The Whimsy Bookworm: A Book Blog from India

 Hello Loves!  May is over and so is my reading for this month.  May has been a month of reading big, fat, chunky books.  I read some smashing books and I cannot wait to talk about them.  So sit down, get comfy and let's begin.  :)  1. The Red Pony by John Steinbeck: Started my month right, with one of my favourite writers. I first read Steinbeck in college, Grapes of Wrath was part of my course and I loved it so much and read a few more of his books. But since then, I've read not nearly as much as I would like to. So it was nice to find my way back to one of my absolute faves. This one is a tiny little book that you can read in one sitting, I really enjoyed it's themes of coming of age, disappointment, nature and what it feels like to be a child. This book has made me want to read more Steinbeck and soon. I think it's time to re-read East of Eden and maybe even unearth my cope of Grapes of Wrath from college.  3.5/5  2. 3 Rays by Satyajit R...

 Hello Loves!  Month end means time to list some of my favourite things from May.  May...was a strange sort of month.  Felt too oddly long.  Too hot in parts. There was a smattering of much needed rain.  I read some big books.  Read some goooood books.  Didn't buy a single book! Go me. Look at me being sensible.  :)  I watched a lot of things and a LOT of very good things.  I was in a world of pain from Carpal Tunnel. I could barely journal or write and spent just the bare minimum time on my planners. I had to rest my hand and still it's not gotten much better. :(  Ugh.  Summer sadness was a real bedfellow this month.  But let's focus on the good instead.  Here are my May Favourites.  1. Summer Rains and Blooms: While most of the country was burning up due to horrible heat waves, we, in my corner of the world in North Bengal, had many mild days thanks to a spot of rain. I have loved these low key rainy days...

  So, I just finished bingeing Stranger Things Season 4 Volume 1 and I have some thoughts! Without wasting any time, let's get into it, shall we?  STOP! WAIT!!  THIS POST WILL HAVE SOME SPOILERS, WHICH WILL BE CALLED OUT BEFORE EACH MENTION. PLEASE STOP READING IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED IT YET!  Things I Loved:  1. The very fact that the show was back after T-H-R-E-E long years! It was so good to be back with the characters that you've grown to care about so much! It was so good to re-visit that crazy ol' town of Hawkins, Indiana and get back with the gang and do some mind-flayer demon hunting shenanigans!  2. It was good to see some real-life high school struggles faced by teens make its way into Stranger Things!  SPOILER BEGINS: Mike and Dustin are struggling to fit into high school while Lucas has joined the basketball team and is considered (sort of) cool. On the other hand, in California, Will seems all alone and struggling to fit in as well but Elev...

  Book: Remarkably Bright Creatures  Author: Shelby Van Pelt  Pages: 368 Read on: Kindle  Read in: ~4 hours  Plot Summary:  After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago. Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors--until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova. Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late. Things I Liked:  1. A book told, partially, from the per...

  Book: The Nothing Man Author: Catherine Ryan Howard  Pages: 295 Read on: Kindle  Read in: 3.5 hours  Plot Summary:  I was the girl who survived the Nothing Man.  Now I am the woman who is going to catch him... You've just read the opening pages of  The Nothing Man , the true crime memoir Eve Black has written about her obsessive search for the man who killed her family nearly two decades ago.  Supermarket security guard Jim Doyle is reading it too, and with each turn of the page his rage grows. Because Jim was -  is  - the Nothing Man.  The more Jim reads, the more he realises how dangerously close Eve is getting to the truth. He knows she won't give up until she finds him. He has no choice but to stop her first. Things I Liked: 1. This was my second book by Catherine Ryan Howard. 56 Days being the first. I really loved 56 Days  and so, when I realised that the author has written other crime thrillers before this, I sim...

  Book: Seeking Fortune Elsewhere Author: Sindya Bhanoo Pages: 241 Read on: Kindle  Read in: 2.5 hours  Plot Summary:  Traveling from Pittsburgh to Eastern Washington to Tamil Nadu, these stories about dislocation and dissonance see immigrants and their families confront the costs of leaving and staying, identifying sublime symmetries in lives growing apart. In “Malliga Homes,” selected by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for an O. Henry Prize, a widow in a retirement community glimpses her future while waiting for her daughter to visit from America. In "No. 16 Model House Road," a woman long subordinate to her husband makes a choice of her own after she inherits a house. In "Nature Exchange," a mother grieving in the wake of a school shooting finds an unusual obsession. In "A Life in America," a professor finds himself accused of having exploited his graduate students.   Sindya Bhanoo’s haunting stories show us how immigrants’ paths, and the paths of those they l...

  Book: In The Language of Remembering.  Author: Aanchal Malhotra  Publisher: Harper Collins India Pages: 756  How Long it Took Me To Read: 8 days  Plot Summary:   Oral historian Aanchal Malhotra's first book,  Remnants of a Separation , was published in 2017 to mark the seventieth anniversary of India's Partition. It told a human history of the monumental event by exhuming the stories lying latent in ordinary objects that survivors had carried with them across the newly made border. It was acclaimed for the freshness of its approach to a decades-old, much-written-about subject. But more significantly, it inspired conversations within families: between the generation that had witnessed Partition and those who had only inherited its memories. In the Language of Remembering , as a natural progression, explores that very notion as it reveals how Partition is not yet an event of the past and its legacy is threaded into the daily lives of subsequent ge...

 Hello, hello, Hope your week is off to a great start!  Sharing a recent very floral haul of all kinds of bookish and stationery-ish items from Sangrah Collective! They are an organization that empowers underprivileged housewives by making handmade fabric products.  You can check them out here on their Instagram !  These items are from their floral collection and are so pretty and well-made!  To start with here is a pouch (big enough to hold pens, pencils and even a few stationery items like washi tapes, glue runners etc.) and one of their book sleeves!  Three fabric bookmarks- squishy but not chunky. Very cute. They have a multitude of fabric options available, so check them out to pick what you like.  These are the two pouches we got. Like I said, big enough to hold pens, pencils, highlighters. Also, wide enough to hold washi tapes and other supplies. My sister uses hers to keep her stickers and some washi samples. ...

  Book: Rohzin  Author: Rahman Abbas   Translator: Sabika Abbas Naqvi  Publisher: Penguin India  Pages: 256 How Long it Took Me To Read: 5 days  Plot Summary:   Mumbai was almost submerged on the fatal noon of 26 July 2005, when the merciless downpour and cloudburst had spread utter darkness and horror in the heart of the city. River Mithi was inundated, and the sea was furious. At this hour of torturous gloom, Rohzin begins declaring in the first line that it was the last day in the life of two lovers, Asrar and Hina. The novel's protagonist, Asrar, comes to Mumbai, and through his eyes the author describes the hitherto-unknown aspects of Mumbai, unseen colours and unseen secrets of the city's underbelly. The love story of Asar and Hina begins abruptly and ends tragically. It is love at first sight which takes place in the premises of Haji Ali Dargah. The arc of the novel studies various aspects of human emotions, especially love, longing and se...

 Hello, hello!  It is Friday (the 13th, at that) and I hope you are winding down your week and looking forward to the weekend!  If you are planning on spending this hot, hot weekend at home, then we have some OTT series and movie recommendations for you! Let's get into it, shall we?  1. Jhund  A fantastic, heartwarming and inspiring movie about retired sports teacher, Vijay Barse's, journey to create Slum Soccer, an NGO that holds national-level football tournaments for slum-dwelling youth!  Directed by the acclaimed director of Sairat and with realistic, moving, lovely performances, Jhund is an absolute must-watch! Jhund is streaming on Zee5.  2. Anantham (Tamil)  Anantham is a Tamil anthology series that tells the stories of various, different, families that have lived in the same art deco-style house in Chennai from the mid-1960s to present day. Covering different situations, challenges, emotions and struggles, Anantham has something that reson...

 Hello Loves!  This Monday let's share some Small Shop Love. I came across Craft's Bite on IG a few weeks ago and really liked their prints and the many things they make. They have website and I browsed and bought a few things to try and I am happy to report I really love everything we got from them.  Let's jump in and see all the pretty things I got.  If you know us, you know we love pouches and we use them for a bunch of reasons. To keep our pens and pencils and art supplies organised and to even keep our handbags organised.  So when we see a cute pouch, we can't resist it.  :)  This mint floral number is so stunning and my sister intends to use it as a make-up pouch for her handbag.  Love this print.  I got this simple pen slip to hold two pens at best and I wanted something like this to keep a few pens handy when I am journaling or planning. Love the colours on this one and the shop actually sent me two pens too!  How sweet!  W...