The Whimsy Bookworm: A Book Blog from India

 Hello Loves!  March is over and it has been a month of reading women, some absolutely incredible women writers for #FemmeMarch and I have thoroughly enjoyed myself.  :)  What a great reading month this has been.  I read all women and snuck in one male author and guess what it was a bust! Should have stuck to reading only women.  I read 15 books and 8 beautiful children's books/picture books.  I even bought a few books and they've all arrived today. (What a great way to end my month!)  Read a memoir.  Re-read an old favourite.  Read physical books.  Read short stories.  Read some translated works.  A thriller.  A horror.  Historical fiction.  A wonderful mix of genres and style.  A good good month.  So let's just into it shall we?  MARCH READING WRAP-UP:  1. I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys: I started my month with a very time appropriate read and with a book by one of my favourite writers. This book taught me so much about a corner of the world I knew so little about and

 Hey everyone! Wanted to share a new pocket-sized Traveler's Notebook (TN) that I bought from Endless Works . As you know, we love a good TN here and so, when I saw these, I simply had to get one to try it out!  Let's take a look at the goodies, shall we? This is what the box looks like. The TN is sized somewhere between a Field Notes and an A6. It is taller than a Field Notes notebook but narrower than an A6 notebook, if that makes sense.  When you open it up, this is what greets you. A little leaflet about your TN and the insert (notebook) that it comes with.  Also, there is a sticker inside. Going to use it somewhere soon!  This is the TN . The leather looks a lot like the Traveler Company's Camel leather but is a bit stiffer. Maybe it will get softer with age? Not sure, but I do like its rustic, easy-to-get-all-scratched-up look.  Apart from the centre band to put in notebooks, it comes with two extra elastic bands- one red and one yellow. You can use these to add extr

 March is slowly coming to a end and these last few days of the month have been good to me. First up, it's been raining, giving us a much needed respite from the heat. We are supposed to have rains all week and I am so grateful to have a break from summer. Today already feels so cool and has me reaching for my quilt.  Bliss.  The last few days have included some bizarreness, what with people slapping people at the Oscars! For shame!  I still can't quite believe that really happened!!!  Apart from Pop Culture meltdowns, there has been happy mails, good meals and some seriously good reading.  My dearest Anupriya sent me some belated birthday presents in the mail and they made my day. Little things that I love so much.  A pouch. (Which I am already using to store my Washi Tapes)  Scrunchies.  Soap.  Two adorable bookmarks.  A notebook. A coaster.  A fridge magnet.  All lovely and most of it comes from her mind and her incredible ventures.  A Snato Lemon soap that spells summer. I

  Book: Nine Lives  Author: Peter Swanson  Publisher: Faber Books  Pages: 305 Read On: Kindle  How Long it Took Me To Read: 1 day  Plot Summary:   Nine strangers receive a list with their names on it in the mail. Nothing else, just a list of names on a single sheet of paper. None of the nine people know or have ever met the others on the list. They dismiss it as junk mail, a fluke—until very, very bad things begin happening to people on the list. First, a well-liked old man is drowned on a beach in the small town of Kennewick, Maine. Then, a father is shot in the back while running through his quiet neighborhood in suburban Massachusetts. A frightening pattern is emerging, but what do these nine people have in common? Their professions range from oncology nurse to aspiring actor, and they’re located all over the country. So why are they all on the list, and who sent it? FBI agent Jessica Winslow, who is on the list herself, is determined to find out. Could there be some dark secr

 Hello Loves!  Saturday means talking about our weekend reads and watching. This weekend we are doing a bit of both and so let's just jump into it shall we?  First let me tell you what my sister has already read..she started her book first thing in the morning and as as of two hours ago has already finished it. She is a bit of a reading machine. She will go a whole week with no reading and read three books in one weekend. Today was a little bit like that for her. She finished her book in pretty much two sittings.  Here is the book she read.  Nine Lives by Peter Swanson:   Nine strangers receive a list with their names on it in the mail. Nothing else, just a list of names on a single sheet of paper. None of the nine people know or have ever met the others on the list. They dismiss it as junk mail, a fluke—until very, very bad things begin happening to people on the list. First, a well-liked old man is drowned on a beach in the small town of Kennewick, Maine. Then, a father is shot i

