The Whimsy Bookworm: A Book Blog from India

  Book: Ma is Scared and Other Stories  Author: Anjali Kajal  Translator: Kavita Bhanot  Publisher: Penguin India  Pages: 208  How Long it Took me to Read: 2 days  Plot Summary:   An anxious mother waits for her daughter to return from work, while deflecting comments from judgmental neighbours. A chance encounter with an old college friend triggers the memory of a cruel trap once set for a young student, just because of her caste. In the middle of a lecture on the legacies of sexual abuse, a woman feels the weight of a whole lifetime suddenly pressing down on her. The stories in Anjali Kajal’s debut collection draw us into the lives of ordinary women in Northern India, making us realise quite how rarely we witness these experiences from Dalit points of view. Whether combating the caste-based disdain of colleagues at work or in the classroom or enduring the new blows that the pandemic landed on Dalit communities, Anjali’s characters find a re...

  Happy Women's Day ♀🌹👩♀🌹👩♀🌹👩  All women, everywhere deserve a life with respect and dignity and safety.  Here's what my day looked like today:  Sti reading this book that I'm enjoying quite a bit.  A spot of rest and relaxation.  Some planner catching up.  Praying to Shivji.  Some cute things.  New pouches for my pens and things.  A simple and good day 💛✨🙏🌿📖🌻💛

  Book: The Gallery  Author: Manju Kapur  Pages: 336  Publisher: Penguin India  How Long it Took Me To Read: 4 days  Plot Summary:   THE GALLERY  pursues the question of what it takes for a woman to stand up for herself, through the intertwined lives of Minal and Ellora Sahni, wife and daughter of a successful New Delhi lawyer, and Maitrye and Tashi, wife and daughter of the office peon at the Sahni law practice. In her new novel, Manju Kapur brings together themes of independence, identity and womanhood by focusing on a set of principal characters who are connected through work and physical proximity, yet separated by class and power. As the women navigate their own desires, they are forced to re-examine marriage, as well as to consider the role of art as property, value and self-expression. The titular gallery that Minal opens becomes a powerful symbol of both autonomy and constraint. Set in Delhi and Nepal,  The Gallery  surveys t...

  Book: Welcome to Paradise  Author: Twinkle Khanna  Publisher: Juggernaut  Pages: 224  How Long it Took Me To Read: 2 days  Plot Summary:   Huma’s divided family – Team Cemetery and Team Crematorium– clash hilariously over matters involving pigs and penises as they decide what to do with Amma’s body. Madhura Desai writes an email to the chief justice of India, urging him to choose a ‘nice cut-off age’ to die, sending shockwaves across the nation. Along the shores of Satpati, Nusrat grapples with the loss of her son, and her voice. And Amita tells her husband about her breast implants but not about Bua, Bangalore and beautiful men. Perfectly observed, shot through with light and shadow and wry humour,  Welcome to Paradise  confirms Khanna’s reputation as one of our most masterful storytellers. Review: I have read both of Twinkle Khanna's previous books and enjoyed both of them. I oddly don't remember much about them and maybe at some po...

  Book: Normal Family  Author: Chrysta Bilton  Publisher: Little Brown & Co.  Pages:  336   Read On: iPad  How Long it Took Me To Read: 3 days  Plot Summary:   For most of her life, Chrysta Bilton was one member of a small, if dysfunctional, family of four. There was her sister, Kaitlyn, her hedonistic, glamorous, gay mum Debra, and Jeffrey, who Debra hand-picked, in an LA hairdressers, to be the father of her children. During Chrysta's unstable childhood, Debra struggled to keep the family afloat and Jeffrey wandered in and out of their lives. Then, in her twenties, Chrysta discovered that her father had secretly donated his sperm over 500 times - and that she had at least 35 other siblings. A Normal Family  is a captivating coming-of-age memoir about Chrysta's reckoning with the secrets both parents had carefully kept from her. Heartfelt, warm and funny, it's a story of embracing the family we have, in all the forms we fi...

  Book: Wahala  Author: Nikki May   Pages: 384  Read On: Kindle  How Long it Took Me To Read: 2 Days  Plot Summary:   Ronke wants happily ever after and 2.2. kids. She’s dating Kayode and wants him to be “the one” (perfect, like her dead father). Her friends think he’s just another in a long line of dodgy Nigerian boyfriends. Boo has everything Ronke wants—a kind husband, gorgeous child. But she’s frustrated, unfulfilled, plagued by guilt, and desperate to remember who she used to be. Simi is the golden one with the perfect lifestyle. No one knows she’s crippled by impostor syndrome and tempted to pack it all in each time her boss mentions her “urban vibe.” Her husband thinks they’re trying for a baby. She’s not. When the high-flying, charismatic Isobel explodes into the group, it seems at first she’s bringing out the best in each woman. (She gets Simi an interview in Hong Kong! Goes jogging with Boo!) But the more Isobel intervenes, the more...

  Book: The School for Good Mothers Author: Jessamine Chan  Pages: 336 Publisher: Simon and Schuster Read On: Kindle  How Long it Took Me To Read: 3 days  Plot Summary:   Frida Liu is struggling. She doesn’t have a career worthy of her Chinese immigrant parents’ sacrifices. What’s worse is she can’t persuade her husband, Gust, to give up his wellness-obsessed younger mistress. Only with their angelic daughter Harriet does Frida finally feel she’s attained the perfection expected of her. Harriet may be all she has, but she’s just enough. Until Frida has a horrible day. The state has its eyes on mothers like Frida — ones who check their phones while their kids are on the playground; who let their children walk home alone; in other words, mothers who only have one lapse of judgement. Now, a host of government officials will determine if Frida is a candidate for a Big Brother-like institution that measures the success or failure of a mother’s devotion. Faced w...

  Hello Loves!  August is Women in Translation month and a time to read and talk about the incredible stories that exist in languages other than English.  There is such a treasure trove of stories and characters written in various languages (regional languages in India and many international languages) and I am so so so grateful for the work translators do to make these stories accessible to all of us.  I've been meaning to compile this list all month long, but it's taken me forever to sit down and get this written.  I will split this post in two parts,  Part I is All Indian Books.  Part II is Books from All Around the World.  So let's get Started.  First here are some Indian Women Writers you need to/ have to/ got to Read.  INDIAN WOMEN IN TRANSLATION: BOOKS TO READ 1. Matchbox Stories by Ashapurna Devi (translated from Bengali) 2. The Kept Woman and Other Stories by Kamala Das (translated from Malayalam)  3. Lifting the Veil by I...