Annie Kapur
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Film and Writing (M.A)
150K+ Reads on Vocal
IG: @AnnieApproximately
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Book Review: "The Amateur Marriage" by Anne Tyler
As you know, I'm going through a few binge-reads right now. First we had a big thing about Julian Barnes that came from my 16-year-old self knocking me on the head and telling me I could no longer ignore the 'B' modern fiction section of the library as that was where all his books were. I slowly worked through the ones I had not read yet (and re-read some of the ones I had!). Then I started on Louis de Bernieres, which when I had read Captain Corelli's Mandolin I was barely out of high school, and never picked him up again until now. Mainly because someone mentioned Birds Without Wings to me and I decided to get it read. Next came Amos Oz and that was because whilst at university, I remember him passing away and his last book was Judas, I found it insanely good but never really investigated anything else by him. Recently though, I think I've managed to read quite a bit of his works. Finally, there is Anne Tyler and she is probably one of the most wonderful writers out there today. Having read numerous novels by her, I think it is safe to say that modern literature has been in good hands and still is.
By Annie Kapur11 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Clock Dance" by Anne Tyler
I think my love for Anne Tyler's novels is something that is obvious right now. I'm on another binge of her works and because this one only came out in the recent few years, I never actually got around the reading or hearing of it because it was not out the last time I was reading Anne Tyler. Her books Redhead by the Side of the Road, A Spool of Blue Thread, Searching for Caleb, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant and Back When We Were Grownups have all been pretty awesome. I am now on another book entitled Clock Dance in which Anne Tyler shows off her classic style for character development intertwined with a story that is both heartfelt and at times, devastatingly realistic. A master of the modern novel, Anne Tyler proves to be once again, one of the best writers of the age.
By Annie Kapur11 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "My Father's Tears and Other Stories" by John Updike
John Updike was one of the seminal writers of the American 20th Century and wrote some great novels - including the Rabbit series. For those of you who have not read the Rabbit series please proceed away from this review and go and read those first. Rabbit Run is probably my favourite because let's face it, the first is always the best. Throughout his career, he was referred to one of the writers of the 'Great American Novel' - which in turn, was also a book from the Rabbit series, though there are arguments about which one it actually is. I remember when John Updike passed away because it was two days after my 13th birthday and I was devastated. By then I had already read Rabbit Run and Rabbit Redux - but hadn't a clue that there were more of them. This book entitled My Father's Tears and Other Stories is something I have never even encountered in style by Updike, so I am very excited to cover it.
By Annie Kapur11 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "So Much Life Left Over" by Louis de Bernieres
I have absolutely no idea as to why I have started reading so much by Louis de Bernieres. I think you as well may have noticed the fact that I have recently read quite a few books by him including but not limited to Red Dog and Birds Without Wings. It has been years and years since I read what is considered to be Louis de Bernieres' magnum opus, Captain Corelli's Mandolin and it has been a long time since I actually appreciated his writing this way. The funny thing is really this though, throughout the course of the entire book (that I read whilst I was ill by the way - but I guess I'm feeling a bit better now) I always felt as if I were reading a book by Nevil Shute. Now, everyone knows how much I love Nevil Shute. I adore his books. This book felt more like Nevil Shute than it did like Louis de Bernieres. I like that a lot. So, let's take a look at So Much Life Left Over by Louis de Bernieres.
By Annie Kapur11 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Warlight" by Michael Ondaatje
Michael Ondaatje is probably best known for his stellar emotional novel about the Italian Campaign of the Second World War - The English Patient. It was famously turned into a film in 1996 starring Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Kristen Scott Thomas and more. The film is acclaimed for winning many awards including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actress. With a run time of 162 minutes, the film wanted to get as close as it could to its source material and left room for a Seinfeld episode that felt almost the same length (I'm sorry, he's simply not funny). With Warlight we get to see even more of Michael Ondaatje's genius writing skills about the cusps of the Second World War.
By Annie Kapur11 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "The Sacrifice" by Joyce Carol Oates
I love Joyce Carol Oates and I think that her writing is fantastic, there is always so much atmosphere and story that you can really sink your teeth into. The sheer depth of her novels are amazing and grand, they are raw and often violent - but you still love them for telling incredible stories - no matter how controversial. With this one though, I'm going to have to take off one or two marks and you will see why later on. Her writing style most of the time though, is a conscious choice and in the vast majority of her books, this would seem perfectly fine. The same cannot be said for this one though. I don't think so at all.
