literature
Geek literature from the New York Times or the recesses of online. Our favorite stories showcase geeks.
6 Fantastic Fiction Books That Got Me Back Into Reading in 2020
Suffice to say 2020 was a difficult year for just about everyone. I was better placed than a lot of folks (already working remotely, living with my parents) but even so, I struggled. I’m in a long-distance marriage, I transitioned from a corporate job to freelance work, there was a dramatic election cycle, and of course, there’s an ongoing global pandemic.
By Zulie Rane5 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "The Flood" by J.M.G Le Clézio
J.M.G Le Clézio wrote “The Flood” about a person who was about to commit suicide and, in reading about the way in which death and suicide are covered in this book made me want to take my time with it. Unlike his novel “Terra Amata”, “The Flood” is very disturbing in its sense of existentialism when it is directly to do with a very specific death. The book itself is a brilliant representation of all the extremities of human emotion and all the existential thoughts that come along with being alone for far too long. It is, in my opinion, one of JMG Clezio’s best works and the book itself is a brilliantly written piece of crisis and melancholy. The writing style is so overwhelming that this is one of the reasons why I took my time reading this one. I just wanted to take a breather whilst reading it, breathing in and out with the incredible descriptions tinged by the emotions of the human experience in which the reader gets to see the inner-workings of an analysis of suicide and attempted suicide.
By Annie Kapur5 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Henry and June" by Anaïs Nin
Anais Nin, writer of "A Spy in the House of Love", met Henry Miller and his wife June and immediately became intensely involved with both of them. The book is a brilliant presentation of how love manipulates and moves, how it changes over time and how affection is different to obsession. But I think it is also important to think about the way in which it is written sometimes over-the-top and cannot really be comprehended too well. I would say that sometimes the writing can also be a bit annoying because there are far too many words that are not really saying anything. When I was going through to pick out the quotations, I was looking for ones that represented the writing style as something positive and not something that annoyed me slightly.
By Annie Kapur5 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Heat Wave" by Penelope Lively
Penelope Lively’s books are always filled with one great thing and this book is no exception - this great thing is amazing and vivid descriptions of the surrounding area blended with atmospheric moods and different hues of emotion. Her writing is a brilliant way of analysing landscape in the modern era and how it is manipulated to suit a certain situation and mood. For example: in “Heat Wave” we get these images of a place called “World’s End” which is described as being almost altered by each and every movement of emotion in the book. When we learn about the weird affairs that are happening in the book we see the atmosphere around World’s End change with it and I think that this is the single greatest thing about the book. The descriptions are written with such character and fine wording it sounds like Penelope Lively chose each individual word to put in that quotation.
By Annie Kapur5 years ago in Geeks
5 YA Book Series I Wish Were Made Into Movies/TV Shows
My favorite type of literature is hands down Young Adult or YA fiction. Even at 22 years old, books about teenagers and pre-teens coming of age and going on quests in an adult-dominated world are exciting to me. YA books bring out the kid in all of us and present the world in a way that is more optimistic than adult fiction while still forcing us to confront the harsh realities of it. In a way, it shows us the way that the world is, while also showing us the way that the world could be.
By C.R. Hughes5 years ago in Geeks
Review of 'The Good Girls'
One of Us Is Lying meets Sadie in this twisty, feminist thriller for the Me Too era. The troublemaker. The overachiever. The cheer captain. The dead girl. Like every high school in America, Jefferson-Lorne High contains all of the above. After the shocking murder of senior Emma Baines, three of her classmates are at the top of the suspect list: Claude, the notorious partier; Avery, the head cheerleader; and Gwen, the would-be valedictorian. But appearances are never what they seem. And the truth behind what really happened to Emma may just be lying in plain sight. As long buried secrets come to light, the clock is ticking to find Emma's killer--before another good girl goes down.
By Cyn's Workshop5 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "The Slave" by Isaac Bashevis Singer
Isaac Bashevis Singer writes this story about a slave named Jacob and his wonder with a strange woman named Wanda. But it is not just a story, it is a forbidden love that cannot happen but the two of them push through the brutality and the very risk of being beaten to the point of having a near-death experience. I would say that this book is about more than just forbidden love though. Instead, it is actually more about struggle and defiance. There are many references to whether anyone is actually up there or not and whether they are even listening if they are. But there are also passages of almost debilitating loneliness in which the protagonist crumbles very existentially whilst he contemplates his place in the world as being something either meaningful with one situation and entirely meaningless with another. It is a feature I have seen of many Isaac Bashevis Singer books including "The Penitent" and "The Magician of Lublin".
By Annie Kapur5 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "The Good Woman of Setzuan" by Bertolt Brecht
The one problem I have always had with Bertolt Brecht was the fact that all of his books are just him shoving his head so far up his own arse when it comes to his philosophical bullshit that there is really no entertainment there. I feel like the only people who read Brecht belong to one of two groups:
By Annie Kapur5 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Half a Lifelong Romance" by Eileen Chang
Eileen Chang's novels are somewhat always tinged with something of sadness and tragedy that is very real and this is rejection. The rejection of the love story between two people by other characters just feels so real and feels so intense that you do feel like you are partaking in this one, single moment. Throughout the rest of the book, these two people try to get back to each other almost "Romeo and Juliet" style. There is also something deeply intimate about the way in which the descriptions are written. When I say this, I mean the way the atmospheres are described to us, the way in which the characters seem to move almost either in real time, or much slower. When these two people are apart, time moves slower, when the rejection happens, time seems almost painfully slow and things happen in concordance to how the atmosphere depicts them. If they are most intense, the passage of time slows down to the point of it almost stopping at this absolutely terrifying, intimate and painful moment.
By Annie Kapur5 years ago in Geeks
