Annie Kapur
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I am:
🙋🏽♀️ Annie
📚 Avid Reader
📝 Reviewer and Commentator
🎓 Post-Grad Millennial (M.A)
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I have:
📖 300K+ reads on Vocal
🫶🏼 Love for reading & research
🦋/X @AnnieWithBooks
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🏡 UK
Stories (2883)
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Book Review: "The Collected Dorothy Parker" by Dorothy Parker
I'm not a big Dorothy Parker reader and have only read a tiny bit in my time. I am by no means a fan. I'm going to be very honest with you here. There was a deal on the online used bookstore and so, I needed a good, cheap book to add to the deal so I could get one of my books for free. I'm looking at doing the same thing but I'm not sure which book I want for free. Anyways, Dorothy Parker's stories have been more entertaining than her poetry (which I'm more on the fence about). So here we go: a review of The Collected Dorothy Parker. And let's keep it to the good stuff, shall we?
By Annie Kapur7 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "The Scent of Dried Roses" by Tim Lott
Used bookshops are all the rage if you've got a little bit of money in your pocket. Some books are as cheap as perhaps a few pounds and of course, therefore much cheaper than Amazon - including sometimes Amazon's digital borrowing service. I recently hankered around some used online bookshops and found a few texts that were sort of random. I'm going to admit I didn't read the backs of them before buying - I just bought ones that were cheap and on sale. This is the first of the books in that realm, about family, mental illness, suicide all set against a backdrop of an ever-changing Southall, London...
By Annie Kapur7 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Selfish Girls" by Abigail Bergstrom
I'm shuffling around lately and that means my reading is shuffling too. I'm trying to read stuff that I probably wouldn't normally pick up and one of those books is Selfish Girls by Abigail Bergstrom. I have to say that the beginning of the novel definitely draws us in, but as it plays out, the reader can get very annoyed by the characters. I'm not sure whether that is the point, but I definitely believe that there are characters that the reader can connect with easier than others. The novel explores generational trauma and womanhood. I will have to say though, even though it does explore these themes it is still a novel that is blind to class as I did find myself thinking in more than one instance that these are very middle class issues.
By Annie Kapur7 months ago in Geeks
Pennhurst State School and Hospital
Welcome to this week's episode of 'Why It's Shifty' and today we're looking at the Pennhurst State School and Hospital. For those of you who are interested, the Pennhurst Asylum was basically one of the worst things that has happened to the mentally ill and the intellectually disabled in the history of the western world. Some of the details of what happened during the stays of people at this hospital are distressing and so, reader discretion is advised.
By Annie Kapur7 months ago in Geeks
Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
Death in Venice is a novella by the German auhor Thomas Mann (who appears somewhat on my list of greatest books with an entry titled Lotte in Weimar). It was originally published in 1912 under the name Der Tod in Venedig and it still stands as one of his most studied pieces. If you did not believe that Thomas Mann was a master of psychological insight before then you sure as hell will when reading this incredible, and slightly controversial, text. Mann had already become a big name in the literature world with the success of his novel Buddenbrooks written just over a decade before. Unlike his former novel, Death in Venice seems more like a study in decay - the decay of both the body and the spirit.
By Annie Kapur7 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Glamorous Notions" by Megan Chance
So I'm back to reading some books on my phone (which is why you won't find a 'photograph taken by me' on the front seeing as I take the photos with my phone and well, I simply can't do it). One of the books I got was called Glamorous Notions which, I know, doesn't look like my kind of book at all. I tend to avoid the whole 'Hollywood inspired vapid espionage book' altogether. But I have to say that this one, with its frequent flashbacks and the hidden past of the protagonist which slowly gets unfolded, makes for a genuinely interesting read. So, even though I perhaps wasn't fully on board with it - I definitely enjoyed it enough to feature it here with (I might add) a pretty good score...
By Annie Kapur7 months ago in Geeks
Lime and Coconut Cupcakes
I think I’ve done these before and often I’ve filled them with raspberries because that simply makes a classic flavour combination. This time though, I’ve opted for filling them with blueberries mainly because I wanted them to taste slightly different. I go for a lot of coconut and before you’re asking whether I actually eat these, the answer is no because I do not like coconut myself. But, other people around me love it and so I opt for quite a bit. Let’s not dwell on whether I’ll eat them myself and get to the recipe then. This comes complete with a buttercream recipe for the icing and how I made it.
By Annie Kapur7 months ago in Feast
Book Review: "The Old Patagonian Express" by Paul Theroux
In My First 20 Books of 2020, I checked out The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux and got the idea that this guy must really like his railway journey. The COVID-19 pandemic was a crazy time for us all and I was looking forward to travelling without travelling (I mean, as I travelled much anyway!). I found it fun and engaging and of course, so atmospheric that I honestly felt like I was there. In his more famed book The Old Patagonian Express, Paul Theroux definitely reignites this travel narrative joy in all of us. I'm not normally a travel narrative girl, but this is an author I will return to whenever I do want to read them.
By Annie Kapur7 months ago in Geeks
The Rise of Pseudo-Intellectualism...
Well, I guess it's storytime again: so I was having a bit of a back-and-forth with someone on Facebook who was constantly sending images of Rousseau quotations taken from Google images and ideas they had read from ChatGPT on philosophy in order to argue their point. It was all too clear that they hadn't actually read any philosophy and probably even clearer that they had never read a book before. Be that as it may, they were convinced they were right until I asked them for proof of their claims. Then they never responded to me and backed down. I feel like they accepted their loss and were just too embarrassed to return to the conversation. Say hello to another hellscape that ChatGPT and Social Media have vomitted up: pseudo-intellectualism.
By Annie Kapur7 months ago in Geeks
Cheese and Onion Scones
I'm not going to make a series out of this, I'm just going to post things that I make sporadically because I feel like I post enough anyway. Baking has always been my side-thing. Some time ago I was going to turn it into a business but after thinking about it, I decided that it would suck the joy and fun out of everything. Scones are something I quite like making and coming up with new savoury scones is something I like because I feel that the classic sweet scone can’t be messed with. Savoury scones though? the recipe is up for grabs. Let’s take a look at it then…
By Annie Kapur7 months ago in Feast
Book Review: "Night Walks" by Charles Dickens
Reading Dickens is always a treat as the nights become darker and the weather gets a little chilly. I make it a habit of re-reading stories like The Signal-Man around this time because it makes me feel all warm and cosy inside. As we run up to cold weather and of course, Halloween - stories set in the nighttime or those that feel a bit eerie definitely give us a whole new sense of atmosphere. I'm very happy that the horrible hot weather is going and now, I can be depressed and cold in peace. At least I have a good book and I'm wrapped up warm.
By Annie Kapur7 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Exterminator!" by William S. Burroughs
As you know, my encounters with William S Burroughs have been a bit here and there. I have often enjoyed his works but, then again some have missed the mark entirely. Some years' ago I read The Wild Boys which was definitely in the middle of that line it seems, though tipping over to the side of enjoyment from time to time. When I read Queer however, I found out what the problem really was: that it would have been much better if it wasn't William S. Burroughs who had written it. So, let's explore what I thought of the fragmentary experimental novel Exterminator! where yet again, Burroughs has planted himself firmly (it seems) in the autobiography of the character and plot.
By Annie Kapur7 months ago in Geeks
