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: "The Hiding Place" by Amanda Mason
Ghost stories are always good this time of year. From the start of October all the way through to just after New Years' - ghost stories really do get under your skin when the weather is colder. I like to re-read books like The Haunting of Hill House and The Turn of the Screw to definitely get me in the mood for Halloween and then, the cold and strange aura of Christmas. When we talk about the 'ghost story' most of us think of the Victorian Era and yet, books such as The Haunting of Hill House (which indeed, is missing some physicality when it comes to ghosts, but is a haunting nonetheless), Peter Straub's Ghost Story, and Susan Hill's chilling Christmas Eve which starts The Woman in Black - are all written in the modern era.
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "A Reader on Reading" by Alberto Manguel
Books about reading are always fascinating. I read a book recently entitled Wonderworks by Angus Fletcher and it is all about the science of storytelling told from the perspective of a reader. I read another book some months back entitled Ex Libris by Michiko Kakutani and again, a book about reading made the titles inside it come alive. The one thing I have always loved about books on reading is the fact that even though there are many secondary sources inside it, there is always something deeply personal about the book when it comes to the author. The author is searching within themselves to not only provide us with an amazing book on what we read and why, but also a deep personal experience that is relative to the wider story being told.
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks
5 Great Books I Read in November '21
I read so many great books in the first half of the month that I thought that five books to go into this article seemed like not very much at all. I really had to think about which books I wanted on this list in order to display a good range of what I have read during the month. I know I placed a sixth one on the last list and that was a quick addition to something that I had not planned - it was the final day of the month when I was writing the review for that sixth book.
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks
At the Cinemas: Nov '21
Shall we go to the pictures? - Me, all the time. Okay, with my accent, that word comes out as 'pick-chas' instead, but it's all the same. I'm trying to start off this thing where I tell you at the end of each month or so what I have watched in the cinema and give you a quick run-down of what I think of it. I'll trial it for this month and see how it goes - we will be back in January for the next one if it goes well enough and I get a generally good response. (If you want to respond, then please contact me via @annieapproximately on Instagram. And please actually drop the message, don't just say 'hi' and expect me to respond, it comes across quite weird and I get a ton of messages so you'll probably get lost in the blur if you do that).
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "The Lincoln Highway" by Amor Towles
Subplots are generally a difficult thing to get right. If any of you have read Shakespeare's Twelfth Night then you will know what 'getting it right' looks like. The interweaving of plot to subplot requires you to work with the same, or a familiar, character set. Then it requires some sort of connection to the main plot in which all the characters are somewhat or, indirectly, involved. Finally, we should have some sort of resolution to the subplot which comes in tandem with the main plot.
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks
A Filmmaker's Guide: "Blanche" (1971)
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 (email in bio) 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: "Will" by Will Smith and Mark Manson
I've read many autobiographies by entertainers in my time. My favourites include, but are not limited to: My Autobiography by Charlie Chaplin, Moonwalk by Michael Jackson, Chronicles: Volume 1 by Bob Dylan, Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen and obviously, Me: Stories of My Life by Katharine Hepburn, Lady Sings the Blues by Billie Holiday and finally, The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher. Apart from loving to read about actors who have been through some hardships and musicians who were barred from this, that and the other because of circumstance or over something they could not control - autobiographies are a useful way to engage with a person's voice. When you read an autobiography it needs to feel like the person who wrote it is reading it to you, or it becomes useless. The only real way to read an autobiography is to have the person's voice in your head so that you can interact with their character.
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World"
If you're like me, you probably read "Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe" (Ari and Dante Book 1) when it came out in 2012. I re-read the book a few times over the course of the next couple of years and I think a lot of people knew how I felt about it. I was pretty obsessed with it for a long time and thought that it was one of the most beautiful YA books ever written. You can check out my initial article on the reading experience I recalled from my teen years here.
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Wonderworks" by Angus Fletcher
Books about reading have always been great books to read. Anthologies about great books, collections of changing ideas in literature and milestones of the cultural shifts within different eras of the arts have always been entertaining and informative. A while back, I was reading a book called "Ex Libris: 100+ Books to Read and Reread" by Michiko Kakutani. It was one of the most eye-opening books about reading I had ever read because it taught me not to be caught up in how much I reread a book (I am a big rereader) and know that when I reread a book, there will always be an aspect of discovery going on. It may be thematic, symbolic or even conceptual, but it is a new discovery all the same. Books such as "The Handmaid's Tale" appear side by side with Homer's "Odyssey". But this book we have here is a little bit different to that.
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "The Matter of Black Lives" ed. by Jelani Cobb and David Remnick
The New Yorker is one of my all-time favourite publications. I try to get a subscription if and when I can (when I have enough money to pay for a subscription to it) and I am constantly amazed at the way in which they continue to be such a high quality publication every week. One thing I love reading about in that magazine is the sections on literature. This is not just literature in terms of books, but also letters, essays and ideas that are published within the columns. It's really interesting to see exactly what the people who write the books, who do the research and who are a big part of a changing culture have to say about the criticisms and judgements of the ideas that are at play in our world today.
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Under the Whispering Door" by T.J Klune
Teaching people about the process of death and the afterlife is difficult enough without someone trying to shove a trope-based story down your throat as well. But this isn't like that at all. Instead, just like death-based novels like "Interview with the Vampire" and others, this book seems to deal with the process of death and then the afterlife in a very mature way with these constant touches of darkness and beautiful writing. You know how I get about beautiful writing don't you? I love a book that is beautifully written. You know that this book reminds me of "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens in the sense that someone is given a second chance (almost) and everything is a lesson in life and how to really live properly. Between this we get the dark comedy of the writer who seeks to make fun of the droning corporate culture of the constant worker and 'career man' who seeks to simply work himself until he dies.
By Annie Kapur2 years ago in Geeks
A Filmmaker's Guide: "Winter Light" (1963)
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 (email in bio) 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