The Whimsy Bookworm: A Book Blog from India

 Hello, hello, Welcome to the very first Friday of 2024!  I hope you are as excited as I am that the work week is done and a weekend (and all its myriad possibilities) spreads out ahead of us!  Sharing some of the recent things that we've been loving!  The beginning of any New Year means setting up our planners and journals. This here is my sister's Hobonichi Techo. She is back in the Hobonichi after 3 years and this cover is from The Black Canvas . The crochet pencil case is from an Instagram shop whose name I can't remember.  Are you a fan of stickers? We are. They just brighten up things like laptops and Kindle and iPad cases and can be easily removed and replaced with other stickers. This one is from the Strawbabie store . The Kindle cover is from Amazon . My sister has the slightly larger 11th Generation Paperwhite and it is so difficult to find a good cover for it.  I spent some time organising my journal/ planner supplies in my The Ink Bucket planner...

  Book: Devotion of Suspect X Author: Keigo Higashono  Pages: 448 Read on: Kindle and Paperback  Read in: ~4 hours  Plot Summary:  Yasuko Hanaoka accidentally kills her ex-husband, when circumstances rose to an unendurable level of ghastly behaviour from him. What follows is an elongated and witty brain-game between the investigator and her accomplice, Ishigami, who aided Yasuko in covering up the murder.  The Devotion Of Suspect X is the story about an ingenious plotter, and clever Dr Manabu Yukawa, who helps in solving the case. Yasuko Hanaoka works in a restaurant. She is divorced, and is a single mother to Misato. Her ex-husband, Togashi, was an abusive man, stalking and extorting money from her. With similar intentions, he showed up at Yasuko’s home, this time threatening to kill her and her daughter if she refused to lend him money. What started from denial, reached to a heated argument, and within a short span of time, turned to a nasty fight. In the...

  Hello, hello, I hope your Monday has been good.  If you are looking for something to watch tonight or maybe something nice this week, I have Five Things to Watch.  So let's just jump in.  Friday Night Plan: This teen, coming-of-age and shenanigans-filled film on Netflix was such good fun. It was sweet, funny and has its heart in the right place. I liked how school life and different cliques are shown in a believable way. The popular kids aren't some monsters and relentlessly evil. It shows friendships in schools in a way that seemed so real. I had such a fun time watching this and if you need something short and fun and nostalgic watch this.  It's streaming on Netflix.  The After Party: This is a suspense-whodunnit-comedy. The second season recently wrapped up and if you are looking for something to binge, I highly recommend both seasons of this quirky show and the mystery is also decent. Both seasons are solid and fun and you can watch this over the we...

Hello, hello, We've been having a very rainy week in Mumbai and so, have been watching a mix of old and new and underrated horror movies! Sharing some that we enjoyed for fellow horror aficionados.    In no particular order, here are the horror movies we enjoyed!  1. The Pope's Exorcist: Inspired the real life adventures and misadventures of the actual exorcist hired by the Pope in the 1980s to help individuals suffering from demonic possession, this is a pretty gnarly movie. When an American widow moves to a tiny town in Spain to restore and sell an ancient abbey that belonged to her husband's family, she finds a demonic entity possessing her young son. The Pope's Exorcist is called in to help the little boy.  Streaming on Prime Video.  2. Slumber: When a family that has consistent, horrifying nightmares approaches a sleep clinic for help, little do the doctors know that they have bitten off more than they can chew and what seems like some kind of sleep disorde...

  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! ...

  Book: A Plate of White Marble  Author: Bani Basu  Translator: Nandini Guha  Pages: 328  Publisher: Niyogi Books  Plot Summary:  First published in 1990 in the original Bengali, a plate of white marble tells the tale of the ‘new woman’ of the post-Independence an era that just witnessed the independence of a nation bandana, the protagonist, though grieves over her husband early death, never conforms to the social connotation and ideals of ‘widowhood’, thanks to her uncle. She dares to begin her life afresh in every possible sense. But naturally, the road proves to be full of thorns as she gradually faces bitterness from many quarters of the society. The only thing she clings to is her son, but once that anchor too is lost, she leaves behind the safe concrete walls of what she used to consider ‘home’, only to work for a far greater cause—she joins a children’s home to work for those who need her the most. This first translation brings this significant ...

Hello!  And Happy Friday the 13th to you!  In honour of this gloriously spooky date I thought I'd list some of the best scary films I've seen this year.  It's a mix of English, Hindi and even one Bengali film.  Let's jump into it shall we.. 1. The Possession of Hannah Grace: I watched this film quite by chance, I thought it would be one of those cheesy scary films but it turned out to be rather unsettling and well-made.  Find it on Amazon Prime.  2. Midsommar: This one was so hyped and all summer long I couldn't stop hearing about it. Eventually, it was unsettling and creepy enough, plus full of gore. But honestly, it didn't quite live up to the hype. But it's still worth a watch.  3. Scary Stories Told in the Dark: Based on an epically famous book, this adaptation was a fun watch. Scary in parts yet not too hardcore, perfect for people who aren't very into horror films but still enjoy the genre.  4. Annabe...

Netflix has really outdone itself this year with the variety of content that it has created and offered to all of us! We have really enjoyed multiple series and movies on the platform this year and here are our Top 10 Netflix movies/ series/ documentaries (in no particular order): 1. Anne with an 'e': Hands down, the most heartwarming, uplifting, sweet, heartbreaking adaptation of the Anne of Green Gables that I have ever seen! Love the show and highly, highly recommend it for cozy winter night viewing! 2. Wild Wild Country: Who knew our Poona-wala Osho got up to such shenanigans in the US?! We didn't! Why was this not talked about in India?! WTF! This is a BRILLIANT documentary on what a cult did in its attempt to wrest power from citizens of a small town in rural Oregon. Plus, Ma Sheela Anand is one living, breathing sociopath! Here is our review of it right after watching it back in April! 3. The Haunting of Hill House: One of the best horror series I have...

Book: Crazy Rich Asians Author: Kevin Kwan  Pages: 546 Read on: Kindle    Read in: 5-6 hours  Plot Summary:  When Rachel Chu agrees to spend the summer in Singapore with her boyfriend, Nicholas Young, she envisions a humble family home and quality time with the man she hopes to marry.  But Nick has failed to give his girlfriend a few key details. One, that his childhood home looks like a palace; two, that he grew up riding in more private planes than cars; and three, that he just happens to be the country's most eligible bachelor.   On Nick's arm, Rachel may as well have a target on her back the second she steps off the plane, and soon, her relaxed vacation turns into an obstacle course of old money, new money, nosy relatives, and scheming social climbers. Review: The Crazy Rich Asians movie released in the US last weekend. Even before its release, the movie generated a lot of buzz for being the first all...