The Whimsy Bookworm: A Book Blog from India

  July was a bout of books, rain, comfort, sadness, surviving said sadness and finding Joy.  You were good July.  You brought me books, baarish and coziness.  This is what my July looked like: the best books I read and the moments that I loved well. 

 Monday Involved:  Loads of pouring rain. Thank God, we needed it.  Some cozy Reading.  Chai. With a lot of ginger.  Journaling.  Sleep.  Washing my plushies.  Watching the rains.  Jamuns. 

 Hello Loves!  Long time no chit chat.  Life has been one crazy bout of being busy and being anxious and packing and unpacking and getting the house livable again.  It's been a lot. I feel like all of June has been one big stress ball and somewhere all of it just got to be and I took a pretty big break from this space. It was both intentional and happenstance and I have a lot of catch up one. Mostly my June Reading Wrap-Up and my Monthly faves.  I will slowly get to those.  But for now, let's talk July!  Hello July!  The month of rains and hopefully some good reading!  Half the year is over. Just gone and now we slip into the second half. My favourite half of the year. The one with all the festivities and joys and the promise of autumn and winter. I am already in the good mood because the monsoon is here and I feel most alive.  :)  We've had some amazing rain days recently.  The view outside my bedroom window.  I have miss...

 Hello Loves!  Another month is nearly over and it's time to focus on what were the silver linings of this month.  Aka the favourites from the month of May.  This month felt both long and never ending and yet went by in a blur.  It wasn't the happiest of months, like most months in this year from hell.  But there were a few moments of joy and happiness.  Here are some of them.  1. Reading: My reading life was kinda amazing this month. I read some incredible books this month. I read around 15 books this month and most of them were so good. The wrap-up will come on the 31st and I can't wait to talk about my reads this month.  I also bought some books this month!  Physical books and ebooks!  A good bookish month.  A blessing.  I read Jhumpa Lahiri and Murakami this month and honestly I couldn't be happier.  2. Reading & Watching Ray: This month started with Ray's 100th birthday and we spent this whole month re-watch...

It has been a rainy few days here in Bombay and I've found myself reading a few crime/ thriller books. It was just happy coincidence that they both were from the same author (not a book series) and both, spoiler alert, were quite good!  So, without any further ado, let's get into quick mini reviews on both these books by Megan Miranda!  Book: The Perfect Stranger  Author: Megan Miranda  Pages: 339  Read on: Kindle  Read in: 3 hours  Plot Summary:  Confronted by a restraining order and the threat of a lawsuit, failed journalist Leah Stevens needs to get out of Boston when she runs into an old friend, Emmy Grey, who has just left a troubled relationship. Emmy proposes they move to rural Pennsylvania, where Leah can get a teaching position and both women can start again. But their new start is threatened when a woman with an eerie resemblance to Leah is assaulted by the lake, and Emmy disappears days later. Determined to find Emmy, Leah cooperates wi...

Book: The Patient Author: Jasper Dewitt Pages: 225 Read On: Kindle How Long it Took Me Read: 6 hours with a couple of breaks. Plot Summary:   Parker, a young, overconfident psychiatrist new to his job at a mental asylum, miscalculates catastrophically when he undertakes curing a mysterious and profoundly dangerous patient. In a series of online posts, Parker H., a young psychiatrist, chronicles the harrowing account of his time working at a dreary mental hospital in New England. Through this internet message board, Parker hopes to communicate with the world his effort to cure one bewildering patient. We learn, as Parker did on his first day at the hospital, of the facility’s most difficult, profoundly dangerous case—a forty-year-old man who was originally admitted to the hospital at age six. This patient has no known diagnosis. His symptoms seem to evolve over time. Every person who has attempted to treat him has been driven to madness or suicide. Desperate and ...

Hello!  On my recent visit to Kalimpong, we drove up to Lava, a little town 30 kms from the city up in the hills. The drive itself was gorgeous, winding roads and rains and clouds. Some stretches were in dire states, the road was quite bumpy and there were several patches where repair work was on going, so I am hoping that it will be fixed soon.  Once we got to Lava, the rains really got going. It was pouring hard and by the time we got out of the car and to the monastery we were soaked.  Hence most of these pictures are liberally covered in raindrops.  Sadly, we didn't make it to inside the monastery, given the rains and the slightly steep walk,  I got close enough but I was soaked and even my poor camera was getting wet.  Here are some pictures.  Prayer Flags dancing in the breeze.  Raindrops adding their own bokeh effect.  The entire place was full of all kinds of ferns.  I don't know ...