Annie Kapur
Bio
200K+ Reads on Vocal.
English Lecturer
đLiterature & Writing (B.A)
đFilm & Writing (M.A)
đSecondary English Education (PgDipEd) (QTS)
đBirmingham, UK
Stories (1969/0)
Book Review: "Murder by the Book" ed. by Martin Edwards
So far, I have read nearly every single British Library Crime Classic book going. I love to read classic crime novels, they are like my guilty pleasure. I have to admit though when crime is written as a short story, it can normally get a bit repetitive and boring as there are only so many storylines you can do in such a short space. Whereas, if you have a whole novelâs length then there are considerably more storylines you can cover. As I was making my way through the series, I have often encountered short story crime classic anthologies that made me rethink my stance on crime short stories. These have included but are not limited to books like: âBlood on the Tracksâ (the book by the British Library - not the Bob Dylan album). Another one has been âDeep Watersâ which dealt with mysteries at sea and was considerably better than other short stories of the same genre I had read before. And the final one I enjoyed was called âThe Long Arm of the Lawâ which are police stories - as my mother is a retired police officer, I can honestly say that I love reading about the fictionalised version of events that the police may get up to on the job. But, when I read this one entitled âMurder by the Bookâ I found that once again, I was wrong about short story crime. It can happen and it can happen well. It can happen very well, actually.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
My 5 Favourite Things About Vocal
I started writing on Vocal purely because I had nobody to talk to and the people in my life I had to talk to didn't want to talk about books or films with me. Now that I have reached 100'000 reads on Vocal, I realise that there are people out there who actually like to read my writing and take in what I have been saying. At the moment, I have quite a bit planned for the next year on Vocal and I have even got some more stuff planned for the next week or so.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Humans
Book Review: "Six Crimson Cranes" by Elizabeth Lim
Fairytales and Folklore have become some of the most famous aspects of literature, especially when it comes to writing fantasy. I have read so many books about fairytales and honestly, I can say that there are increasing amounts of great books written on other worlds, other times and tales of old from other places. Recently, I read âFor the Wolfâ by Hannah Whitten and I have also read novels such as Coraline by Neil Gaiman and others in the far past. To be perfectly honest, everyone thinks that they have grown out of fairytales until they read a book based on a fairytale that immediately takes them to another world entirely. And that is the most modern thing to do with fairytales - to build an entirely new world with them. Escapism is possibly the most common reason for reading such fantastical tales in your older years and so, authors want to make sure that you are as far away as physically possible from yourself. âSix Crimson Cranesâ by Elizabeth Lim definitely takes you some place weird and magical, away from the mundane and everyday lives we lead. The creation of the worlds in this novel is one of its biggest strengths and yet, there are so many more things to celebrate about it.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Victoria: A Life" by A.N Wilson
A.N Wilson has been under fire as we know, for his book about Charles Darwin which nobody seemed to understand was not supposed to be a scientific novel, but rather a novel about Charles Darwinâs deep and personal characteristics, how they intertwined with the time he lived in and whether he was the product of that time and place or not. The same goes for his book on Queen Victoria. I have seen many reviews stating that the book is âconvolutedâ or âdifficultâ or âjitteryâ and even, yes âdisorganisedâ which many people ended up giving reviews of only two stars to. I am here to say that this simply is not the case. It really is not that difficult to follow as long as you know what you are reading. You are not just reading a book about the life of Queen Victoria in the royal courts. You are reading a book about Queen Victoria in the royal courts, how this had an impact on her character and how her character had an impact on the emotions of an entire nation. This book is not just a biography because seriously, we all know the story of Queen Victoria - this is rather a biography of the Victorian Age with Queen Victoria fitting in right at the top. This book is about the reasons why she fits where she does and what made her this way.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" by David Starkey
David Starkey has been one of my historical heroes for a long time. I think he is such a smart guy and he can articulate the information well enough so that anyone can understand it. He has written some great stuff in his time and has been able to communicate some of the most turbulent and difficult times of English History to audiences from everywhere. The most recent book I have read by him is called âThe Six Wives of Henry VIIIâ and rightly so as it concentrates less on the King of England and more on his wives, what they were like, the politics surrounding them and from the moment that he had married his brotherâs widow - I knew that things were not going to turn out well for all of these women. An absolutely engrossing book, it really does take you into the court of King Henry VIII as there are details from everything, such as: Henry VIIIâs philosophies and theologies, what went on in the courtroom when he was divorcing his wives, the fall of Anne Boleyn and what really caused it and finally, upon Henryâs death - what happened to Catherine Parr. It is a wonderful book and even though it is over eight hundred pages long, I would not be put off at all. Just be prepared to step into a whole world that you thought you knew, but in reality you only knew a small slither of the story.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
