Annie Kapur
Bio
200K+ Reads on Vocal.
English Lecturer
🎓Literature & Writing (B.A)
🎓Film & Writing (M.A)
🎓Secondary English Education (PgDipEd) (QTS)
📍Birmingham, UK
Stories (1970/0)
Book Review: "Great Circle" by Maggie Shipstead
I am really not a huge fan of every post-modern novel I read and normally I don't really understand why they seek to be more complicated than they actually are. However, in some cases, I can understand certain techniques being used. For example: in this text Great Circle, I can understand the use of this near-alternating narrative between the 'then' and the 'now' in order to make the story physically work. This does not mean that the book is perfect by any means and I do not think it was a good idea for being a contender to the Booker Prize. But, I do think it is a good book.
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Around the World in 80 Books" by David Damrosch
Here we are again, books about reading books. One of my favourite genres in the world to slip in between my fiction and nonfiction reading now and again. Recently, I have read many actually - released a short while back was my review on Wonderworks by Angus Fletcher. I have also read A Reader on Reading by Alberto Manguel, Bookworm by Lucy Mangan and the brilliant book I released a review on some time ago, Amy Jeffs' Storyland. The point is, stories are what makes us human. We tell stories about everything from what we ate for dinner to when the first leather jackets were invented. When someone else tells me about their love for reading and their favourite books, I listen with great intensity. And I think that may be why I like reading these books as well. I love people who have a passion for books.
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Memories, Dreams and Reflections" by Carl Jung
This book was recommended to me by a friend and I'm not going to lie, I did study a bit of Carl Jung in my later schooling about ten years' ago. I was already well-aware of some of the more unethical and questionable experiments he did alongside his friendship with the weird and slightly repulsive Sigmund Freud. So, when it came to the chapter on his career and experimentations in psychology, I was already well aware of around 80% of it. Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud may be respected psychologists, but neither of them are quite right in the head and I think this book entitled Memories, Dreams and Reflections really gives way to that outside of just his career.
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Memoirs" by Lorenzo Da Ponte
Memoirs are an interesting thing. Autobiographies of certain great events in a person's life can really give you an insight into where and how certain ideas developed and, if written well, they can also provide a great story to read for entertainment. In my life I have come across memoirs both great and terrible. I have come across some that I cannot quite put a review on and so, I stayed on the fence and I have come across some that I thought were less a memoir for a person, more an advert of their life to massage their own ego.
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Hitch-22: A Memoir" by Christopher Hitchens
When I read a memoir, there are certain things I am looking for in order to not only be entertained, but to gain more insight into the person's life than I had before. I am really looking for someone to tell me a good story about how they came to be the way they were. Books such as Just Kids by Patti Smith, Mommie Dearest by Christina Crawford, and even the farce that was Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey allow the reader to become immersed in the life of the person they are reading about and gain this feeling of really getting to know the person that wrote said memoir. Then problems arise when they are written badly, when they are written badly the first problem is normally that the reader gets angry with the author and this disallows the reader to become more immersed in the life of the figure writing.
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Bookworm" by Lucy Mangan
I love books about reading, as you might know. For example, recently I read a book called A Reader on Reading by Alberto Manguel and it was sublime as the entire text had the underlining allusion to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland loud and clear throughout. I also loved the read the book Ex Libris: 100 Books to Read and Reread by Michiko Kakutani. A book with a bunch of great books within, some of which cannot go through life without being reread - that is just the way those books are.
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Her Diaries and Notebooks" by Patricia Highsmith
Now, I have read many 'diaries and notebooks', 'letters and correspondences' by many different authors that have intrigued me over the years. The one that I enjoyed the most was probably the letters of Truman Capote, purely because you could definitely read them all in his own voice. I thought that was incredible. Another one I enjoyed was the Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde along with the letters of Kurt Vonnegut and the letters of HP Lovecraft.
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Her Heart for a Compass" by Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York
Historical Fiction is something that I really enjoy reading. One of my favourite authors ever is Philippa Gregory - I have read all of her books to date and every book she writes is brilliant. In this book entitled Her Heart for a Compass, we see the Duchess of York excel against the backdrop of one of British History's most famous ages - the Victorian Era. Honestly, the reason I picked up this book was because upon first glance, it reminded me so much of a Philippa Gregory novel even though Philippa Gregory herself tends to stick to an earlier age of history - it reminded me of the way Philippa Gregory writes about women and how they should have a voice.
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks
- Top Story - December 2021
A Filmmaker's Guide: "Les Enfants Terrible" (1950)Top Story - December 2021
In this chapter of ‘the filmmaker’s guide’ we’re actually going to be learning about literature and film together. I understand that many of you are sitting in university during difficult times and finding it increasingly hard to study and I understand that many of you who are not at university or not planning on it are possibly stuck of what to do, need a break or even need to catch up on learning film before you get to the next level. This guide will be brief but will also contain: new vocabulary, concepts and theories, films to watch and we will be exploring something taboo until now in the ‘filmmaker’s guide’ - academia (abyss opens). Each article will explore a different concept of film, philosophy, literature or bibliography/filmography etc. in order to give you something new to learn each time we see each other. You can use some of the words amongst family and friends to sound clever or you can get back to me and tell me how you’re doing. So, strap in and prepare for the filmmaker’s guide to film studies because it is going to be one wild ride.
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Murder After Christmas" by Rupert Latimer
The British Library Crime Classics Collection is really a treat to read and every time they release something new, I make it my business not to miss it. So far, I think I only have one more to read before I have completed the series (for now) and yet, I cannot wait until they have more. For me, the British Library Crime Classics Collection is always a great series to read during times such as Christmas and when the colder season sets in as they can be great for settling down with a cup of coffee when the weather is too chilly.
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Mr. Rochester's Ghost" by Lindsay Marcott
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte appears at number 14 on my list of my '25 favourite books' of all time and is one of those books which I consider to be truly timeless. It will never go out of style, out of print or go out of mind. It is truly art. I read Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea when I was about seventeen and I'm not going to lie - at first I didn't like it all that much but as I read it again, I started to appreciate it. It was like learning a new language - you don't really get the hang of it at first, but the more intensely you read on it, the better it gets. Wide Sargasso Sea in comparison to Jane Eyre is an entirely different language, yet one does not take away from the other.
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "The Infernal Riddle of Thomas Peach" by Jas Treadwell
There is something in Victorian and Georgian literature that keeps the audience coming back over and over again. From Mary Shelley's Frankenstein all the way to Bram Stoker's Dracula - the literature of these eras includes theories about science vs. the personality, monstrosity, secrecy and sensationalism. I myself have always been fascinated by how secrecy works in these era as my favourite novel of all time, The Picture of Dorian Gray depends on it for survival. Secrecy and sensationalism are possibly best put forward in the books by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. Her books Lady Audley's Secret and Vixen being the most prominent for the themes.
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks