Annie Kapur
Bio
200K+ Reads on Vocal.
English Lecturer
🎓Literature & Writing (B.A)
🎓Film & Writing (M.A)
🎓Secondary English Education (PgDipEd) (QTS)
📍Birmingham, UK
Stories (1970/0)
Book Review: "The Gravedigger's Daughter" by Joyce Carol Oates
“Three days later on October 29, 1959, the Pontiac registered in the name of Niles Tignor would be discovered, gas tank near-empty, keys on the floorboards beneath the front seat, in a parking lot close by the Greyhound bus station in Rome, New York.” - The Gravedigger's Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates
By Annie Kapurabout 13 hours ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Sedated" by James Davies
Full Title: Sedated: How Modern Capitalism Created Our Mental Health Crisis by James Davies I am still on my nonfiction binge and honestly, I am a little bit worried I might be 'doom reading' myself into sadness but I'm not sure whether I want to stop just yet. This book is called Sedated and is about the over-medicalisation and over-medicating of our entire culture despite the fact in the past 20 years, there has been way more of a focus on mental health. I am glad that we seem to be waking up to something I said about five years' ago. The question is: if there is so much emphasis on mental health help and wellbeing then why is it that our mental health across the western world has progressively been plummeting? Well, its our entire culture that is causing it. It goes from the over-medicating of our everyday ill feelings all the way to our disengagement with our work and even further.
By Annie Kapura day ago in Geeks
Book Review: "How They Broke Britain" by James O'Brien
There are times when you find a really good book and think to yourself 'I'm going to savour this one'. Then there are books like this where it is still really good but instead you think 'ah, let's relive this trauma...' The showboating carousel of politics in the UK has definitely been in shambles since 2010 but the efforts of the kangaroo cabinet of the Pandemic Era definitely took the biscuit as quite possibly the worst case scenario. Brexit had not been delivered properly, a global virus was spreading quickly and the folks of the United Kingdom were trapped in their homes being led by a bumbling fool of a Prime Minister and his horrific attempts at government which mainly involved him covering up lies he'd told the previous day. In an era that will definitely turn into a case study, this book doesn't just teach us about the things we didn't know, but makes us realise how what we did know was just ridiculous.
By Annie Kapur3 days ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Mothering Sunday" by Graham Swift
“Words were like an invisible skin, enwrapping the world and giving it reality. Yet you could not say the world would not be there, would not be real if you took away the words. At best it seemed that things might bless the words that distinguished them, and that words might bless everything.” - Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift.
By Annie Kapur4 days ago in Geeks
Book Review: "The Social Distance Between Us" by Darren McGarvey
Another review, another great work of nonfiction that I am reading to meet my nonfiction goals this year. 2024 has undoubtedly been a great year for nonfiction books and has featured many that I have actually enjoyed reading (some a little bit more than fiction as well). This particular book focuses on how inequality in Britain is becoming worse in terms of class divides. The name might suggest it is mainly about the pandemic, but this is not the case.
By Annie Kapur5 days ago in Geeks
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Known as one of the most conflicting English novels of the war eras and represents the greater age concerning the downfall of the aristocracy. It’s full title being “Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder” leaves a lot to be imagined about what is so ‘profane’ about these memories and why the other memories are opposing these. Charles Ryder is the main character of a narrative that spans somewhere to 20 years and it tells the story of his relations with a strange aristocratic family named ‘The Flytes’.
By Annie Kapur6 days ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Limitarianism" by Ingrid Robeyns
I was seeing this book everywhere on the Penguin Books Twitter page and on news websites regarding newly released nonfiction. Had I ever wanted to read a book about economic inequality? No. Why? I'll be frank. I find it difficult to understand economic jargon. So again, I have had to sit with Google open in order to look up things I don't fully understand. In this relatively short book, the author seems to go through many ideas about how 'limitarianism' could work and basically makes a great case against having a large sum of wealth which could in turn, increase economic inequality. Let's take a look at some of the main talking points and what I thought of them.
By Annie Kapur7 days ago in Geeks
Book Review: "In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts" by Gabor Mate
At the core of every addiction is an emptiness based in abject fear. The addict dreads and abhors the present moment; she bends feverishly only toward the next time, the moment when her brain, infused with her drug of choice, will briefly experience itself as liberated from the burden of the past and the fear of the future—the two elements that make the present intolerable. - 'In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts' by Gabor Mate
By Annie Kapur7 days ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Tropic of Cancer" by Henry Miller
“...the monstrous thing is not that men have created roses out of this dung heap, but that, for some reason or other, they should want roses. For some reason or other man looks for the miracle, and to accomplish it he will wade through blood. He will debauch himself with ideas, he will reduce himself to a shadow if for only one second of his life he can close his eyes to the hideousness of reality. Everything is endured- disgrace, humiliation, poverty, war, crime, ennui- in the belief that overnight something will occur, a miracle, which will render life tolerable. And all the while a meter is running inside and there is no hand that can reach in there and shut it off.” 'Tropic of Cancer' by Henry Miller
By Annie Kapur9 days ago in Geeks
Book Review: "The Myth of Normal" by Gabor Mate
I had only sparsely heard of the author of this book before actually reading it and that was only through what other people had to say about him. I always knew him as the guy who talked about everything as if it was linked to childhood trauma and, though there are many criticisms I can say of his work, this book was actually pretty insightful. No, it wasn't perfect and not everything can actually be blamed on childhood trauma, sometimes I think these people are scared to admit that we don't know why certain things happen. This book though provides an insightful look into how the author thinks about processes of mental health, how wellbeing has a stronghold on our emotional health and how very serious diseases can come out of personality types rather than just lifestyle choices.
By Annie Kapur10 days ago in Geeks
Book Review: "brother. do. you. love. me." by Manni and Reuben Coe
And now you're going to say, 'well, I'm glad you're back to reading fiction'. But this isn't fiction. It's a true story. It's an awe-inspiring story of brotherhood and love, complex personal emotions and understanding. A grand biography of empathy from the point of view of the brother and illustrated with heartfelt artwork by the subject of the story - this novel provides a look at some of the most quintessential things that make us human: our care for others. The story is about Manni who is looking after his little brother, Reuben who is 38 and has down's syndrome. Reuben is this kind-hearted and fun soul with a talent for drawing and as Manni explores the past and present with his brother, we as readers get drawn into a deep and loving exploration of brotherhood.
By Annie Kapur11 days ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Alchemy" by Rory Sutherland
The opposite of a good idea can be a good idea "Alchemy" by Rory Sutherland This book was more of a random pick-up and I know what you're going to say to me: Why are you all of a sudden reading so many nonfiction books? Well, it was my New Years' Resolution, I just didn't start acting on it until I found something I liked. Some of them have been really difficult to read because it made me realise I should have paid attention in biology at school, some of them are less difficult but more perplexing because they make me realise I've literally been ruining my own life and some of them, like Alchemy, have really interested me for some weird or unknown reason. And that's what this book is all about: weird and unknown reasons.
By Annie Kapur12 days ago in Geeks