Title: Socrates’ Defence
Author: Plato
Type: Non-Fiction
Page Count/Review Word Count: 60
Rating 4/5
When Plato was accused of corrupting the youth of Athens, he went through a trial in which the jury decided whether to execute him or not. This is the defence that he gave, as recorded by Plato, his famous student.
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Title: Holes
Author: Louis Sachar
Type: Fiction
Page Count/Review Word Count: 234
Rating 4/5
This started out super promising, and the idea of troubled kids being forced to dig holes every day reminded me of The Long Walk by Stephen King, writing under his pseudonym of Richard Bachman. The entire first half of the book was a solid 5/5 all of the way.
The problem for me was that the ending let it down, and I think it ended up focusing too heavily on the mysteries of the past when I wanted to see more of what the author had to say about society. There were some great observations here and it was certainly food for thought, and it almost rivals The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton when it comes to books about troubled youth. Almost, but not quite.
All in all, I’d still recommend reading this, but I do think that while it was good, it had the potential to be great but it let itself down. With that said, Sachar did an excellent job, and while this book isn’t perfect, it’s damn close. It’s just what I needed after reading a book that I enjoyed much less than I was expecting it to, and it made for a pretty good palate cleanser. Go ahead and check it out if you’re able to find a copy. Do it.
