The Whimsy Bookworm: A Book Blog from India

 Hello Loves!  February is my most loved month.  My birthday month and one I pin all these hopes and dreams on.  Reading wise, I try to make February as special as possible and try to read my favourite authors only.  This year I did manage to read some favourites but I also read some new-to-to authors.  I read 12 books in total.  Which for me is not the best number. But I was watching so many films this month and doing other life things that occasionally books took a back seat.  I read some history, some literary fiction, some thrillers and a spot of kid lit.  A nice mixed bag of reads.  I also bought some books.  A good-ish month.  Let's jump into my reads and my mini-reviews of the same.  Let's gooooo.  BOOKS OF FEBRUARY:   1. Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor: This book has some unreal levels of hype right now. People and papers (The Guardian)  are calling it India's answer to the Godfather. Well, I don't know about that, but this level of hype usually turns me off books

 Hello, hello, Sharing some of our most loved movies and web series of February 2023!  Given we have some long weekends coming up in March, these would be good ones to watch.  Let's get into it!  1. Mr Queen: A K-drama that is absolutely hilarious and adorable but with a hint of palace/ political intrigue! When a 21st century masterchef falls into a swimming pool, he wakes up in the body of a 19th century queen-to-be. Hilarity ensues as he tries to keep the King at an arm's length, try desperate means to get back to his life and fix things in the past all at the same time!  2. Crash Course in Romance: An introverted, workaholic Maths tutor falls for an extroverted, kind restaurant owner. This is, however, not just an opposites attract love story but is also a commentary on the brutal education system in Korea, especially, the cut-throat world of competitive exams, special tuition classes for these exams and the toll it takes on students. There is also a bit of a murder mystery

  Book: The Magic of the Lost Story.  Author: Sudha Murty  Illustrator: David Yambem Publisher: Penguin India  Pages: 208  How Long it Took Me To Read: 2 days (with several breaks) Plot Summary:   After staying in the lockdown for over a year, Nooni is now visiting her Ajja-Ajji in Somanahalli. Memories of excavating the famous stepwell and experiencing village life for the first time in  The Magic of the Lost Temple  are still afresh in Nooni's mind. Excited to finally step out of the confines of her home, little does Nooni know she will make yet another discovery, only this time it's a missing puzzle in her family's history. Written in India's favourite storyteller's inimitable style,  The Magic of the Lost Story  captures the value of asking questions and keeping the answers alive. Packed with delightful artworks and wondrous terrains, this story takes you on an unforgettable journey as it follows the magnificent Tungabhadra River . Review: I read the firs

  Book: Death in Shambles  Author: Stephen Alter  Publisher: Aleph Book Company  Pages: 216  How Long it Took Me To Read: 3 days Plot Summary:   Lionel Carmichael, a retired police deputy inspector general, is looking forward to living a quiet, solitary life in the hill station of Debrakot, with an assortment of eccentric neighbours for occasional company. His plans are upended when he is asked by a former colleague, SHO Thapliyal, to help out in a double murder case. The scene of the crime is the ghostly Shambala Villa, or ‘Shambles’, as it is known to the residents of the town, named thus due to its decrepit appearance. The victims of the brutal crimes are Reuben Sabharwal, a self-styled god-man who dabbles in the mysterious and occult, and an unknown woman, dressed in a pale green sari, found hanging by a noose near Reuben’s body. Trudging through the monsoon rains of Debrakot, Lionel embarks on his journey towards the truth, only to become more and more entangled in a web of d

 Hello, hello, One can never have enough notebooks, right?  So, when we saw these beautiful hand-stitched with three-different-types of paper notebooks launched by the lovely Khyati of The Black Canvas , we simply had to get them! Quick haul and many pics follow :)  Here is how they arrive! Love their black packaging!!  We ordered one in the Slim (fits the standard TN) and one in the A6 size.  This is the 'Hinterland' set and right now there are 4 different prints available! All are lovely!  Look how pretty!!!  Each of them comes with three types of papers- white unlined, kraft and black! So excited to use them in the spring-early summer for journaling.  The paper quality of the cover and the inside pages feels very premium and lovely. I can't wait to get started with my journal next month!  Hope you enjoyed this little haul.  Check out The Black Canvas for more of these notebooks and a bunch of other goodies!  Happy Valentine's Day, guys! 

