The Whimsy Bookworm: A Book Blog from India

 Hello Loves!  End of the month means talking about every single book I read this month.  November felt so long...yet I can't quite believe it's done and dusted.  It felt like an activity filled blur.  Of doing things. Reading things.  Finding joys and trying to squeeze in some non-fiction reads for #nonfictionnovember.  I am happy to report, I read four non-fiction books, two volumes of poetry and a book rooted in a real true crime case.  A good, solid reading month.  I read 20 books in total and I am very happy with everything I read.  :)  So let's just jump into it and talk books.  BOOKS OF NOVEMBER 2022:  1. Cultish by Amanda Motell: I love reading about Cults and everything sinister and off-kilter that goes on in these place.  Why do people join?  What makes perfectly normal people willing to give up their free will and follow orders, often to a messy and fatal end?  I have always liked cults and found them endlessly fascinating. So I started the month with this book

Book: The Hotel Nantucket Author: Elin Hilderbrand  Pages: 416  Read on: Kindle  Read in: ~4 hours  Plot Summary:  After a tragic fire in 1922 that killed 19-year-old chambermaid, Grace Hadley, The Hotel Nantucket descended from a gilded age gem to a mediocre budget-friendly lodge to inevitably an abandoned eyesore — until it's purchased and renovated top to bottom by London billionaire, Xavier Darling.   Xavier hires Nantucket sweetheart Lizbet Keaton as his general manager, and Lizbet, in turn, pulls together a charismatic, if inexperienced, staff who share the vision of turning the fate of the hotel around.  They face challenges in getting along with one another (and with the guests), in overcoming the hotel's bad reputation, and in surviving the (mostly) harmless shenanigans of Grace Hadley herself — who won't stop haunting the hotel until her murder is acknowledged. Things I Liked:  1. The Hotel Nantucket is a very heartwarming, funny and sweet read. I am glad I picked

  We watched Monica O My Darling last night and we simply had to come over and tell you why you need to absolutely watch it! Here's why:  1. After a long, long time, a Bollywood movie has hit all the right notes!  Monica O My Darling is a neo-noir thriller, a sort of a whodunnit, a comic caper, a massive misadventure saga and all of this with a wild 70s ka tadka! We have the iconic Monica O My Darling song being played in the background during some insane moments of the movie and everything just works so well together! Watch it for the amazing storytelling, the treatment and sheer fun!  2. The performances were pitch perfect! Every single actor was SO GOOD and perfectly cast! Huma S. Qureshi as the eponymous wily, chalu, grifter/ hustler   Monica was perfection! Her dialogue delivery, body language and just everything was perfection. Rajkumar Rao, as always, was insanely good! Radhika Apte in a sort of comic role was also very good. Sikander Kher was hilarious! Every single cast me

 Hello Loves!  How is Friday treating you?  I had a pretty good day, I slept for most of it. I just passed out and it was just what I needed.  So the plan for rest of my day is to cook something nice for dinner, start on a fun new book and watch something fun. I have been on such a movie kick really. I think I am slightly over TV shows and series. I want something I can watch in one go and be done with it.  So I've been watching films old and new and it's nice.  It's been a while since I did a Friday Faves that was just random things and loves.  So we'll do just that today.  Here some thing random faves from life lately.  Some colourful new stationery items I got in the mail earlier this week. Very bright and happy and just the kind of little things I love.  Pens. Erasers. A stapler and just oddles of cutesy.  I got this pen pouch full of goodies from a shop on Instagram called The Magic Trunk. The pens and highlighters are really nice and I've already started using

