The Whimsy Bookworm: A Book Blog from India

  Book: The City of Palaces (also published outside of India as The Sleeping Dictionary )  Author: Sujata Massey  Pages: 488 Read: On Kindle  Read in: ~5.5 hours  Plot Summary:  An orphaned girl.   A cruel twist of fate.   A spectacular adventure. Bengal, 1930. Young Pom’s life changes forever when her family is wiped out in a devastating flood. She becomes a maidservant in a British boarding school where she discovers her gift for languages.  Amidst the drudgery of her duties, she finds unexpected friendship and experiences the stirrings of first love. However, tragedy strikes and she is forced into hiding.  Alone and desperate, she is recruited into a brothel for English officers. She hopes this secretive, decadent world will shield her from the demons of her past.  But fate intervenes, and our heroine is on the run again—to Calcutta, the city of palaces, where she finds herself caught up in the rising tide of Indian nationalism. ...

 Hello Loves!  Hope this weekend is proving to be a time of rest and joy.  I am a little worried about the health of a close relative, cooking for my family and reading to keep myself sufficiently distracted.  Here is what me and my sister are Reading this weekend.  In Plain Sight by Mohamed Thaver: This is what my sister is reading.  Mumbai. Murder.  And an investigation.  She is a little bit in and quite enjoying this book. It's a past paced and simple read. Perfect if you, like so many of us, are finding reading and focusing on things a bit much lately. It's a good book to pick up and breeze through over the weekend.  The  review for this will be up once she's done reading it.  Plot Summary:   When the rapes and murders of three minor girls remain unsolved for months, a frustrated DCP Sawant calls in Police Inspector Waghmare. Renowned as Mumbai police's 'investigation machine', Waghmare is rumoured to solve crimes in his d...

  Hello April!  Hello Bengali New Year!  Hello Summer!  Hello Reading Bengali Books and Authors all month long!  I am so excited April is here.  A month of reading from my corner of the world. Doing my annual #AllBengaliBooksinApril where I celebrate all things Bangla and read books written originally in Bengali and the works of Bengali writers.  My goals for this month are simple:  Read good books.  Journal.  Be creative.  Hopefully writing a little bit. Finish a story I've been working on and getting it out in the world.  Maybe go for a little road trip.  :)  Oh and read Jhumpa Lahiri's new book. I am so excited for it.  To kickstart my reading of Bengali books, I have started with an old favourite.  The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri:   Join Ashima in her journey through complex Indian situations  Namesake is the brainchild of Jhumpa Lahiri. The story unfolds with Ashima’s grandmother coming to know ...