 Hello Loves!  This post is super duper late.  I should have had this up wayyyy back in January, seeing that these books were ordered on the 1st of Jan.  I decided to start my year with buying some books, as you do. And I also felt that it was the perfect start to my New Year. Books are always a good start and a good way to welcome newness.  I bought two beautiful books from my corner of the world- Bengal. I picked two classics and I cannot wait to read them.  Let's see the prettiness.  I have read this book before. But I wasn't the biggest fan of the translation. So when I saw that Penguin Modern Classics had a translation I had to get my hands on it. I am very happy to own this copy and read it eventually. I am thinking of reading this in April for my All Bengali Books in April.  I am hoping to read this and then binge the Ray adaptations of it.  It will break my heart but it seems like a good way to celebrate Bengaliness.  Gosh I love this cover art so damn much!  And then t

 Hello Loves!  For today's post I want to share my beautiful daily journal from January.  I went all out.  I bought this gorgeous TN from The Black Canvas last year and saved it for 2023 and in January I brought it out in January. I love it so much.  The insert is from a shop called Softly Vintage and has a mix of different kinds of papers, handmade and transparent and regular. The size is a little off. I thought it would fit a standard sized TN but it's slightly big and stuck out slightly but I made it work.  Let's take a little look shall we.  Here she is all her glory.  Love the grain on the leather and the feel of her.  The typewriter just has my whole heart.  A closer look.  Think.  Write. Create.  I also set up a little folder that I had lying around.  Put some stickers and covered it with some papers, all from The Planner Society.  January Journal.  This is a cover of the insert that I decorated.  I wanted something super positive and hopeful and encouraging and I t

Hello Loves!  How is your weekend going?  Mine is thankfully being all sorts of restful and full of books.  Reading was sorta slow in the beginning of this month, but in the last few days I've been reading a book a day and life feels good again.  So far in, February seems a little listless and stressful.  And to make matters worse, it's getting hot! Like properly hot here in Mumbai.  Yuck.  I hate it so much, I was naively hoping it would stay cool till my birthday but no, we are well into summer.  Ugh!  So solace is being found in cold juices, iced-coffee and stories.  My birthday week starts on Monday and I am determined to have a fabulous week.  Orange juice.  Cold as can be.  New additions to home.  Art that I've had for a while and love so much from Diary of a Flower Girl.  The little ceramic bell is new and came as a freebie with a coffee mug I recently got from Orange Skies.  Had rasbharis after absolute ages and they were wonderful. We used to have them quite regula

 Hello, hello, Sharing a lovely haul of notebooks and pouches from The White Ink Papeterie .  This huge notebook- think it is A3 in size- is part of a set. It came with a matching daisy print pouch and an acrylic cat and daisies keychain! So cute!  This is the keychain that came with the set! The girl stickers are their own thing. Love the art and quirky designs.   Here is a better shot of the cat keychain! Isn't it cute? The acrylic is very high quality.  Here is the daisy pouch! It is quite large and can easily fit a couple of thin A5 sized notebooks and a bunch of other things. It is made out of very high quality canvas and the print is really good quality as well! Super happy with these!  This is the other pouch we got. It comes with a floral notebook.  All the sheets in the notebooks are perforated and can be easily torn out, which is always a handy feature.  Check them out if you are looking for notebooks, pouches, stickers and other stationery bits and bobs.

 Hello Loves!  I seem to have fallen off the blogging spree.  I don't like not being regular here, to me this space feels like an extension of my journal.  February is my birthday month.  It's obviously my most favourite month in the whole entire year.  I start this month with so much joy and excitement in my heart and the thing is, I am not even that big on my birthday. I actually get a little blue when my birthday rolls in.  It's on the 18th if you were wondering.  But February arrives and lifts my spirits.  Hello February!  Hello Darlingggggest of months!  Be Good.  Be Kind.  Be Wonderful!!!!  I hope this month is great for you and me.  :)  I think it's so hardwired in me to be excited this month, it's a decades worth of habitual joy and I literally started this month dancing as the clock struck 12!  Life has been good so far this month.  There were some minor inconveniences. But then...that's just life!  I've been doing little things that make me happy a