Mimi

I enjoyed this book very much and am listening again to catch more details. The narrator is very good. I think this may be Dickens' masterpiece. There are a few tiresome, negative, diabolical, ugly, mooching and under-handed characters. And bad things do happen to good people. All in all, though, the really bad folks get their come-uppance. Alas, I saw a bit of myself in Dora and I was most satisfied when Davey FINALLY chose a proper second wife for himself. Dickens winds it up nicely. I will listen again and again to this one.

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.