The Whimsy Bookworm: A Book Blog from India

Book: The Liar's Weave Author: Tashan Mehta Pages: 330 pages Read: The hardcopy pictured above; kindly sent by Juggernaut Read in: 5-6 hours Publisher: Juggernaut Plot Summary:  Born into an alternative history of our world where birth charts are real and one's life is mapped out in the stars, Zahan Merchant has a unique problem: he is born without a future. This cosmic mistake gives him an unusual power: the ability to change reality with his lies. But there is a catch, of course. How like the Gods to build a catch. Zahan's older brother Sorab becomes the only one to share his secret, and help him keep it, while from afar, the Greatest Astrologer That Ever Lived (the Second), Narayan Tarachand, continues to quietly ponder the mystery of the child whose birth chart he couldn't decipher. But when Zahan's adventures with his best friend Porthos – who has his own secret – brings them to the attention of the hatadaiva, the ill-fated who must bear the br...

Book: The Book of Life (The Secret of the Tirthas #2) Author: Steve Griffin Pages: 276 pages Read on: Kindle Read in: 2-3 hours Plot Summary: Exploring another of the overgrown ‘rooms’ in her inherited garden, Lizzie finds herself transported once again through a magical portal, this time to the Louisianan swampland. There she is pursued by terrifying plat eyes, half-crazy men and boys who drive her to an isolated villa, Cypress House, where a sickly girl is trapped with her housekeeper. But Cypress House has its own mysteries Lizzie must solve if she is to find her way home. Who is Caroline Day, the ‘ghost girl’, and what is her connection to Lizzie’s past? Why does the threatened hurricane never arrive? Who is the mysterious odd-job man, Mr Paterson, who keeps turning up unannounced? And most importantly, how will she find the portal when it’s lost in the treacherous swamp? As Cypress House reveals its secrets Lizzie realises she’s in more danger than she e...

Book: Outlander Author: Diana Gabaldon Pages: 627 I Read: The Kindle version I Read it in: 10-odd hours over 2 days Plot Summary:  The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon--when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach--an "outlander"--in a Scotland torn by war and raiding Highland clans in the year of Our Lord...1743. Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into intrigues and dangers that may threaten her life...and shatter her heart. For here she meets James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, and becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire...and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives. What I Liked: This is one of those books which I happened to pick up because I watched a few episodes of its TV show. The TV is quite nice...

Book: Neverwhere Author: Neil Gaiman Pages: 370 I Read: The paperback pictured above I Read it in: 6 hours (across 2 days) Plot Summary:  Under the streets of London there's a place most people could never even dream of. A city of monsters and saints, murderers and angels, knights in armour and pale girls in black velvet. This is the city of the people who have fallen between the cracks. Richard Mayhew, a young businessman, is going to find out more than enough about this other London. A single act of kindness catapults him out of his workday existence and into a world that is at once eerily familiar and utterly bizarre. And a strange destiny awaits him down here, beneath his native city: Neverwhere. What I Liked: Neverwhere  is a fantastical, magical, adventurous romp through the fantastical realm of 'London Below'. It is a massively fun read and a rollicking adventure. There are very few authors as skilled as Neil Gaiman when it comes to constructing an ...