Mimi

Courtenay was off to a great start in this two-book story. I started into this book knowing there would be a sequel. This book ends rather up in the air and nobody sails into the sunset. But the characters had love and lots of time on their side. Both author and narrator are in top form. Anybody short on credits could just write their own ending and not listen to Fishing for Stars which continues the story. I rather wish I had. I saw healing, cooperative business, babies, brilliant careers for all. But a truly loyal Courtenay fan will have to listen to both. I did. In this book I will say I heard some new (for me) vocabulary. The sex is explicit. There are quite a few most unpleasant scenes and a couple that were sublime, i.e., the little man sitting in the jungle with his watercolors. That was lovely!

Somehow I had expected this would be simply Tom Paine's writing, not a whole book about him. History, philosophy and politics are not my strengths, but I've lived long enough and traveled enough that I do care about these things. I found another audio book on the same topics, Founding Brothers, very difficult listening, although I believed it was well narrated. This book by contrast is almost suspenseful. The narrator reads with great understanding, but the book is written so as to be interesting. This author has an exciting mind!

Back in high school I didn't really get it about the deists. And who cared about the Louisiana Purchase? Paine was already trying to solve the problem of slavery, develop a plan for freed slaves. Paine even foresaw a need for a welfare system. Well, goodness! It's a most stimulating book. Educational, exciting, most worthwhile.