read of March, Know my Name by Chanel Miller, this is hard-hitting and wonderful and horrible and infuriating and exhausting but in a good way. I am 25% through with it and reading it slowly in small doses.  This was my evening view this evening.  This tree right outside my window has come alive in the last few days and these pink flowers are growing aplenty.