The Whimsy Bookworm: A Book Blog from India

Book: Listening Now Author: Anjana Appachana Pages: 506 Read On: Hardback How Long it Took Me To Read: 3 days Plot Summary:   Listening Now unfolds through the intensely personal worlds of seven characters. First, there is the child Mallika, brimming with romantic fantasies and bemoaning the lack of passion in the lives of her mother, Padma, and her mother's contemporaries - women whom she nevertheless loves fiercely. Mallika renders her fantasies through a highly wrought imagination, re-creating for the reader the events that came to devastate her childhood. Then, we revisit the events Mallika has described as they are retold from the points of view of Padma and Padma's sister, mother and friends. The story that slowly emerges is not the same as the one Mallika told. For the world of these women is one where secrets grow like fungus, where guilt roots and ripens, where anger burns and smolders. Every one of them carries the burden of secrets that may or may no...

  Hello Loves!  Time for my January Reading Wrap-Up.  January, for me is a month where I want to read the best books. To set the tone for the rest of my reading year. It's unfair to heap this sort of pressure on a month, but I am far too set in my ways to change.  I put a fair amount of thought into picking my reads, especially for first read of the year.  I want to read books that make me happy and books that I am fairly certain I will like.  I didn't make a TBR this month, I did have a rough idea of which books I'd read but I was also swayed by my mood and some new releases that jumped ahead in queue.  I read 20 books in total.  A classic, my favourite one at that.  A memoir.  A lot of kid lit.  Some picture books.  Some graphic novels which I loved. The first two weeks of January had me in such a graphic novel phase and I am so happy this happened.  A thriller, with a side of horror.  Some literary fiction.  I...

Book: The Ammuchi Puchi Author: Sharanya Manivannan Illustrator: Nerina Canzi Pages: 32 Publisher: Puffin Read On: Paperback How Long it Took Me To Read: Half an Hour Plot Summary:   Aditya and Anjali love listening to their grandmother's stories, particularly the scary one about the ghost in the tree. But the night their grandmother passes away, all her stories seem to lose their meaning. Then something happens that is more mysterious and magical than any story. Could their grandmother still be with them after all? Stunningly illustrated and told in gorgeous, poetic prose, this is a poignant and moving story about bereavement and healing. Review: I am partial to books about Grandmothers.So any book, in any genre about a Grandmother invariably gets added to my bookshelves. This one was on my radar for precisely this reason and the art looked stunning. Grandmothers are the best! I loved my Thamma something special and still feel lovely when people say...

Like everyone else on the Netflix-and-chill planet, we also watched the fantastic, insightful, informative and thought-provoking documentary Wild Wild Country.  I had been hearing so much buzz about this documentary for a few days now and getting very antsy and wanted to watch it right away! I LOVE Cults..and I don't even care how strange that sounds. I LOVE them. There is something so gnarly and strange and so fascinating about cults and how they function. One charismatic leader. Several followers willing to give up everything and do the strangest things for their leader. How do they fall for it? What makes a seemingly sane person give up their former life and follow a Guru or leader? Having had studied cults a little bit in grad school I am always interested to learn more about these curious little things. So of course I watched the entire documentary in one night. Yup! I binged the hell out of it and I have some thoughts... THOUGHTS:  1. First up, the sheer fact ...

Book: Mahashweta  Author: Sudha Murthy  Pages: 188  Read On: Paperback  How Long it Took Me To Read: 1 day  Plot Summary: Anupama looked into the mirror and shivered with shock. A small white patch had now appeared on her arm.' Anupama's fairytale marriage to Anand falls apart when she discovers a white patch on her foot and learns that she has leukoderma. Abandoned by her uncaring in-laws and insensitive husband, she is forced to return to her father's home in the village. The social stigma of a married woman living with her parents, her steother's continual barbs and the ostracism that accompanies her skin condition force her to contemplate suicide. Determined to rebuild her life against all odds, Anupama goes to Bombay where she finds success, respect and the promise of an enduring friendship. Mahashweta is an inspiring story of courage and resilience in a world marred by illusions and betrayals. This poignant tale o...

