The Whimsy Bookworm: A Book Blog from India

  Book: Rohzin  Author: Rahman Abbas   Translator: Sabika Abbas Naqvi  Publisher: Penguin India  Pages: 256 How Long it Took Me To Read: 5 days  Plot Summary:   Mumbai was almost submerged on the fatal noon of 26 July 2005, when the merciless downpour and cloudburst had spread utter darkness and horror in the heart of the city. River Mithi was inundated, and the sea was furious. At this hour of torturous gloom, Rohzin begins declaring in the first line that it was the last day in the life of two lovers, Asrar and Hina. The novel's protagonist, Asrar, comes to Mumbai, and through his eyes the author describes the hitherto-unknown aspects of Mumbai, unseen colours and unseen secrets of the city's underbelly. The love story of Asar and Hina begins abruptly and ends tragically. It is love at first sight which takes place in the premises of Haji Ali Dargah. The arc of the novel studies various aspects of human emotions, especially love, longing and se...

  Book: Tiny Sunbirds Far Away  Author: Christie Watson  Pages: 436  How Long it Took Me To Read: 2 days (I could not put it down)  Publisher: Quercus  Plot Summary:   Set in the Niger Delta,  Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away  is the witty and beautifully written story of one family’s attempt to survive a new life they could never have imagined, struggling to find a deeper sense of identity along the way. When their mother catches their father with another woman, twelve year-old Blessing and her fourteen-year-old brother, Ezikiel, are forced to leave their comfortable home in Lagos for a village in the Niger Delta, to live with their mother's family. Without running water or electricity, Warri is at first a nightmare for Blessing. Her mother is gone all day and works suspiciously late into the night to pay the children's school fees. Her brother, once a promising student, seems to be falling increasingly under the influence of the local group of ...

  Book: Name Place Animal Thing  Author: Daribha Lyndem  Publisher: Zubaan Books  Pages: 208  How Long it Took Me To Read: 2 days  Read On: Kindle  Plot Summary:   In this novella, Daribha Lyndem gently lifts the curtain on the coming of age of a young Khasi woman and the politically charged city of Shillong in which she lives. Like the beloved school game from which it takes its name, the book meanders through ages, lives and places. The interconnected stories build on each other to cover the breadth of a childhood, and move into the precarious awareness of adulthood. A shining debut,  Name Place Animal Thing  is an elegant examination of the porous boundaries between the adult world and that of a child’s. Review: This book had been on my radar since it first came out. For the longest time I was holding out for the hardback edition (very bookish issues) and then I decided to be good and just read it already. And I am so so so gla...

 Hello Loves!  Today I want to share my first book haul of 2021.  And it's a haul of some of my favourite books ever!  Re-purchases of my two favourite books.  Jhumpa Lahiri is one of my favourite writers in the whole wide world. Her books bring me joy and when I first read her books they changed my life. I read her books when I was a teenager and they took my breathe away. Her stories, her worlds and her people were deeply familiar and the kinds that I liked and love returning to.  I will always read anything she writes and then read it over again for good measure.  I have always hated the edition of Interpretor of Maladies that I have. LOVE the book, hate the edition. And I've always wanted to get a beautiful edition.  So this year I did just that.  Got two of my favourite books in beautiful editions.  I cannot wait to re-read these beauties.  The Namesake I have in a gorgeous American floppy edition, you know the ones that open u...

  Book: The White Tiger  Author: Aravind Adiga  Publisher: Harper Collins  Pages: 276  Read On: Paperback Edition  How Long it Took Me To Read: 2 days  Plot Summary:   Balram Halwai is a complicated man. Servant. Philosopher. Entrepreneur. Murderer. Over the course of seven nights, by the scattered light of a preposterous chandelier, Balram tells us the terrible and transfixing story of how he came to be a success in life—having nothing but his own wits to help him along.   Born in the dark heart of India, Balram gets a break when he is hired as a driver for his village's wealthiest man, two house Pomeranians (Puddles and Cuddles), and the rich man's (very unlucky) son. From behind the wheel of their Honda City car, Balram's new world is a revelation. While his peers flip through the pages of Murder Weekly ("Love -- Rape -- Revenge!"), barter for girls, drink liquor (Thunderbolt), and perpetuate the Great Rooster Coop of Indian society, ...

Hello!  Time for another book haul.  I got four books in the beginning of the month. I can't wait to read these books come next month, since I am only reading Bengali books in April.  Let's see the newest books I've added to my bookshelves.  I knew I was going to have to get this book because we read the first book when it came out last year.  A Very Pukka Murder was a great read and I was so happy to see the sequel come out.  Doesn't this man look a lot like Amitabh Bachchan?  Or Sonu Sood?  The resemblance is uncanny.  :) I've heard good things about this book and I can't wait to read it. To be honest, I am not the biggest Mohsin Hamid fan. I didn't LOVE the two books I've read by him in the past- The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Moth Smoke were good books but I just didn't like them as much as so many other people did. So when Exit West came out last year and garnered all of these rave ...

