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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đ 280K+ reads on Vocal
đ«¶đŒ Love for reading & research
đŠ/X @AnnieWithBooks
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đĄ UK
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"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 Kapur5 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 Kapur5 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 Kapur5 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 Kapur5 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
âLes Miserablesâ by Victor Hugo
Itâs been a long time since I first read âLes Miserablesâ by Victor Hugo and I am going to be perfectly honest with you that I was about fourteen when I first tackled it. I kept a notebook with all the characters and how they interacted with each other. I had a flowchart as well and after two weeks or so I had finished the book. Again, Iâm not going to pretend that I found it easy - I sat there with a dictionary some of the time and mostly I was kind of scratching my head over some of the concepts. It was definitely a difficult read and when I had finished the book, I felt a sense of massive accomplishment that I hadnât felt before. I felt like Iâd done something a lot of people donât do at 14, no matter how long it took me. The book actually changed my perception of French History and really got me into studying the revolutions in France. I read a multitude of books on the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars and the June Rebellion after that. The history of the book was absolutely electrifying. It really made you want to get up and seek out a revolution.
By Annie Kapur6 years ago in Geeks
20 Books of 2020 (Pt.38)
I would first like to say how shocked and amazed I am at the response I have gotten for wanting to open up my network and beginning talking to people a lot more. Many, many people have followed me on Instagram since I've gone public and they are all such nice people as well. Everyone seems to be a part of this giant book network in which everyone follows everyone else and they talk about certain books and types of book on a per monthly or, per genre basis. It is really quite something and may be able to help me in my first stages of socialising and improving the social skills I require.
By Annie Kapur6 years ago in Geeks
"Life with a Capital L" by DH Lawrence
I only read this book recently in the past two years or so. I discovered it whilst looking for an essays book to read and initially, I was considering the essays of Saul Bellow - but when DH Lawrence popped up, I knew I couldnât miss that opportunity. I had already read so much by DH Lawrence and I remember enjoying âSons and Loversâ in a cafe whilst by myself some years before. Unlike Saul Bellow, every memory I had of DH Lawrence was relatively good. My first experience of reading this book though, was incredible. I would lie on the floor in the summerâs heat and mark my favourite quotations because it was just so satirical. I would then proceed to write small quotations from the book on a piece of card and then, place the pieces of card inside a jar (which I still have) because there were some quotations in that book that you just donât miss out on for your life. It completely changed my opinion of DH Lawrence just as this slightly humorous provincial writer. He was now a master of humour, darkness and had risen to the status of literary genius in my eyes. I thought this book was fantastic and it has become my favourite DH Lawrence book of all time. Even surpassing âSons and Loversâ.
By Annie Kapur6 years ago in Geeks