12 Best Nonfiction Books of 2021 (so far!)
I love reading nonfiction from time to time. Some of the best nonfiction books I have ever read have been about events that, at the time I read them, were current and thought provoking. Books such as The Brothers by Masha Gessen and the famed Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell have become some of my favourites over the course of the past ten years with one being about the events of the current time I was reading it (The Boston Marathon Bombings) and the other being about times gone by (George Orwell's time before he became a heavy hitter) - both were incredibly interesting to read. When it comes to nonfiction, I do not just read things that are considered biographical, I also like to read historical books about very particular things like the reigns of certain monarchs in Britain or the Russian Revolution, or the Holocaust or even the way in which New York City changed throughout the 20th century.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
5 Great Books I Read in August '21
Things are starting to open up. However, COVID-19 has yet to die down. I think that the best thing to do still is to only go out when you need to - including restarting some aspects of social life. I make a thing to go out socially at least once every two weeks or so to keep myself sane and to keep my agoraphobia down (fearing that if I were to leave it too long, I will start taking steps backwards in my recovery). Supermarket trips are minimal and of course, post office trips are a necessity only if they are necessary.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Machiavelli: His Life and Times" by Alexander Lee
I spent a very long time reading Machiavelli back when I was in university. I wrote a number of papers on him (only one of which I was able to release in part - but not the whole thing). If you would like to read the only released partial paper, then you can do so by clicking here. I have studied how Machiavellian authority pervades over the stage of the 16th and 17th centuries and honestly, I have been always pleasantly surprised at the amount of fame Machiavelli garnered in his own time. After this, I covered bits and pieces of Machiavellian theories on my M.A, without much luck I saw, when it came to early German film. However, I was still able to apply the theoretics of the Italian Political Philosopher to the more modern ideas eyed in more modern movies. But that wasnât really the point. I have never really read a biography on Machiavelli, rather I have never really read an amazing biography on Machiavelli. That was until I came across Alexander Leeâs biography of Machiavelli - including contextual devices and ideas on where the theories that Machiavelli had, came from. To be honest, I do not think I have read a biography like this on any historical figure, let alone just Niccolo Machiavelli himself. It was a brilliant book that I stayed up until 4am the next day finishing because I was engrossed in Machiavelliâs world.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
Women Writing Horror
Many people believe that women writers of horror is a new thing and something subversive and original to the genre. If that person describes you then I would like to introduce you to people like Mary Shelley, author of "Frankenstein" (1818) and Mary Elizabeth Braddon, author of many ghost stories and salacious fiction of deviant women - one of my favourite stories by her is "The Shadow in the Corner". The idea the women are becoming more popular in horror is something that we take on the chin - of course, there are far more women writers of horror now than there have been ever since women are using their own voices so much more. But, we also have to remember that the 20th century writers of horror were not nearly exclusively men either - men were just far more active in the genre. For example: there are more books by Stephen King than there are by Daphne Du Maurier and Shirley Jackson combined, but that does not mean that Shirley Jackson and Daphne Du Maurier are in any way less of authors that Stephen King. All three of them are as credible as each other and all three can scare the pants off you.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Horror
Book Review: "The Therapist" by B.A Paris
I have read B.A Paris before. The novel âThe Dilemmaâ is probably one of the better domestic thrillers I have encountered in a long time. Domestic thriller is a term that not many people are able to work out, does it mean in the home? Does it mean as a part of a family? Does it mean something entirely different altogether? Well, a domestic thriller is a combination of the two - it is a crime/thriller novel that takes place predominately in the home and with a set of main characters who are all family. In this next read by B.A Paris, I was expecting to see similar themes of secrecies and more developed characters (I really canât tell you how much I enjoyed âThe Dilemmaâ so, just read the review here), plus I was hoping for something that mimicked the style of âThe Dilemmaâ. What I ended up getting was something slightly different and though I like slow-burning books, I have to say in some respects the pace was a bit all over the place and there were far too many characters. Apart from this, the book was an enjoyable read and I did, in fact, still read it in one sitting. Let us take a look at what it is about:
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "To Cook a Bear" by Mikael Niemi
I have read many crime novels and a lot of them involving the strange beliefs of people whether they be supernatural or idealistic. Guillermo Del Toroâs âThe Hollow Onesâ was one of them where the masses believe in a supernatural entity. Another one could be âDevilâs Dayâ by Andrew Michael Hurley and âStarve Acreâ by the same author. But this one was something a lot different to the previous ones I have read, it is slightly more confusing and if you enjoyed the movie âThe Devil All the Timeâ then you will definitely enjoy this book.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Machines Like Me" by Ian McEwan
When it comes to Ian McEwan, I become divided. Normally, he is a great author with some brilliantly dark stories about the human psyche. Other times, he can be a good author with stories that involve love that is, more than often, unrealistic. And a lot of times, he is an awful author with some outlandish stories which you simply cannot connect to. I find that âMachines Like Meâ tends to fall into one of the two latter categories. First of all, we have the unrealistic nature of love, nobody thinks about another person that much that they cannot possibly focus on day-to-day tasks unless they are insane and require medical attention. Then we have the story of the machine or âAdamâ that is outlandish and impossible to connect to. Personally, I found this to be one of the worst books I have read by Ian McEwan and it almost turned me off reading him - but I remembered that I also read âCement Gardenâ - which was brilliant, and carried on reading his novels. Obviously, if you know me, you know I donât like namby-pamby romantic storylines, which this has to an extent. You know that I like a hell of a lot of atmosphere, which is not really provided in this book. You also know that I enjoy well fleshed-out characters who have a moral compass that is often questionable - not characters who try to reason sexual assault, like in this book. I found this book to be a bit tasteless. But anyway, here is what is it about.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks