literature
Geek literature from the New York Times or the recesses of online. Our favorite stories showcase geeks.
Review of 'The Beholder'
Synopsis "Sparkles with beauty, intrigue, and romance."--Kiera Cass, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Selection series Selah has waited her whole life for a happily ever after. As the only daughter of the leader of Potomac, she knows her duty is to find the perfect match. But after an excruciatingly public rejection, Selah's stepmother suggests an unthinkable solution: Selah must set sail across the Atlantic to visit a series of potential suitors--and if she doesn't come home engaged, she shouldn't come home at all. From the gardens of England to the fjords of Norge, Selah's quest will be the journey of a lifetime. But her stepmother's schemes aren't the only secrets hiding belowdecks...and the stakes of her voyage may be higher than any happy ending. Lush landscapes, dazzling romance, and captivating intrigue await in this stunning alternate historical YA debut--perfect for fans of The Selection or Caraval.
By Cyn's Workshop6 years ago in Geeks
"Storybound" by Emily McKay - Review
Book review Besides having brilliant world-building and phenomenal characters, McKay wrote a fantastic story that challenges the idea of destiny and builds unique relationships. I absolutely loved this book! It made me laugh more times than I could count, it pulled me into the world and didn’t let me go. The main character was fierce and formidable while still being realistic and relatable. One of the biggest things that annoys me in fiction is secondhand embarrassment and while the main character may have done embarrassing things, I never felt the need to walk away and take a moment to process, the story moved on and didn’t dwell on the situation.
By Mary Knutson6 years ago in Geeks
"Doctor Faustus" by Christopher Marlowe
I first read this book when I was twelve years’ old and I’m going to admit that it was very difficult to read, even as a girl who had already studied Shakespeare by that age - I had some difficulty and had my dictionary on hand and my Latin dictionary on hand when they were required. I discovered this book literally because I found it. When I say I found it I mean that I was looking through the Shakespeare books and it was amongst them. I thought it looked fairly interesting and so I picked it up and began to read. I understood nothing and so, I took it home to the comfort of my dictionaries. For the next twelve years, I would read “Dr. Faustus” at least once every year because of the fact it had enthralled me and I was always one of those people who were trying to work out whether I was seeing an actual ending or one of the possible endings to the play. It’s an intriguing script with a ton of grand references, speeches and monologues. I love the entire thing and to this day, it is my favourite play of all time.
By Annie Kapur6 years ago in Geeks
Review of ‘The Fascinators’
Synopsis A magic-infused YA novel about friendship, first love, and feeling out of place that will bewitch fans of Rainbow Rowell and Maggie Stiefvater. Living in a small town where magic is frowned upon, Sam needs his friends James and Delia--and their time together in their school's magic club--to see him through to graduation. But as soon as senior year starts, little cracks in their group begin to show. Sam may or may not be in love with James. Delia is growing more frustrated with their amateur magic club. And James reveals that he got mixed up with some sketchy magickers over the summer, putting a target on all their backs. With so many fault lines threatening to derail his hopes for the year, Sam is forced to face the fact that the very love of magic that brought his group together is now tearing them apart--and there are some problems that no amount of magic can fix.
By Cyn's Workshop6 years ago in Geeks
"The Thorn Birds" by Colleen McCullough
It has been a few years since I’ve read “The Thorn Birds” by Colleen McCullough. I read it for the first time when I was nineteen and it was the first book I read before I started university reading from then on for a few months. I discovered the book after a re-read of Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone with the Wind” that I was doing in order to compare the book to the movie and see exactly what I really thought about the casting choice for Scarlett O’Hara. I was told online by someone on Reddit that “The Thorn Birds” was basically the Australian version of “Gone with the Wind” and that it would make me emotional in the same way. And it didn’t. It made me far more emotional than I’d ever been with “Gone with the Wind”. I was actually so emotional that whilst I was at work, I finished the book and had to excuse myself so that I could go and cry in the foyer. The book managed to change my opinion on how epic a 20th century novel could really be and to this day, even when I think about it - I can feel the same tears start to well up in my eyes. Only if there was more communication between some of the characters, most of this mess would not have occurred and everyone would be okay.
By Annie Kapur6 years ago in Geeks
“Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud and the Last Trial of Harper Lee” by Casey Cep
This book is something I read purely because for a while, I had been interested in what this has to do with Harper Lee. By the time I read it, I knew what the book concerned, but I hadn’t got a clue what that had to do with the writer Harper Lee except for the writing of “To Kill a Mockingbird”. So, when I did read it, I paid extra attention to the first two sections in which Casey Cep seeks to teach the reader about racial politics in the courtroom during the early 20th century in the Southern States of America. It is by no means a pretty sight but it is able to tell the reader why Harper Lee felt that, especially in the state of Alabama, it was important to write a book that struck the heart of the political community, their wrongs and the way in which they treated certain skin colours as worse than others even when under oath.
