literature
Geek literature from the New York Times or the recesses of online. Our favorite stories showcase geeks.
Book Review: "Tell Me How This Ends" by Jo Leevers
Now, I am a big fan of the BBC Radio 2 Book Club and admittedly, I have to catch up on what they are reading. One of the books they have covered is called Tell Me How This Ends by Jo Leevers. A book which is brilliantly structured with some really great characters, it is honestly one of the best thriller fiction novels I have read this year (sorry to the Dexter series, but you don't really come that close, no matter how beautifully sardonic you are). Jo Leever's writing style brings out individual voices in a way that when you do read the book, is actually a massive achievement. It makes you really feel like you're reading converging stories rather than one writer writing in a few different tones. Leevers has done something quite incredible here.
Annie KapurPublished about 7 hours ago in GeeksBook Review: "The Gravedigger's Daughter" by Joyce Carol Oates
“Three days later on October 29, 1959, the Pontiac registered in the name of Niles Tignor would be discovered, gas tank near-empty, keys on the floorboards beneath the front seat, in a parking lot close by the Greyhound bus station in Rome, New York.” - The Gravedigger's Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates
Annie KapurPublished a day ago in GeeksBook Review: "Sedated" by James Davies
Full Title: Sedated: How Modern Capitalism Created Our Mental Health Crisis by James Davies I am still on my nonfiction binge and honestly, I am a little bit worried I might be 'doom reading' myself into sadness but I'm not sure whether I want to stop just yet. This book is called Sedated and is about the over-medicalisation and over-medicating of our entire culture despite the fact in the past 20 years, there has been way more of a focus on mental health. I am glad that we seem to be waking up to something I said about five years' ago. The question is: if there is so much emphasis on mental health help and wellbeing then why is it that our mental health across the western world has progressively been plummeting? Well, its our entire culture that is causing it. It goes from the over-medicating of our everyday ill feelings all the way to our disengagement with our work and even further.
Annie KapurPublished 2 days ago in GeeksBook Review: "How They Broke Britain" by James O'Brien
There are times when you find a really good book and think to yourself 'I'm going to savour this one'. Then there are books like this where it is still really good but instead you think 'ah, let's relive this trauma...' The showboating carousel of politics in the UK has definitely been in shambles since 2010 but the efforts of the kangaroo cabinet of the Pandemic Era definitely took the biscuit as quite possibly the worst case scenario. Brexit had not been delivered properly, a global virus was spreading quickly and the folks of the United Kingdom were trapped in their homes being led by a bumbling fool of a Prime Minister and his horrific attempts at government which mainly involved him covering up lies he'd told the previous day. In an era that will definitely turn into a case study, this book doesn't just teach us about the things we didn't know, but makes us realise how what we did know was just ridiculous.
Annie KapurPublished 3 days ago in GeeksBridgerton In Bowral + Preview Screening
Side-view of the handmade bonnet, in case anyone cares... Dearest Gentle Reader, What a Season it promises to be! Mere weeks ago, all the world was stunned by an announcement. Long relegated to being the last to recieve news, it was the Antipodes - namely a small town in the Southern Highlands, in the Empire's newest Colony of New South Wales - that was to recieve the first prophetic glimpse of the Season to come!
Natasja RosePublished 4 days ago in GeeksBook Review: "Mothering Sunday" by Graham Swift
“Words were like an invisible skin, enwrapping the world and giving it reality. Yet you could not say the world would not be there, would not be real if you took away the words. At best it seemed that things might bless the words that distinguished them, and that words might bless everything.” - Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift.
Annie KapurPublished 4 days ago in GeeksBook Review: "The Social Distance Between Us" by Darren McGarvey
Another review, another great work of nonfiction that I am reading to meet my nonfiction goals this year. 2024 has undoubtedly been a great year for nonfiction books and has featured many that I have actually enjoyed reading (some a little bit more than fiction as well). This particular book focuses on how inequality in Britain is becoming worse in terms of class divides. The name might suggest it is mainly about the pandemic, but this is not the case.
Annie KapurPublished 5 days ago in GeeksBrideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Known as one of the most conflicting English novels of the war eras and represents the greater age concerning the downfall of the aristocracy. It’s full title being “Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder” leaves a lot to be imagined about what is so ‘profane’ about these memories and why the other memories are opposing these. Charles Ryder is the main character of a narrative that spans somewhere to 20 years and it tells the story of his relations with a strange aristocratic family named ‘The Flytes’.
Annie KapurPublished 6 days ago in GeeksBook Review: "Limitarianism" by Ingrid Robeyns
I was seeing this book everywhere on the Penguin Books Twitter page and on news websites regarding newly released nonfiction. Had I ever wanted to read a book about economic inequality? No. Why? I'll be frank. I find it difficult to understand economic jargon. So again, I have had to sit with Google open in order to look up things I don't fully understand. In this relatively short book, the author seems to go through many ideas about how 'limitarianism' could work and basically makes a great case against having a large sum of wealth which could in turn, increase economic inequality. Let's take a look at some of the main talking points and what I thought of them.
Annie KapurPublished 7 days ago in GeeksBook Review: "In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts" by Gabor Mate
At the core of every addiction is an emptiness based in abject fear. The addict dreads and abhors the present moment; she bends feverishly only toward the next time, the moment when her brain, infused with her drug of choice, will briefly experience itself as liberated from the burden of the past and the fear of the future—the two elements that make the present intolerable. - 'In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts' by Gabor Mate
Annie KapurPublished 8 days ago in GeeksThe Potential Transformation of Deku into a Super Villain
In the vibrant world of heroes and villains, one character stands out for his unwavering determination and unyielding spirit: Deku. Izuku Midoriya, famously known as Deku, is the epitome of a hero in training, striving to become the greatest hero the world has ever known. However, what if circumstances had been different? What if the path he walked led him astray? This article delves into the hypothetical scenario of Deku taking a darker turn, exploring the intricate facets of his character and the potential for him to become a formidable super villain.
JRManglicmotPublished 9 days ago in GeeksBook Review: "Tropic of Cancer" by Henry Miller
“...the monstrous thing is not that men have created roses out of this dung heap, but that, for some reason or other, they should want roses. For some reason or other man looks for the miracle, and to accomplish it he will wade through blood. He will debauch himself with ideas, he will reduce himself to a shadow if for only one second of his life he can close his eyes to the hideousness of reality. Everything is endured- disgrace, humiliation, poverty, war, crime, ennui- in the belief that overnight something will occur, a miracle, which will render life tolerable. And all the while a meter is running inside and there is no hand that can reach in there and shut it off.” 'Tropic of Cancer' by Henry Miller
Annie KapurPublished 9 days ago in Geeks