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Otahuhu College

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Jonathan Hart

2,592 pts
(2,592 pages read)

  • Sapiens

    By Yuval Noah Harari
    5 stars

    Sapiens deserves all its renown — and more — for its contortionist ability to fit itself into seemingly any academic demain required for its discussion to come to full fruition. Both a master of time, shepherding us through human history from the pre-agricultural era until the present day, and of conceptual breadth, mapping a vast network of connections and evidence across domains from automotive to mythological to military, Harari unequivocally demonstrates that the correct approach to understanding ourselves is an interdisciplinary and even-handed one. Both scientific and political thinkers would benefit from familiarising themselves with Harari’s arguments, as would anyone with an interest in the particularities of the human condition.

  • Le Petit Prince

    By Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
    4 stars

    Une prémisse captivante se combine avec une régularité charmante pour aboutir à une narration aussi riche en clarté qu’en profondeur. Tout comme les enfants peuvent apprécier la curiosité du protagoniste et la nouveauté de ses aventures, les lecteurs adultes peuvent accéder à une pluralité de résonances allégoriques portant sur la condition humaine et sur la vacuité de certains de nos engagements. La langue française se révèle être l’outil idéal pour le déroulement de ce récit, étant donné la précision lexicale et l’intentionnalité sémantique favorisées par l’auteur, attributs qui se superposent sur un langage élégant et euphonique. Derrière l’ostensible simplicité de cet ouvrage se cache une formidable richesse didactique.

  • The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time

    By Mark Haddon
    4 stars

    At times poignantly and at other times upliftingly, Haddon unlocks understanding both of neurodivergent experience and of diarised first-person narration as a literary style. The metafictional allusions of Haddon’s narrator remind readers that he is also the protagonist, whose story we are drawn into accompanying him to live and which, in turn, acts as deeply instructive for us. Though the banalities of everyday life permeate the narrative throughout, they are depicted as significant for the protagonist and, therefore, never seem superfluous to readers. Indeed, readers’ patience is rewarded by a freshened perspective on life’s priorities and a realisation that these vary widely between individuals. Haddon’s incorporation of situations which generate disparate and sometimes conflicting reactions among the characters prompts us to question assumptions of universal logic and predictable behaviour, emerging as wiser and more empathetic humans ourselves. The brisk culmination of events at the novel’s end, from a point of very high tension shortly beforehand, appears to be a pragmatic rather than a literary choice, and the text’s meanings could indeed have been amplified through further development or a sequel.

  • The Handmaid's Tale

    By Margaret Atwood
    2 stars

    An undercooked contribution to the feminist canon with a great deal of neglected thematic avenues. Atwood spends too long delineating tedious details of everyday life in dystopian Gilead, resulting in a text which is slow to gain momentum and introduce depth to important relationships. Opportunities to explore the allegorical implications of Gilead for twenty-first-century Western society are sacrificed in favour of a focus on the inner psychology of the protagonist, Offred. Once Atwood commits to the stylistics of deep introspection, her attempts to render Offred's experience more immersive and vivid often seem contrived and clichéd. Interestingly, Atwood appends an explanatory epilogue to Offred's story, apparently an admission that Atwood’s character is, in herself, an inadequate spokesperson for the world the author has chosen to depict — a world with much untapped potential for creative exploration.

  • Long Live Latin

    By Nicola Gardini
    5 stars

    At once exquisitely intellectual and firmly grounded, Gardini's tribute to the Latin language casts a wide net, offering as much to the open-minded general public as to committed scholars. Segmenting the book into chapters which explore individual authors, Gardini masterfully carves a place for each of these authors in the grand mosaic of Latin literature. In so doing, he provides a new and radiant sense of unity for those who have long studied these authors individually, while pointing novices toward multiple possible entry points. An underappreciated treasure.

  • True Reconciliation

    By Jody Wilson-Raybould
    2 stars

    Wilson-Raybould touches the heart with the sincerity of her convictions and the impassioned dedication of her advocacy for Canada's indigenous peoples. Readers turning to this book for concrete actions and inspirational examples will feel shortchanged; the specific case studies chosen are mostly negative and cautionary in nature, and the lessons extrapolated from them become repetitive. Wilson-Raybould's writing is encumbered with generalities and platitudes that hint more at her political background than at the tangible actions implied by the book's (sub)title.

  • The Three-Body Problem

    By Liu Cixin
    2 stars

    An intergalactic saga of chaos is shaped into a somewhat chaotic plot and structure. Liu Cixin's genius lies in his interweaving of material to entice scholars of Chinese history as much as astrophysicists. Unfortunately, this already ambitious breadth of content in the story proper is overshadowed by regular and lengthy interludes of VR simulations, leaving conceptual details and plot continuity either hanging or fractured. In fact, the VR simulations result in a loss of main-character status for Ye Wenjie, who is the story's catalyst and boasts a far more engaging backstory than Wang Miao, her VR-immersed replacement. While it could be argued that character development is not Liu Cixin's interest, the scientific and historical intricacies, too, are blurred by their own excess. The sparkling galaxy of Liu Cixin's erudition risks collapsing under its own weight into a black hole in which its literary merit is obscured.

  • The Anxious Generation

    By Jonathan Haidt
    5 stars

    A compelling diagnosis and a practical set of recommendations, informed by common sense as well as by extensive research. Speaking with the doubly authoritative voice of an esteemed social psychologist and a parent of Generation Z children, Haidt explores the causes of, and evidence for, increases in anxiety and other conditions among youth from 2010 onwards. Although he approaches this debate from an adamant position against what he describes as the "phone-based childhood" and in favour of a "play-based childhood", he conscientiously addresses opposing arguments, which he patiently refutes. He displays nuance by occasionally making minor concessions while maintaining his emphatic advocacy for heightened restrictions on adolescents' access to social media and video games, along with reduced restrictions on their immersion in self-led free play. While some examples, especially regarding the stifling of outdoor play for children, focus primarily on a US context, the book as a whole draws data from a panoply of jurisdictions. In fact, the arguments apply to other Western countries with an almost uncanny accuracy that highlights the extent of a problem with which parents, educators, healthcare professionals, and policymakers worldwide must grapple. This book is an urgent addition to the reading list of all of the above.

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