The Whimsy Bookworm: A Book Blog from India

 Hello, hello, Since it is raining summer thrillers instead of actual rain (at least where I am), I thought I'd come over and review a few thrillers that I read and enjoyed recently. Let's get into it.  Book: Don't Let Him In  Author: Lisa Jewell  Pages: 368 Read on: Kindle  Read in: ~3 hours  Plot Summary:  He’s the perfect man. It’s a perfect lie. Nina Swann is intrigued when she received a condolence card from Nick Radcliffe, an old friend of her late husband, who is looking to connect after her husband’s unexpected death. Nick is a man of substance and good taste. He has a smile that could melt the coldest heart and a knack for putting others at ease. But to Nina’s adult daughter, Ash, Nick seems too slick, too polished, too good to be true. Without telling her mother, Ash begins digging into Nick’s past. What she finds is more than unsettling… Martha is a florist living in a neighboring town with her infant daughter and her devoted husband, Alista...

 Hello all, If you've been wondering what planner to get for 2025, perhaps my review of the planners I have used this year might give you some ideas?  This year, my planning system was so streamlined and so good that I had to get on YouTube and share my thoughts on my system!  Do go watch, if you need some planner recommendations and inspiration!  Click on the video below to watch! And, maybe, Subscribe? :) 

 Hello Loves 🪻🩷🪻 These July days have been a blur of books (mostly good), tea and rains and binging the X Men movies, which I forgot how much I love. I've also been watching some seriously weird (not good) Hindi films from the early aughts.. they might not be the best films but being back in that era makes me feel nostalgic and warm and fuzzy.  Anyhoo..  Here is what my days have looked like:  More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop was read slowly over the week. I re-read the first book before jumping into the sequel. I love this cozy little world and it's gentle and bookish people. I love books about books and this one about a second hand bookshop just makes me happy.  I will say that I preferred and enjoyed the first book a little bit more than the second one. But both these books are an enjoyable ride.  Poirot is perfect for rainy days.  Flowers and Kafka.  Read Earth by John Boyne in pretty much one sitting and really enjoyed it. This is the se...

  Book: The Return of Ellie Black  Author: Emiko Jean  Pages: ~320 Read on: Kindle  Read in: ~4 hours  Plot Summary:  It’s been twenty years since Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s sister vanished when they were teenagers, and ever since she’s been searching: for signs, for closure, for other missing girls. But happy endings are rare in Chelsey’s line of work. Then a glimmer: local teenager Ellie Black, who disappeared without a trace two years earlier, has been found alive in the woods of Washington State. But something is not right with Ellie. She won’t say where she’s been, or who she’s protecting, and it’s up to Chelsey to find the answers. She needs to get to the bottom of what happened to Ellie: for herself, and for the memory of her sister, but mostly for the next girl who could be taken—and who, unlike Ellie, might never return. The debut thriller from  New York Times  bestselling author Emiko Jean,  The Return of Ellie Black  is both ...

  Hello, hello, We just finished watching Laapataa Ladies on Netflix and we loved it so, so much that we simply had to get on here and recommend it to all of you!  So, without further ado, let's get into our top 5 reasons for watching this absolutely smashing movie: 1. The writing! OMG, the writing! It is funny, insightful, wise and so pitch perfect! I haven't watched an Indian movie in the past 5-6 years where the writing made me actually clap more than once! So, so good!  2. The story. A simple story of two brides getting lost because of being inside navel-length ghunghats. Phool, married to Deepak, sleeps on the train and, Deepak mistakenly takes Pushpa/ Jaya to get off with him at his station because both women are dressed in similar bridal sarees with a huge ghunghat. Chaos ensues! The story is about how both the women find their way back home and to themselves.  3. The found family in this movie so absolutely adorable! The people that Phool (Deepak's wife) find...

  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...

  Book: Won't You Stay, Radhika?  Author: Usha Priyamvada  Translation: Daisy Rockwell  Publisher: Speaking Tiger  Pages: 184  How Long it Took Me To Read: 3 days  Plot Summary:   After her widowed father marries a younger woman, Radhika’s world falls apart. She feels betrayed—the emotional and intellectual bond that she had forged with him since the early death of her mother breaks with that sudden marriage. To escape the unbearable situation at home—the growing rift between her and her father—Radhika moves to Chicago to pursue her master’s in fine arts. She returns to India two years later, burdened by a sense of alienation and homesickness, only to realize that while nothing had changed in her country, everything had. The family that she had longed to be reunited with barely acknowledges her arrival. The sense of belonging is missing, leaving her in ‘an emotional state of in-between-ness, of universal unbelonging’. As days pass, Radhika i...

  February draws to a close.  And it's time to talk about all the books I read this month.  February being my Birthday Month I try to read some of my favourite books and authors. I do this little thing called Reading Favourites in February and I tried to read some old favourites and even re-read some beloved books of mine.  I had a good reading month.  I read 15 books.  A mix of old loves and new.  I read two memoirs.  Read a spot of kid lit.  Literary fiction.  Some Indian Lit.  A good solid reading month.  I also bought some books.  Read a ton on my iPad.  Got some ebooks.  Read a classic too.  I am so happy with how my bookish life shaped up this month.  FEBRUARY BOOKS:   1. Mukesh Starts a Zoo by Ruskin Bond: Started my month with a Chapter Book about something sweet and fun and funny. A young boy and his friends start a rag tag zoo and all sorts of hijinks ensue. This was sweet and a good tim...

  Hello Loves!  January is over and while so many people were complaining how long it was, I like January and the air of freshness and hope it brings with it.  I try to read happy and good books in January, fully believing that what I read in January will shape the rest of my reading year.  Well, January was largely a good reading month.  I read 18 books.  Out of which 6 were read for Japanuary. I have talked about all of those book in yesterday's post, so you can go on over that post and read my detailed thoughts about those books. I read a fair number of kidlit, which I love.  And some contemporary fiction.  I read mostly physical books and a some books on my iPad.  I read three graphic novels.  Lots of translations.  I bought ten books this month.  A solid reading month.  Let's talk more about each book I read this month.  BOOKS OF JANUARY 2024:  1. Animals in the House by Ruskin Bond: My first book of the y...

Hello Loves!  This year I decided to actively participate in Japanuary, a reading challenge/theme where people read some Japanese books in January.  I knew I didn't want to ONLY read Japanese books all month long, that kind of commitment I only make for Indian Books in August. But I wanted to read a handful books from Japan. And I did just that. I honestly thought I'd read like one book but to my surprise I read 6 books and now let's talk about them.   1. The Premonition by Banana Yoshimoto, translation by Asa Yoneda: I read Kitchen by the same author last year, after hearing nothing but great things about it for ages. I didn't quite love as much as so many other people seem to. I liked it enough but I didn't love it.  So I picked this one up with some trepidation.  This novella is a story of young woman of nineteen, who uncovers a big secret related to her family and herself.  OK not a real Spoiler Alert but she finds out she was adopted into her fam...

  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: How the Bamboo Got its Bounty  Author: Sudha Murty  Publisher: Puffin India  Art: Pari Satarkar  Pages: 44 Publisher: Puffin India  Plot Summary:   ‘From human birth to death, our Bamboo finds one way or another to be useful to a common person. It is truly the unsung and the forgotten.’ In a lush, green forest, a shy, unassuming tree is presented with a reward by the forest queen. This makes all the forest inhabitants curious . . . India’s favourite storyteller brings to us the story of the humble bamboo that endures and selflessly gives. A charming ode to our bountiful forests and trees, their resilience and the abundant gifts they bestow upon us, this gorgeous chapter book is the ideal introduction to the world of Sudha Murty. Review: My second read of the year was in the same vein as the first, I chose something wholesome and comforting and when it comes to looking for something full of joy and comfort- Sudha Murty is an easy choice. ...