 Life Happens and Coffee Helps.  A lot.  Coffee is my Sacha Pyaar (True Love).  :)  Love this yellow sunshine mug and this fluffy little cloud.  This is a newest addition to my Mug Collection it's from Nilay Studio and I love it.  I also adore this whole frame.  Coffee and some gorgeous, gorgeous art.  Front and center is this stunning portrait from Joyeeta that was a very, very kind birthday gift from her back in 2020.  I love this lady so much. She reminds me of my Thamma.  Coffee and Books, a match made in heaven and my most cherished morning rituals.  Coffee with a side of books. Including some new book mail, the new Janice Pariat which is a chunky little gorgeous book that I can't wait to read soon..I might start it today itself.  Sitting pretty and slightly precariously.  Iced-coffee forever. I am not a fan of hot coffee. I only have hot coffee if it's properly cold and it's never really properly cold in Mumbai, so it lends itself perfectly to my iced-coffee habit

 Hello Loves!  My way of celebrating any kind of festival is by doing the thing I love best ~ buying books.  This Diwali I bought myself six books to celebrate.  :)  So let's do a little book haul shall we?  Yes, we shall.  A Bengali classic. Taranath Tantrik is someone I've heard of and even seen a TV show based on. This collection was on my radar since it came out earlier this year. Seven stories about black magic, ghosts, ghouls and demons. This was my read this Diwali and it was fun.  Something light and easy, breezy. Might save this for December or January, I have heard such good things about this book and I hope it lives up to the hype.  This one sounds like it's just up my alley. Indian families and their million and one issues. Can't wait to read it soon.  A chunky little book I cannot wait to read.  I have had this on my wishlist for a while and I am so happy I finally got it.  A fable from one of my favourite writers ever.  Short, yet sharp and necessary and w

  Book: Normal Family  Author: Chrysta Bilton  Publisher: Little Brown & Co.  Pages:  336   Read On: iPad  How Long it Took Me To Read: 3 days  Plot Summary:   For most of her life, Chrysta Bilton was one member of a small, if dysfunctional, family of four. There was her sister, Kaitlyn, her hedonistic, glamorous, gay mum Debra, and Jeffrey, who Debra hand-picked, in an LA hairdressers, to be the father of her children. During Chrysta's unstable childhood, Debra struggled to keep the family afloat and Jeffrey wandered in and out of their lives. Then, in her twenties, Chrysta discovered that her father had secretly donated his sperm over 500 times - and that she had at least 35 other siblings. A Normal Family  is a captivating coming-of-age memoir about Chrysta's reckoning with the secrets both parents had carefully kept from her. Heartfelt, warm and funny, it's a story of embracing the family we have, in all the forms we find it. Review: What is a normal family? W

 Hello Loves and I hope this is a happy Monday in your life.  :)  Life, so far in November has been good.  Quiet. Cozy. And full of good books.  Lots of good reading.  I've already read two non-fiction books and I am already thinking of what non-fiction title I want to pick up next.  Might start something new today.  Hope your days in these post-festive weeks has been good too.  :)  Here are some snippets from my life lately that's made me very happy.  My favourite corner of home.  My books and more books.  This week I finally got to cleaning and dusting and sorta re-organising this corner full of my books. I cleaned and moved books around and kept books I hope to read soon in the front, so I don't forget about them.  This was done mainly because I hadn't done this since February of 2020 and also because I got some 12 new books in the mail this week, so I kinda had to made room for my new babies.  :)  As exhausting as this endevour usually is, it's also something th

  Hello November!  Hello Fall!  Hello Scorpio Season!  Hello Sister's Birthday Month!  :)  I am happy you are here November.  I started my month with doing the things I usually do on the first day of the month.  I set up my Bujo pages, did up my journal and even set up my Book Journal for the month.  A very stationery heavy morning and the kind of thing I love.  November Page in my Bujo.  Added some autumnal colours and a little doggo in a sweater!  Too cute.  Of course I did a little bit of reading.  I am still reading my Halloween Read but I also started on a new book in honour of Non-Fiction November.  I adore this little Niffler dude on my bookmark. He's most cute.  The Book of Indian Ghosts by Riksunder Banerjee: I started reading this for Halloween and I am still reading this and loving this deep dive into all kinds of ghosts found in India. Such a good read.  Cultish by Amanda Montell: My first read for Non-Fiction November is a book that is right up my alley. A book a