By Annie Kapur11 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "No One Belongs Here More Than You" by Miranda July
I love prose that loses itself in its own sense of deeper meaning. Among the ages, we have so many different ones to choose from, and it goes from Oscar Wilde and before him all the way down to David Foster Wallace and after. Unfortunately, Miranda July falls absolutely nowhere within that and instead of being lost in its own sense of deeper meaning, the prose comes off as repetitive and bland after a while. Her writing does not take long to go almost completely and utterly stale. The book falls flat whilst there are still other books, written about similar subjects, that are out there and more worth your time to read.
By Annie Kapur11 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Rhyming Life and Death" by Amos Oz
Now, if you do not already know, I have been reading Amos Oz books for a while and I just want to start by saying how amazing they all are. Amos Oz's writing style has always been a great mixture between the mundane and descriptive, blended with the extreme emotions that we encounter in our everyday lives. I love it when Amos Oz chooses to write about topics that are more naturalistic, such as the writing he did in Scenes from Village Life - which is probably my favourite book by him. In his book Rhyming Life and Death Amos Oz attempts a little bit of poetry as well as his prose, and gives us something brilliant. He gives us one night in Tel Aviv, in the 1980s.
By Annie Kapur11 months ago in Humans
Book Review: "Between Friends" by Amos Oz
As we all know, Amos Oz is one of my favourite writers of the modern era. Having written some great books such as Judas and Scenes of Village Life - Amos Oz has the ability to take your breath away with the language he uses and the way in which he presents the scenery to the reader. Amos Oz is also incredible at writing human connection and the way in which we fall in and out of love and liking with each other. He had a brilliant career that I'm sure will never quite be forgotten. His book My Michael was a real eye-opener to a lot of people who have read it because of its depiction of dissatisfaction amongst a people who are normally, shadowed in silence. He was truly a great writer and we miss him dearly. Between Friends was his penultimate novel published in 2012.
By Annie Kapur11 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "A Spool of Blue Thread" by Anne Tyler
So, I have probably told everyone and their mother how much I love Anne Tyler's writing. Critics (normally male critics) dismiss her as 'sentimental' because they do not have the depth to understand the softness of syllables in contrast to the tension of situational drama. That is their own problem. Anne Tyler's writing often comes across otherwise as the 'everyman' style - this family could be any of ours, this situation could be any of our own and certainly, this story could be told by our friends about their own or by us about our own. It's pretty much an 'everyman' story. I've read numerous books by her so far and I am planning to read all her others, of course my Julian Barnes read and re-read binge will have to continue concurrently. I am finally reliving the books I loved as a teenager (and this time it's not just The Vampire Chronicles. Although, that was a huge part of it).
By Annie Kapur11 months ago in Geeks
"The Maias" by Eça de Queiroz
The Maias: Episodes of Romantic Life is a book by the Portguese author Eça de Queiroz and is about a man who has his life completely turned around, he thinks, by a woman. Ultimately, he finds out some secrets that cause him to nearly have a breakdown and must find his way in world after knowing this incriminating information. It was first published in 1888 and is set during the 1870s and covers mostly the life of the Maias son, Carlos de Maia.
By Annie Kapur11 months ago in Geeks
What is Existential Philosophy?
Existentialism is one of the most popular and intense ideas of modern philosophy riddled with problems and puzzles that philosophers since the 19th century have been trying to rationalise and solve. The Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy defines existentialism as ‘a catch-all term for those philosophers who consider the nature of the human condition as a key philosophical problem and who share the view that this problem is best addressed through ontology.’ (Burnham, D. Papandreopoulos, G.) It is also mainly concerned with action, that a meaning to a person’s life can only be found in what they can do and what they have done - it states ‘My existence consists of forever bringing myself to being - and, correlatively, fleeing from the dead, inert thing that is the totality of my past actions. Although my acts are free, I am not free not to act; thus existence is characterised also by exigency.’ (Burnham, D. Papandreopoulos, G.) This is a basic format of what existentialism actually entails without further detail and/or reading. Within this study, I seek to create an in-depth map of what existentialism is, where it came from and where it is in our own day. The point of which is to see whether we today are really as existentialist as our own existential crises may suggest.
By Annie Kapur11 months ago in FYI