 Hello Loves!  It's the last Friday of the year and it's time to list my Monthly Favourites.  It seems like such a long month, no? March always does seem so long after the short and sweet February.  March felt long but good, it started out wonderful and cold and is ending with me sweating through my tee.  Spring has jumped straight into summer and I am not looking forward to the hot month of summer.  But let's not think about that for now, let's talk about all the things I loved in March!  1. Spring Journal: I love how my journal for this month turned out, I loved how I set it up and I have really enjoyed how writing in it. Sadly not like we had much of a spring this year. We went straight from winter  to summer. Still, I can pretend in my journal that spring is lingering on.  2. Flowers: You got to love the flowers that bloom in March. Our little garden was alive in flowers big and small.  3. Deesa Clips: We got some beautiful blooms from Deesa this month and they a

  Book: This Golden State  Author: Marit Weisenberg  Pages: 372 Read on: Kindle  Read in: ~4 hours  Plot Summary:  The Winslow family lives by five principles: 1. No one can know your real name. 2. Don’t stay in one place too long. 3. If you sense anything is wrong, go immediately to the meeting spot. 4. Keeping our family together is everything. 5. We wish we could tell you who we are, but we can’t. Please—do not ask. Poppy doesn’t know why her family has been running her whole life, but she does know that there are dire consequences if they’re ever caught. Still, her curiosity grows each year, as does her desire for real friends and the chance to build on something, instead of leaving behind school projects, teams, and crushes at a moment’s notice. When a move to California exposes a crack in her parents’ airtight planning, Poppy realizes how fragile her world is. Determined to find out the truth, she mails in a home DNA test. Just as she starts to settle into her new life and even b

83, the movie, released on OTT on Sunday/ Monday midnight and we, almost immediately, watched it!  If you don't know, 83 is based on India's first (and historic) cricket World Cup win in 1983. Back then, the Indian cricket team was not the powerhouse that you see today. We had great players, true, but they nowhere had the winning track record or the kind of fame that our cricketers have had since the 1990s. The reasons are several, but an important one being that cricket in India became a national (and media) obsession only after we won the World Cup in 1983. True, there were cricket fans in India even before 1983, but the way the sport and the sportsmen captured the common person's imagination and became an obsession and religion of its own owes a huge part to this team that won us the World Cup in 1983 and instilled a huge sense of pride in our men in blue!  Without further ado, let's get into 5 compelling reasons to watch this amazing film!   5 Reasons to Watch 83: 

Hello, hello,  Sharing some of our favourite stationery loves with you guys today. If you love stationery as much as we do, I am sure, you'll find something to like/ love/ purchase!  We love sleeves and covers for our notebooks and journals. So, this journal notebook from SEWA Anubandh is great for carrying (and protecting) your notebooks, a few pens and other bits and bobs.  This A5-sized notebook cover from The Bicyclist Stories is so well-made and pretty! It houses my sister's daily pages journal and a few pens. It has pockets for cards or washi tape samples and other stickers and bits and bobs. The notebook cover is not listed on their website, but if you want one, you could try DM-ing the folks on Instagram and check if they still offer it.  On the left is a pen sleeve from Taaga by Reema . It is perfect for holding a bunch of pens and pencils. It has two pockets and holds a lot of pens!  On the right is a book sleeve made by Tula Posey (can't find their Instagram pa

 Hello, hello, Happy Holi, folks!  I hope you've had (or are still having) a lovely Holi!  It has never been a favourite festival of mine- too much chaos, too much forceful rubbing of colour on faces- but I have enjoyed the food and community parts of it.  Sharing some binge-worthy OTT content for you to enjoy over the long weekend!  1. The Weekend Away on Netflix is based on the eponymous book by Sarah Alderson. Sophie, a young mother leaves for a weekend away in Croatia with her best friend, who is going through a divorce. After a blurry night of partying, her best friend goes missing and the cops arent interested in finding her. What happened that night? As Sophie sets out to find answers, she finds herself in an even more dangerous situation. A short, fast-paced movie that is definitely worth watching.  2. Salute streaming on SonyLiv is a Malayalam crime thriller movie starring Dulquer Salman. Three years ago, a professor and his wife were brutally murdered. The cops, under pol

 Hello Loves!  How has life been treating you lately?  My life has been curiously busy and full of other drama and books have not exactly taken a back seat but have definitely been on the back burner. I have been reading but in a distracted sort of way. I read but I don't spend a lot of time thinking about the books.  I just life to calm down a bit and find an amazing book to sit down and really focus on.  Hopefully this weekend I do just that: Sit tight and read.  For today's post I want to talk about two books I read this week.    Heaven by Mieko Kawakami:   Hailed as a bold foray into new literary territory, Kawakami’s novel is told in the voice of a 14-year-old student who subjected to relentless torment for having a lazy eye. Instead of resisting, the boy chooses to suffer in complete resignation. The only person who understands what he is going through is a female classmate who suffers similar treatment at the hands of her tormentors. These raw and realistic portrayals of