  Book: Listen to Me (A Rizzoli & Isles Book 13)  Author: Tess Gerritsen  Pages: 302 Read on: Kindle  Read in: ~3 hours  Plot Summary:  Rizzoli & Isles return, in the nail-biting new thriller from  Sunday Times  bestselling author Tess Gerritsen. The murder of Sofia Suarez is both gruesome and seemingly senseless. Why would anyone target a respected nurse who was well-liked by her friends and her neighbours? As  Detective Jane Rizzoli  and  Forensic Pathologist Maura Isles  investigate the baffling case, they discover that Sofia was guarding a dangerous secret -- a secret that may have led the killer straight to her door. Meanwhile, Jane's watchful mother Angela Rizzoli is conducting an investigation of her own. She may be a grandmother, not a police detective, but she's savvy enough to know there's something very strange, perhaps even dangerous, about the new neighbours across the street. The problem is, no one believe...

  Book: None of this is True Author: Lisa Jewell  Pages: 385 Read on: Kindle  Read in: ~4 hours  Plot Summary:  Celebrating her 45th birthday at her local pub, podcaster Alix Summer crosses paths with an unassuming woman called Josie Fair. Josie is also celebrating her 45th.   A few days later, they bump into each other again, this time outside Alix's children's school. Josie says she thinks she would be an interesting subject for Alix's podcast. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life. Alix agrees to a trial interview and indeed, Josie's life appears to be strange and complicated. Aix finds her unsettling but can't quite resist the temptation to keep digging. Slowly Alix starts to realise that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it Josie has cajoled her way into Alix's life - and into her home. Soon Alix begins to wonder who is Josie Fair really? And what has she done? Things I Liked:  1. The pre...

Hello, I am kicking off a new series on the blog today. Last year I rounded off my favourites in a straight forward way, I listed my 13 favourite books of 2013. This year, as I started to think of similar lists my mind just wouldn't work. I have read 253 books this year and it is impossible to just pick 14 as my favourites. I just can't do it. No! Can't do. So I am doing this nifty little thing where I'll be picking 5 books from each genre or category and sharing them on the blog. To kick things off I am starting with some Children's Literature. This year I've read quite a few kiddie books, they make me happy...what can I say? I am child at heart. So here are my Top 5 Children's Books. These are great if you want to read them yourself or if you have kids in your life, these are great books to buy them. I loved receiving books as presents when I was a kid. Here we go... 1. Grandma's Bag of Stories by Sudha Murty: I adored this book and read ...

Book: Maybe Someday Author: Colleen Hoover Pages: 367 I Read It On: My Kindle I Read It In: 4 hours (one sitting. It is that good! ) Plot Summary:  At twenty-two years old, aspiring musician Sydney Blake has a great life: She’s in college, working a steady job, in love with her wonderful boyfriend, Hunter, and rooming with her good friend, Tori. But everything changes when she discovers Hunter cheating on her with Tori—and she is left trying to decide what to do next. Sydney becomes captivated by her mysterious neighbor, Ridge Lawson. She can’t take her eyes off him or stop listening to the daily guitar playing he does out on his balcony. She can feel the harmony and vibrations in his music. And there’s something about Sydney that Ridge can’t ignore, either: He seems to have finally found his muse. When their inevitable encounter happens, they soon find themselves needing each other in more ways than one… Thoughts and Review: Let's get this out of the way- this is...

Book: Mango Cheeks, Metal Teeth Author: Aruna Nambiar Pages: 243 Publisher: Westland Books Read On: Kindle How Long it Took Me To Read: 3-4 days (with several breaks) Plot Summary:   Set in small-town Kerala of the 1980s, Mango Cheeks, Metal Teeth is part coming-of-age story, part social satire and part comedy of errors. Geetha, elevenish, is off for the annual family vacation in Kerala and is looking forward to all the fun with her cousins – visits to the beach and trips to the market to buy glass bangles and kites and shuttlecocks, evenings in the veranda listening to her grandfather’s ridiculous ghost stories which he swears are all true, marathon card games and ferocious boys-versus-girls battles with the bristles of brooms made from coconut fibre…   But as the summer unfolds, Geetha finds herself spending more time instead at the back of the house with the free-spirited cook, the hypochondriac cleaner, the virile gardener, a cheeky helper girl… .....