Hello!  I am here to share some books I recently hauled from Book Chor.   I got 4 books all new this time around. I got some books I've wanted for a while and had been on my wish-list for a while now.  I also got two super cute books with my package.  :)  I am so excited for all of these books and some of them are bound to be in my February TBR.  Let's see the books I've added to my bookshelves.  BOOKS BOUGHT///  The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes  History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund  Behold The Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue  Juniper Lemon's Happiness Index by Julie Israel  A Harry Potter and a Friends bookmark. Perfect!

Book: Before We Were Yours Author: Lisa Wingate  Pages: 400 Read on: Kindle Read in: 5 hours (across 2 days) Plot Summary:  Memphis, Tennessee, 1939 Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a charmed but humble life aboard their family's Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge, until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children's Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents. But they quickly realize the dark truth... Aiken, South Carolina, present day Born into wealth and privilege, Avery Stafford seems to have it all: a successful career, a handsome fiancé, and a lavish wedding on the horizon. But when Avery returns home to help her father weather a health crisis, a chance encounter leaves her with uncomfortable questions a...

Hello!  I hope the first weekend of the year is treating you well.  I want to share a little glimpse into my Reading Plans for this Weekend!  And What My Sister is Reading Too!  Let's see how I intend on spending this weekend!  WEEKEND READING   A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini/// My first official read of the year and one that I am so happy to get back to. Honestly, I remember next to nothing about this book and I am happy to be reminded of the story and the it's people.  I remember LOVING it when I first read it in 2009..2008..I am not entirely sure.  Like I said over on Instagram, I don't own a copy of this book and had read it back in the day after borrowing it from my library in Bangalore.  This copy belongs to my sister's office. I was there on Thursday and saw it sitting on the bookshelf and decided to give it a read.  So happy reading it.  Ten Dollar Bride by Sanya Runway...

Hello!!!  It is so cold in Bombay today!  Of course, I mean this by Bombay standards.  Ah!  So grateful for this winter spell.  :)  On to other happier things.  I started my year with a mini-bookhaul.  Like literally, I bought my first book of the year at 2:00 AM on January 1st!  And added another book to my Kindle the next evening and I just quickly wanted to share those books on the blog tonight.  So let's see the two newest additions to my e-library.  Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama.  Plot Summary:   SIX FOUR. THE NIGHTMARE NO PARENT COULD ENDURE. THE CASE NO DETECTIVE COULD SOLVE. THE TWIST NO READER COULD PREDICT. For five days in January 1989, the parents of a seven-year-old Tokyo schoolgirl sat and listened to the demands of their daughter's kidnapper. They would never learn his identity. They would never see their daughter again. For the fourteen years that followed,...

Book: Home Fire Author: Kamila Shamsie Pages: 272 Publisher: Bloomsbury Read On: Hardback How Long it Took Me To Read: 2 days Plot Summary: I sma is free. After years spent raising her twin siblings in the wake of their mother's death, she is finally studying in America, resuming a dream long deferred. But she can't stop worrying about Aneeka, her beautiful, headstrong sister back in London – or their brother, Parvaiz, who's disappeared in pursuit of his own dream: to prove himself to the dark legacy of the jihadist father he never knew. Then Eamonn enters the sisters' lives. Handsome and privileged, he inhabits a London worlds away from theirs. As the son of a powerful British Muslim politician, Eamonn has his own birthright to live up to – or defy. Is he to be a chance at love? The means of Parvaiz's salvation? Two families' fates are inextricably, devastatingly entwined in this searing novel that asks: what sacrifices will we make in t...

Hello!  Kicking off my Gift Guide series for this year.  I don't know about you, but giving and receiving gifts for Christmas is one of my favourite things to do!  :)  I love thinking about what gifts work for certain people, I especially love buying books for people.  I am hoping this post helps those of you who are trying to buy a gift for a fellow bookworm.  Now sometimes you know the person, for whom you are buying for, but at times you may be buying for someone who might know not too well, perhaps a co-worker? So I have a book or two or them as well.  Here are some Books you could buy for the Bookworms in your life this Christmas.  1. Prize/ Award Winning Books + Shortlist Books: This is a good way to ensure that you are giving a book that comes with rave reviews and is loved by a lot of people.  The Man Booker Prize Shortlist is a great way to find the books you might want to gift.  2. Harr...