Annie Kapur
Bio
I am:
🙋🏽♀️ Annie
📚 Avid Reader
📝 Reviewer and Commentator
🎓 Post-Grad Millennial (M.A)
***
I have:
📖 280K+ reads on Vocal
🫶🏼 Love for reading & research
🦋/X @AnnieWithBooks
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🏡 UK
Stories (2897)
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Book Review: "Carthage" by Joyce Carol Oates
My most recent read by Joyce Carol Oates before this was My Life as a Rat and honestly, I could not help but compare that to her novel The Book of American Martyrs when it comes to the morality argument and how our perception of what is good and right are challenged. This is probably also true for this novel entitled Carthage in which we must also have to face that perhaps, not knowing the whole story means that we will judge things at face value. It is only after that will we be taught the entirety of the story. Let's take a look...
By Annie Kapur9 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "The Great Passion" by James Runcie
They do say you should never judge a book by its cover but when I saw this book I went 'huh, that looks like a really interesting book.' Plus, after reading strictly more modern things for a while if we minus the Crime Classics, I was looking forward to something more historical. Again, this is another library book since everyone is sick of me spending my pay on buying used books. I was quite surprised that this seemingly short book was actually as good as it was and now, here I am to talk to you about it. I cannot help but recommend this to you already. On the surface, it seems simple enough, but there is something much deeper and much more quintessentially human going on...
By Annie Kapur9 months ago in Geeks
Weighing in on the AI Slop Problem . Top Story - April 2025.
There have been some people perhaps waiting for this: I am about to weigh in on the AI Slop problem that is persisting throughout the realm of Vocal's subcategories. To me, there are three separate sections of the problem and though some are quite annoying, there is one issue with this form of content which is pernicious and vile. I will be addressing that one last in this article. Here's how it will go: I'll start with the most obvious issue, the second one will be a more mid-level problem (again annoying but can and is being dealt with) and the last one will be the most horrid of them all.
By Annie Kapur9 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "My Life as a Rat" by Joyce Carol Oates
I really enjoy going to the library. It really is one of the only indoor public spaces in which you can exist without spending money. You can go in, grab a book and sit down in the cafe without buying anything and nobody tries to kick you out. I like sitting in the cafe because it's right next to the window and so you get a lot of sunlight. I also enjoy reading some Joyce Carol Oates works even though the author herself is a bit on the snobby side. The book My Life as a Rat reflects themes that I saw in The Book of American Martyrs in which people are put in morally perilous positions. So, let's take a look at what I enjoyed about this book.
By Annie Kapur9 months ago in Geeks
Thomas Edison: Murderer?
Thomas Edison: genius inventor, American icon, and perhaps something far more sinister. History remembers him as the brilliant mind behind the light bulb and the phonograph, the so-called ‘Wizard of Menlo Park’. But what if his success wasn’t built on genius alone? What if it was built on deception, sabotage, and even murder?
By Annie Kapur9 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Black Days" by Jackson Ellis
I had never heard of this book, nor had I heard of the author. I simple just found it on my recommendations list on Amazon. I would have got it at the library but it was on Kindle Unlimited and they didn't have it in the library. I wanted something that was going to be edging on the psychological thriller routine but wasn't one of those 'married couple finds out one of them is a psycho' things. At the beginning, I thought it was going to be more like a horror novel, but as it goes on it turns almost into a Sci-Fi. I'm still not sure what to think about it. I will say that if you enjoy dark Sci-Fi films then this is for you. I liked it, it just wasn't what I thought it would be.
By Annie Kapur9 months ago in Geeks
Forbidden Colours by Yukio Mishima
Forbidden Colours (Kinjiki) by Yukio Mishima was first published in serialised form from 1950 to 1951 in the Japanese magazine Gunzo. The completed novel was then released in 1953. Written during a period of intense post-war change in Japan, the novel reflects Mishima's own explorations of sexuality, beauty, and the interplay between social taboos and personal desires. The title itself refers to a concept in Japanese culture; “forbidden colours” connotes homosexuality or love that cannot be openly acknowledged.
By Annie Kapur9 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "The Complete Short Stories" by Muriel Spark
I've read some Muriel Spark in my time. It's usually been The Driver's Seat and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. But, honestly I've been looking more into her work and someone suggested I read her short stories. I had been meaning to for a while but to be honest, the more I read the summary of the collection the less interested I became. And this is a lesson in why even if you read the summary, you should still be interested in finding your own perspective on the book. I actually quite enjoyed it. So, let's have a look at what was going on in there...
By Annie Kapur9 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "The Picador Book of Funeral Poems" ed. by Don Paterson
Do you remember when I read the ‘Penguin Book of Elegy’ and made myself really upset because of all the sad poetry? Well, I’ve done it again. I’m really sad because I have read yet another book of funeral poems. ‘The Picador Book of Funeral Poems’ is a collection of some of the more famous verses dedicated to the dead and grieved whilst the ‘Penguin Book of Elegy’ might be a little bit more meatier for those of you who don’t want the feeling of depression and sadness to end. ‘The Picador Book of Funeral Poems’ is, like our earlier book, split into various sections that deal with different emotions and ideas. Some of these poems are really long and others are very short. The shortest I saw in the book was by Sappho who simply wrote ‘my darling…’ So, let’s take a look at the strengths of this book and why exactly I sat and read the entire thing in about an hour and a half.
By Annie Kapur9 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Tea on Sunday" by Lettice Cooper
Yes, I'm still reading the British Library Crime Classics collection and basically getting together all I can that is free and on Kindle Unlimited. If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times - these and the 'Tales of the Weird' collection normally have loads available on Kindle Unlimited if you're willing to pay £8 a month to read as many as you feel like. Tea on Sunday by Lettice Cooper was written later than the usual Golden Age of British Crime but still has the flavour of an old-time mystery novel. I was glad I got this on Kindle Unlimited because when I looked it up again, it wasn't on offer anymore.
By Annie Kapur9 months ago in Geeks
Are You a Coca-Cola Person?
Background and Context: Disclaimer: This article was written quite a while back and I forgot to release it. Forgive me I've been doing some reflecting as I have now reached the age where drinking a whole can of coke in one day will make me quite ill indeed. I have owned by fair share of Coca-Cola merchandise in my life and yet, I have also realised that this is a soft drink. Why in God's name can I buy t-shirts, calendars, pencil cases, and even branded kitchen equipment made by Coca-Cola? It is something that I just think is very strange. I first read about something to do with this when Rory Sutherland did a breakdown of Red Bull's marketing strategy in his book "Alchemy". So, how did Coca-Cola become the ultimate symbol of the Modern American Lifestyle? As someone from the UK, I have always associated America with Coca-Cola. But this isn't organic. It's by design.
By Annie Kapur9 months ago in Psyche
