Annie Kapur
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I am:
đđœââïž Annie
đ Avid Reader
đ Reviewer and Commentator
đ Post-Grad Millennial (M.A)
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I have:
đ 300K+ reads on Vocal
đ«¶đŒ Love for reading & research
đŠ/X @AnnieWithBooks
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đĄ UK
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"The Brothers" by Masha Gessen
I read this book when I was about twenty years old, so around a year after the book was actually released and honestly, this book scared the living daylights out of me. I donât think I slept well for a long time after reading it and yet, when it was finished, I read it over and over - trying to make myself believe that it wasnât real. But the only problem is that all of it was real. It all actually happened and not a single detail had been missed out. This is a book that is basically our generationâs answer to Truman Capoteâs âIn Cold Bloodâ and like Capoteâs novel it takes two people from a very human background and sticks them in a situation that endangers them, turns them inside out and indoctrinates them. I have read this book so many times and I think that it should be required reading in high schools all over the world. It is one of those books that teaches you about how people can just turn bad because of their struggles, can commit crimes because of their problems and can hurt others purely out of the want to cause chaos and dread in every single person around them. This book is all about the two brothers that committed the horrifying Boston Marathon Bombings in April, 2013. I remember seeing it on the news and really, I donât think I had ever seen such a horrific sight on TV since the Twin Towers came down. To think that the living brother is only a year or so older than me makes me want to be sick. He is and will always be an absolutely terrible human being.
By Annie Kapur6 years ago in Geeks
"Billy Budd, Sailor" by Herman Melville
I first read this book when I was in school and it was shortly after I read Moby-Dick by the same author. The real reason that I initially picked up this shorter work by Herman Melville was initially because I recognised the authorâs name and in fact, I thought stupidly that they were a part of some series. Even though I was disappointed when they werenât a part of some series, I read it anyway and Iâm going to be perfectly honest that the first time I read it, I didnât get it. So I read it again because I thought Iâd missed something - and then it hit me. This book is a religious allegory of the treatment of Jesus by the Romans. The way in which people like Clagart treat Billy Budd is a very similar situation but it is when Billy Budd reacts that he is punished and it is for this punishment that everyone else suffers greatly. I only realised later that there were many literary criticisms published on this book and honestly, they were all so interesting because I had such an extensive memory of reading and experiencing the book. I could really get lost in those articles that examined the instances of violence and punishment in so much grand detail. I have been amazed with every piece of literary criticism I have found on this book so far and hopefully, I will find more soon.
By Annie Kapur6 years ago in Geeks
"The Haunting of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson
I first read this book when I was about fourteen yearsâ old and honestly I can say that I lost a lot of sleep afterwards. I found it in the library and the copy was a bit tattered and old, it looked like it had been there for a while and I took it home to read at night time. Honestly, I didnât think it was going to be that bad because by that time, Iâd already read and watched William Peter Blattyâs âThe Exorcistâ and read a bit of Stephen King. I was pretty solid during my teens. But this book is a book that literally chilled me because different to all of those, it was a book in which your mind is completely turned and twisted and even the language makes you swallow your pride. The book is a reality of one woman who slowly loses it and yet, you lose it with her. Itâs almost impossible not to feel the book in your body whilst your going through the insanity of its history, its story and every single one of its three dimensional, dark and flawed characters. Before you ask, I wasnât a big fan of the TV show even though I did watch it - it didnât seem to have anything similar to the book but the name. I hope they donât do the same thing with âThe Turn of the Screwâ by Henry James. I really hope they donât. But, Carla Gugino was stunning as always.
By Annie Kapur6 years ago in Horror
"Absalom, Absalom!" by William Faulkner
Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner is probably one of my favourite novels of all time, and if you remember my post on my top five favourite novels ever you wouldâve noticed that Faulknerâs epic drama is at number five. Clearly one of the greatest novels ever written, Faulknerâs story tells the tale of a man called Thomas Sutpen who, with too much greed and power gathers his machiavellian self to commit to a life of the American Dream in the most Southern Gothic way ever imagined. But, as his life comes down crumbling around him like the Gardens of Babylon, this Biblical-Scaled tragedy is far darker than it first seems. I remember first reading this when I was sixteen yearsâ old and I immediately fell in love with Faulknerâs writing style. It was the first Faulkner I read and straight afterwards, I began âLight in Augustâ and âAs I Lay Dyingâ - I finished his entire bibliography only recently because for some reason I missed âIntruder in the Dustâ for about six years until three months ago. But, in my re-reads of Absalom, Absalom!, I can honestly say that I have discovered far more about the Southern Gothic than I ever got from any other work of literature ever.
By Annie Kapur6 years ago in Geeks
"A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini
I wouldnât be so surprised, a lot of Asian Girls have this as one of their favourite books ever because for the first time, we get a raw insight into what life is like for the women we are in the war. I read it for the first time maybe a year or so after it was released. It was released in 2007 and I read it in 2009 - so there we go. I loved this book from the very first time I read it. I re-read the book in 2012 because we had a read of it in school and then, I re-read it again in 2015 because I just felt like it and I was in the middle of university needing some respite. Itâs one of those books that no matter how many times you read it - it will never fail to move you. It moves you emotionally and psychologically to a different place and the way in which it tells this story of women during a horrid war is almost too heartbreaking to read. The ending brings it all together and makes it half worth while and also leaves us with heartache for our characters. Itâs a saga and a journey and definitely Khaled Hosseiniâs greatest novel.
