The Whimsy Bookworm: A Book Blog from India

  Book: The Blind Matriarch  Author: Namita Gokhale  Publisher: Penguin India  Pages: 208  Read On: Hardback Edition  How Long it Took Me To Read: 3 days (with many breaks)  Review: In the time between me buying this book and finally getting around to reading it, I had sort of forgotten what this book was exactly about (major bookish problems!). So I went into this pretty blind (pun not intended at all). And it took me by surprise. I found myself back in time. A time we have all lived through and survived and dealt with in our own ways. The Pandemic.  2020.  Honestly, even reading that gets my heart going.  It's some kind of PTSD to even think about the days of stress, checking yourself for symptoms and washing everything in sight and disinfecting within an inch of your life.  God, I don't think we give ourselves enough credit for making it through those days.  Of course, those of us who were lucky to make it through and...

  Book: You Can't Hide Author: Emily Shiner  Pages: 255 Read on: Kindle  Read in: 2.5 hours  Plot Summary:  Beth thought she’d escaped her past. She was wrong. Beth and Ian are desperate to have a child. So much so that they decide to sell his family cabin in upstate New York to pay for IVF. When they arrive at the cabin, they meet Ryan, the caretaker. But Ryan is not who he says he is… He’s here because he knows Beth has a dark secret. And now he intends to use it against her. He threatens to tell Ian everything about Beth's past unless she does exactly what he says. Beth finds herself caught in a nightmarish trap. If Ian discovers what she’s been hiding from him, she’s sure he’ll leave her. She’ll lose everything she cares about, including the chance to have a child of her own. On the other hand, what Ryan wants her to do is so dark and twisted it’s beyond horrifying. Either way, Beth is sure her life is over, she can see no way out. Unless… Unless she digs de...

  Book: The Girl in the Glass Case Author: Devashish Sardana  Pages: 344 Read: The paperback pictured above  Read in: ~3.5 hours  Plot Summary:  Simone Singh is a feisty IPS officer who would rather spend her days locking up criminals than apologizing for her lack of social skills. Freshly back from an unjust suspension, Simone is forced to team up with DSP Zoya Bharucha, an empathetic officer who's as loved in the police force as Simone is shunned.   Tasked with hunting the  Doll Maker -who dresses up her victims as pretty Barbie dolls and displays them in glass cases-both must set aside their differences and work together as one team. But Simone and Zoya know that time is running out to piece together the clues as the Doll Maker has made it clear that she has just begun.  Things I Liked:  1. This book had an interesting premise- two active serial killers in a small town (Bhopal), who have left the local cops overwhelmed. What is not to like...

 Hello Loves!  Long time no post!  Life has been a little busy and truth be told this heat is getting to me.  How are we already blistering and uncomfortable in March!?  I shudder to think what May will do to us!  Spring isn't supposed to be this lethal.  Talking of Spring, let's get into the little notebook haul which is just perfect for Spring.  The Ink Bucket recently launched some gorgeous notebooks and notepads and I had to get myself some of the beauties because there is no such thing as too many notebooks.  You always need a notebook or two close at hand and ready to use.  So let's just jump into the haul.  I got three notebooks in total.  One hardback.  And two that came in a set.  And one notepad.  Floral goodness.  I am so in love with these notebooks.  This one might just be my favourite.  I mean look how utterly gorgeous!?  Ah!  Pretty as can be.  A closer look.  Th...

  Book: Now You See Us Author: Balli Kaur Jaswal  Pages: 320  Read on: Kindle Read in: 4 hours  Plot Summary:  Corazon, Donita, and Angel are Filipina domestic workers—part of the wave of women sent to Singapore to be cleaners, maids, and caregivers. Corazon:  A veteran domestic worker, Cora had retired back to the Philippines for good, but she has returned to Singapore under mysterious circumstances. Now she’s keeping a secret from her wealthy employer, who is planning an extravagant wedding for her socialite daughter. Donita:  Barely out of her teens, this is Donita’s first time in Singapore, and she’s had the bad luck to be hired by the notoriously fussy Mrs. Fann. Brazen and exuberant, Donita’s thrown herself into a love affair with an Indian migrant worker. Angel:  Working as an in-home caregiver for an elderly employer, Angel is feeling blue after a recent breakup with the woman she loves. She’s alarmed when her employer’s son suddenly ...

  Book: Villainy  Author: Upamanyu Chatterjee  Pages: 336 Read: The hardcover edition pictured above  Read in: ~4 hours  Plot Summary:  Walkers in a Delhi neighbourhood park come upon a body on a mid-winter morning—an unidentified body, unremarkable but for an extraordinary scar right between the eyes.   A delinquent teenager—who prefers, to the rest of living, an Ecstasy pill with a beer, and the interior of an expensive car with a gun in his pocket—leaves home one evening for a joyride in his father’s Mercedes.  In the nineteen years separating these episodes, five killings take place—and one near-fatal battery—none of which would have happened if a school bus hadn’t been in the wrong lane. Deals are struck between masters and servants, money changes hands, assurances are given and broken. The wheels of justice turn, forward, backwards and sideways, pause and turn again. Old alliances are tested and new ones are formed in prison cells, mortuarie...

  Book: The Daughters of Madurai  Author: Rajasree Variyar  Pages: 336 Publisher: Union Square & Co.  How Long it Took Me To Read: 2 days  Read On: Kindle  Plot Summary:   Madurai, 1992.  A young mother in a poor family, Janani is told she is useless if she can’t produce a son—or worse, if she bears daughters. They let her keep her first baby girl, but the rest are taken away as soon as they are born, and murdered. But Janani can’t forget the daughters she was never allowed to love . . . Sydney, 2019.  Nila has a secret; one she’s been keeping from her parents for too long. Before she can say anything, her grandfather in India falls ill, so she agrees to join her parents on a trip to Madurai. Nila knows little about where her family came from or who they left behind. What she’s about to learn will change her forever. While  The Daughters of Madurai  explores the harrowing issue of female infanticide, it’s also a universal ...

  Book: The Writing Retreat  Author: Julia Bartz  Pages: 320  Read on: Kindle  Read in: 3 hours  Plot Summary:  Alex has all but given up on her dreams of becoming a published author when she receives a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: attend an exclusive, month-long writing retreat at the estate of feminist horror writer Roza Vallo. Even the knowledge that Wren, her former best friend and current rival, is attending doesn’t dampen her excitement. But when the attendees arrive, Roza drops a bombshell—they must all complete an entire novel from scratch during the next month, and the author of the best one will receive a life-changing seven-figure publishing deal. Determined to win this seemingly impossible contest, Alex buckles down and tries to ignore the strange happenings at the estate, including Roza’s erratic behavior, Wren’s cruel mind games, and the alleged haunting of the mansion itself. But when one of the writers vanishes during a snowstorm, Al...

 Hello, hello, Sharing a quick look at this adorable square journal that my sister gave me for my birthday! It is from Doodle O Drama and I absolutely love it!  Let's take a look at this cuteness!  The 'Life's Good' journal comes with its own little dust bag and I love the illustration on in and the message of 'carry your own sunshine'.  This is what the journal looks like. It is square and medium sized and is a pretty open-ended journal that has a few prompts but otherwise has space for you to use it as you like it. So, make it into a gratitude journal or use it for making lists or sticking things. Totally up to you!  Look at the cute illustrations on it! Aaaahhh! So cute!!!  Like I said, it has some prompts or some pages marked out for goals etc. but a lot of pages are left blank for you to use. The paper feels really good quality and I believe it will take gel, ball and ink pens quite well.  There is also a matching bookma...

 Hello March!  Hello Spring!  Hello the Season of Iced-Drinks and cold showers and warm days.  And Hello Women's History Month and reading only Women Writers all month long.  I am doing #FemmeMarch again and I am looking forward to all the amazing stories and voices I'll read this month.  Hello March!  Be Good!  Be Gentle!  Be Kind!  Be Fun!  I am happy you are here March!  :)  Here is what I am reading to kickstart my reading for Femme March.  The Daughters of Madurai by Rajashree Variyar is a story told partly in 1993 and 2019. About a young mother battling against  gender based discrimination and the fear of female infanticide. It's the perfect book to read during this month. A book about a reality so many women face in India even today. The pressure of producing a male child, a boy to carry forth the family name and being glory to the family. A world where even in 2023, having a girl child is seen as a misfo...