2010 Bookshelf: Books on CD

I've listened to a couple of books on CD, during some recent long car rides.

"The Last Days of Dogtown"is by Anita Diamant. It is set in New England in the early 1800's, and follows the lives of the inhabitants of an obscure village called Dogtown. I really enjoyed listening to this book. There are a number of characters, and the story covers about a 10 or 15 year span, so you really get a sense of the characters' whole stories. Some of the stories have happy endings, and some do not. I enjoyed the way in which the author described the hard-scrabble life many people suffered through during that time period. I also enjoyed her style of writing - it's easy and casual, and just makes for pleasant reading...or listening, in this case.

The other book I recently listened to was "The King of Torts" by John Grisham. I should have known better than to try another Grisham book on CD, after my last experience. This book was just as dull as the other one. Again, I was waiting for some intriguing plot twist, but it never came. The story centers on a lawyer who leaves his job as a Public Defender to become a lawyer who handles big class-action suits and becomes a millionaire pretty much over-night. He then is convinced (by a mysterious person who disappears about 3/4 into the story) to keep on taking on these huge cases, because he loves the money. The thing is, there is nothing about this character's character that makes me believe he is the kind of person who would get so wrapped up in just making money - it just doesn't jive with his personality, which made the whole story kind of lame.