By Annie Kapur6 years ago in Geeks
20 Books of 2020 (Pt.31)
Welcome to part 31 of our journey! You will have noticed that part 30 ended on a great note and we covered some of the new projects I'm working on this year. What I wanted to go through today is communities of reading and what they mean for people who enjoy books. I want to go through the pros and cons briefly and look at ways in which reading communities may be able to improve their aspect on inclusion.
By Annie Kapur6 years ago in Geeks
"Interview with the Vampire" by Anne Rice
It has been just about twelve years since I first read “Interview with the Vampire” by Anne Rice and what a great year it was. I became so obsessed with the Vampire Chronicles series that I began to draw comic strips dedicated to depicting the storyline of each of them. I drew out each character in some sort of manga style and used the dialogue from the book and yes, I began with Daniel and Louis finding each other in that San Francisco apartment and Daniel having the living shite scared out of him. “I am flesh and blood but not human…” God I love that part because you get all excited that it is really about to go down for the next series of over ten novels. The way in which I discovered it was through the film. I hadn’t actually seen the film but I had heard that it was good and I knew there was a book to it and so I wanted to read the book first. By the time I read the book, I put off seeing the film and “Queen of the Damned” until I had finished the series. Back then only up to “Blood Canticle” was out and I had to wait ages for the next books. This first book in the series changed my entire perception of what vampire fiction could be and that modern fiction could also be beautifully written in a style that was both provocative and suggestive.
By Annie Kapur6 years ago in Geeks
“Lotte in Weimar” by Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann’s “Lotte in Weimar” is often considered to be one of his many masterpieces and in my opinion it is Mann’s greatest novel. There are many key factors that one has to concern themselves with when looking at this statement of ‘masterpiece’ though and what makes Thomas Mann’s work a ‘masterpiece’. It is both artistic and well-constructed. It is character-driven and context dependent. But, context dependent as it may be, it is transcendent of its times, moving into our own and into the future with ease of access and applicable to the situations that will always concern humans - love, death, time and influence. When we have a look at this character-driven narrative, at first we believe that it is Lotte herself that is driving this narrative forwards with her focus on her want for her old life, whereas it is actually Goethe who drives the narrative with his aspect of celebrity though he does not appear physically for quite some time in the novel. Lotte is a woman of her time but she is also a woman who requires control of her own future, it is a question of whether she actually gets this because she is famed as the woman who is constantly associated with Goethe. The image of women and womanhood in the novel is a strange one because we have so many varying personalities. First of all, we have the personality of the self-driven woman who is Adele, the new and true-blooded Weimar woman. Then we have the opposing side which is basically Lotte - the woman who wishes herself to be self-driven but constantly finds herself hanging on to her past. There is little for Lotte in her future except returning to this past in order to confront it and the reader will always know that this is something that drives her. Her self-drive does not come from feigning a modernisation of herself as a woman, but rather treating herself as having an individual story in which certain plot points require editing, revisiting, revising and confronting in her autobiography and saga of romance.
By Annie Kapur6 years ago in Geeks
"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" by Hunter S Thompson
It has been about ten years since I first read the book “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” by Hunter S Thompson and when I did read it, I hadn’t actually heard of the film yet. I had only heard of the book because I’d seen the crazy cover in a bookstore and thought it looked fairly interesting. Initially, from the cover, I thought it would be more comedic than psychedelic than it actually was. My first reading experience of it was fairly strange because I’d never really read anything like it before and really, because it was true, that only made it all the more strange as an experience. This book really did manage to change my opinion of the way I looked at journalism. I had never really read any journalism like this before and I had always thought that journalism had to be boring and rigid like something in the Telegraph or the Times. Hunter S Thompson’s Gonzo Journalism made me interested in the way in which I viewed more modern, more exciting journalistic experiences.
By Annie Kapur6 years ago in Geeks
Children of Blood & Bone: Book Review
‘Children of Blood & Bone’ was written by a Nigerian-American author, Tomi Adeyemi. As someone who almost never picks up a novel, her story was actually worth a read. The way she writes is just impeccable- it makes you feel like you’re in the story, experiencing it yourself. Anyway, without further ado, let me explain why Ms Adeyemi’s ‘Children of Blood & Bone’ is one of the best fantasy novels of the century.
By Chidimma Benjamin6 years ago in Geeks
