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3.46 AVERAGE
3.46 AVERAGE
Rating: 3.5* of five
The Book Report: No life is perfect. Isabel Dalhousie would seem to be an exception to that rule, since she's rich, well-educated, and has a job she loves. (Hate her yet?) But all else being equal, which it never is, how can you hate a woman who believes it is a moral duty to help someone who most of us would call nutsy-cuckoo?
She meets a man who has had a heart transplant. He's troubled by dreams and memories of a man with a scarred eye, and a sense of foreboding and unhappiness connected with the face. Isabel sets out to help him discover the identity of the man in his dreams, and the search takes her into some odd territory. The resolution to the story is no surprise, but very interesting nonetheless.
But life being what it is, there is no shortage of other stuff going on in Isabel's life, including family drama, love affairs aborted and unformed (despite her now-explicit longing for a HIGHLY inappropriate man), and issues of moral consequence: What is our obligation to others when it risks compromising our own psychological well-being to act selflessly?
Or, in practical terms, do I **HAVE** to be nice to that scumbag douchetard that's sleepin' with My Man?
My Review: Even better than the first one! Bring on more, Mr. McCall Smith!
The Book Report: No life is perfect. Isabel Dalhousie would seem to be an exception to that rule, since she's rich, well-educated, and has a job she loves. (Hate her yet?) But all else being equal, which it never is, how can you hate a woman who believes it is a moral duty to help someone who most of us would call nutsy-cuckoo?
She meets a man who has had a heart transplant. He's troubled by dreams and memories of a man with a scarred eye, and a sense of foreboding and unhappiness connected with the face. Isabel sets out to help him discover the identity of the man in his dreams, and the search takes her into some odd territory. The resolution to the story is no surprise, but very interesting nonetheless.
But life being what it is, there is no shortage of other stuff going on in Isabel's life, including family drama, love affairs aborted and unformed (despite her now-explicit longing for a HIGHLY inappropriate man), and issues of moral consequence: What is our obligation to others when it risks compromising our own psychological well-being to act selflessly?
Or, in practical terms, do I **HAVE** to be nice to that scumbag douchetard that's sleepin' with My Man?
My Review: Even better than the first one! Bring on more, Mr. McCall Smith!
In the second book of the Sunday Philosophy Club series (third that I read), Isabel Dalhousie, the editor of the Journal of Applied Ethics, again finds herself engulfed in the affairs of others, and self. This is probably one of the most digressing book that I've ever read -- and for AMS, who's endlessly digressing in general, that's saying much.
If languid observations on life, universe, and everything, are not for you, don't bother to read this. There is mostly that here.
Lovely read on a vacation, if you are planning to take one. This was weakest of the three I've read so far in the series, but on itself, it's still lovely. I give it 3.5.
Audiobook version, that I listened to, was by Davia Porter -- the same as the other two in the series. She is quite competent, to say the least.
If languid observations on life, universe, and everything, are not for you, don't bother to read this. There is mostly that here.
Lovely read on a vacation, if you are planning to take one. This was weakest of the three I've read so far in the series, but on itself, it's still lovely. I give it 3.5.
Audiobook version, that I listened to, was by Davia Porter -- the same as the other two in the series. She is quite competent, to say the least.
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Whenever I read a book that leaves me wanting to read no other book because I don’t want to leave that world, I turn to Alexander McCall Smith. His Edinburgh is a world of bumbling absurdity and principles and it’s always a good place to go. This was no exception. Isabel Dalhousie is one of my favorite of his characters, and I love the way he treats her like editorial life with both frivolity and seriousness.