By Annie Kapur6 years ago in Geeks
"The Talented Mr. Ripley" by Patricia Highsmith
When I was about twelve or thirteen, I found this book in the school library and obviously, due to the fact that it was bright red and the book next to it was bright greenish-blue (âStrangers on a Trainâ) I picked them both up and took them home with me. Both of them had an equally profound impact on the way I think about literature but I seem to remember more of my experience reading âThe Talented Mr. Ripleyâ. I was not a huge fan of the film (and I didnât get around to watching it until I was about fifteen) but the book was something else. When I read this book I felt all of this tension wash over me and I think this book is possibly the reason for many of my trust issues when it comes to meeting new people. All in all, in every re-read of this book I can honestly say that there is a tiny bit of me that feels some sympathy for Tom Ripley, but another bit of me that wants to just simply punch him. When you read it, you figure out how easy it is to become someone else, and yet how difficult it is to keep up the ruse. Itâs one of those machiavellian novels where you cannot help but think about the fact that there may be someone out there, doing this exact same thing right now and nobody will ever know.
By Annie Kapur6 years ago in Geeks
"The Beast Within" by Emile Zola
This book was one of my favourite books when I was a teen purely because I thought it was a raucous and raging event of pure irony. It really made me fall in love with Emile Zolaâs works, even more than âTherese Raquinâ and thatâs saying something. Itâs a deliciously dark book that you cannot help but love. Itâs psychological, at moments it can be terrifying and in some parts it can even make you emotional. I think that this is possibly Zolaâs greatest effort at the novel and has a brilliant sense of futurism to it that many fail to recognise. It is Zolaâs magnum opus and Iâve read it quite a few times since. Itâs a brilliant novel in which you learn a new thing about the psychological aspect every time you revisit it.
By Annie Kapur6 years ago in Geeks
âThe House of the Spiritsâ by Isabel Allende
I first read this book whilst I was in university, I was about 20 yearsâ old and it was the first semester of the new year. I spent a lot of time reading this book and so, I got it completed in just under two days. The reading experience of it was absolutely brilliant and so very immersive. For the next year and half I could not stop talking about it. I kept recommending it to everyone and everyone I knew who had read it, loved it so very much. I was completely enamoured with the characters, the atmosphere and the whole rich cultural history of the book. I read it more than once obviously because this book changed my perception of the entire aspect of Latin American Fiction altogether. It was one of those books which allowed my scope to expand ten-fold and after that, I proceeded to read everything by Isabel Allende. But nothing was quite as an experience as âThe House of the Spiritsâ.
By Annie Kapur6 years ago in Geeks
"Pensées" by Blaise Pascal
PensĂ©es by Blaise Pascal, also known as âthoughtsâ in English, is one of the most heavily disputed texts in the history of Catholic Theology. This is mostly because of the order of the text since it was published after the death of its author. Initially, the second and complete edition was first published in 1670 but the more popular translation of the text into English by WF Trotter was published in 1958 and there have been other translations in between, each with their own approach to not only the translations of certain more philosophical French phrases, but they also have differentiating interpretations of the order of the text and the way in which they are organised.
By Annie Kapur6 years ago in Geeks
âThe Heart is a Lonely Hunterâ by Carson McCullers
I first read this book in my teens after finding it in the local library and I was absolutely enamoured with it. I fell in love with the book almost immediately and there was something incredibly inspiring about it. Carson McCullers is an incredible writer and her style of prose has always been so emotionally driven that she is possibly one of my favourite writers of all time. My first reading experience of this book was sublime. I didnât need anyone to tell me to read it or recommend it to me, I found it and it was well worth the find. I felt like Iâd stumbled across a goldmine. It totally changed my opinion of American Literature, I realised that there was a whole world out there I hadnât read yet and that Carson McCullers was one of the authors who started the process for me. You would not believe how happy I was.
By Annie Kapur6 years ago in Geeks
"Barkskins" by Annie Proulx
âBarkskinsâ by Annie Proulx, the writer of âBrokeback Mountainâ and âThe Shipping Newsâ has often been described as âbold and visionaryâ or âenergeticâ with hints of âuncompromising splendourâ and âextraordinary powerâ by various reviews. The reason for these powerful adjectives in use here is primarily because of the way in which nature is depicted throughout the novel. The novel centres around nature as the destruction of the forests seems to be the main point of concern throughout the entire novel for almost every generation of character and yet, the characters cannot seem to stop the violent push-backs that nature is giving them with brute force. Much like the push-back of the natural world in âFrankensteinâ when the doctor tries to work nature to his own plans, âBarkskinsâ demonstrates that humans are a minor part of the natural landscape and however long we are here, the landscape will outlive us, it will be more powerful than we are and ultimately, it will always be above us in ways we could never comprehend. A sublime take on the destruction of the forest, this book seeks out characters who live and die by harvesting wood and ultimately they pay great prices for it. The natural world does not though, just include the forest areas, it also includes the natural landscape, the weather and the way in which night and day are described as being different atmospheres to different characters at different times.
By Annie Kapur6 years ago in Geeks
The Best Works: Cormac McCarthy
Cormac McCarthy was born on the 20th of July, 1933 in Rhode Island in the USA - he was one of six children born to an Irish-Catholic couple called Gladys and Charles. When McCarthy was 4, his family relocated to Knoxville, Tennessee because of his father's job and by 1941, after moving to various places over Knoxville, the family finally settled in the south section of the city.
By Annie Kapur6 years ago in Geeks
