Tag: scotland

Looking for You by Alexander McCall Smith (Literary Fiction)

I’m loving this new McCall Smith series about the Perfect Passion Company — an old fashioned matchmaking service based in Edinburgh. This is book number two. On the surface, it is a story about a variety of characters and how the matchmaker — Katie — works to find the perfect match for them. But as with all McCall Smith books, it’s teeming with hidden depth as it explores life, love, and the pursuit of happiness (liberty isn’t really an issue here).

The writing is lovely — McCall Smith never condescends and he can make the most exquisite sentence out of utter mundanity. I couldn’t exactly explain why, but he is the only male writer whose female characters I absolutely love. He explores individuals, relationships, and various social and cultural milieus with a process that seems to incorporate detailed observation, in-depth reflection, multi-faceted synthesis with an output of clear and tender explanatory prose. He has written over 40 books and still manages to include “musings” that either teach me more or brings me fresh insight. What appear to most to be light and accessible novels, are for me books of rich meaning.

In this episode, the relationships barriers explored include missed opportunities, poor timing, external expectations, and reevaluation of one’s own criteria. So many different forms of love, so many different people trying to understand their own relationship to happiness. As always, we are treated to many interesting asides on poetry, music, art, and other intellectually spicy aspects of life.

Some Quotes:

“She cherished this too, the place in which she lived and worked, and the land beyond its bounds, because love spilled over from one person, one object, to embrace so much else. Love spread.”

“This is an achingly, beautiful city, he thought, and I fall more in love with it every single day. I still love, Melbourne, of course, but the heart is large enough, has enough chambers, to allow for more than one love. Not everybody knew that, he said to himself, but he did.”

“What a strange, frustrating, mysterious thing was love. In a world in which there would never be enough of everything, in which not all desires could be met, love was rationed, just as happiness was. Some were perfectly happy with the share they were allocated; others felt they got too little And then there were some who failed to grasp a fundamental truth about the way love worked, which was that you got back roughly the amount you put in. That was so basic that you would think that everybody would understand it, But they did not, for some reason, and had to learn the lesson — if they ever learned it — the hard way.”

Thank you to Vintage and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on February 11th, 2025.

The Conditions of Unconditional Love by Alexander McCall Smith (Literary Fiction)

I’m a long time fan of McCall Smith, but the Isabel Dalhousie series (this is #15) is the only one I’m still reading. Isabel is a philosopher with an independent income, two small children, and is the editor (and owner) of the Philosophical Review. She lives in Edinburgh and has a habit of “fixing things” both large and small, sometimes fully aware that the problem is none of her business.

I love this series because there is never a shortage of interesting things for Isabel to muse about, and I love the way McCall Smith gets to the essence of every topic. Whether she is talking to herself, to a casual acquaintance, or to her husband, these are the kind of conversations I like to have, and I’m perfectly happy to have them with an intellectual, though fictional, sparring partner!

The “problems” she solves in this book are every day irritations that I can completely relate to and that — while not actually important in the larger scheme of things — is very trying and important in our every day lives. A book group that has become downright antagonistic towards each other; a couple who doesn’t know the truth about each other and really should; a conference organizer potentially defrauding a funding organization; an uncomfortable situation with a long-term (but not well known) house guest.
I like that McCall Smith takes on issues of the day and introduces (often new to me) ethical conundrums. He refers to the Circle of Moral Recognition — the boundary drawn around those entities in the world deemed worthy of moral consideration. What is our own personal moral responsibility in specific situations in the current moral climate? He introduces “defensible pride” vs “hubristic pride” and why one attracts us while we find the other quite off putting. Another concept I hadn’t heard of — but love — is the Hawking index which is the percentage of a book read before the average reader gives up. Named after Hawking’s best selling A brief History of Time which received a whopping 6.6% on the index and still wasn’t the smallest index (that honor goes to Capital in the Twenty-First century by Thomas Piketty). Who knew? Lastly I had to laugh out loud when she suggested the need for “emotional continence” when others went on and on about TMI topics ad nauseam.

I don’t agree with all of Isabel’s thoughts and opinions, but I like the way they are laid out cleanly with a clear understanding of the basic principles and thought process used to come to her conclusions. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all engage on “hot topics” in this way?

Thank you to Pantheon and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on July 16th, 2024.

Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan (Women’s Fiction)

Another light and uplifting story from Jenny Colgan. Women’s Fiction with humor and wit taking up more space than the actual romance (the romance honestly felt kind of secondary here which was fine with me ). A sequel to The Christmas Bookshop: bookstore manager Carmen Hogan deals with an obnoxious millionaire anxious to turn the lovely street into a tacky Souvenir Row, getting booted out of her sister’s lovely home to make room for a charming, one-armed manny, and her own pining for the love of her life whom she somehow scared off to the wilds of the Brazilian jungle.
Great banter, ridiculous and yet utterly believable plot twists, and characters that are interesting and yet normal at the same time because people actually are interesting if you go just the tiniest bit below the stereotype. Lots of fun to read.

Thank you to Avon Books and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on October 10th, 2023

The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan (Chick Lit)

Another happy charmer from Jenny Colgan. Taking place in a dusty, largely unvisited, book store in Edinburgh, this story brings a sparkling array of oddball (not super realistic but very lovable) characters including a Quaker dendrologist from Brazil, a self-important and extremely handsome self-help author, an all-too-perfect sister (complete with unfortunately charming offspring) and an old recluse with potentially shameful secrets. Add a magic shop, the Ormiston Yew, and a terribly annoying yoga slinging blonde nanny with a nasty streak, and you have the perfect recipe for a light, fun, heartwarming read.

Thank you to William Morrow Paperbacks and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on Oct. 26, 2021.

The Bookshop of Second Chances by Jackie Fraser (Women’s Fiction)

What better way to get over a humiliating divorce than to inherit a house in a remote part of Scotland that is replete with antiquarian books? While Thea Mottram bemoans her all-too-cliched fate (husband fell in love with her good friend), she does a nice job swimming to the surface when she checks out the inheritance from a great-uncle she had only met four times previously (he liked her because she preferred reading to talking — our kind of girl!). While intending to stay just long enough to decide what to do with the house, she ends up working at the local bookstore owned by the curmudgeonly (but naturally also quite hunky) man of aristocratic origins, Edward Maltravers.

A thoroughly enjoyable read. While the bones are pure “women’s fiction,” the frills include Scotland, a bookstore selling both new and antiquarian books, and a few twists on the standard chick-lit plot. Good, humorous, writing and a strong, though self-deprecating, heroine that I would be happy to call a friend. My only complaint is that there wasn’t really enough discussion about the cool books! Her contributions to the book talk were denigrations of various classics with toss-off comments about how she doesn’t really care for it for some (to me stupid) reason.

A happy book and I learned a new (to me) phrase: Fourth Wave Feminism — a phase of feminism that began around 2012 and is characterized by a focus on the empowerment of women and the use of internet tools, and is centered on intersectionality. Who knew?

Thank you to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on May 4th, 2021.

500 Miles From You by Jenny Colgan (Chick Lit)

This is just one of those happy, sweet, books that buoys my spirits. The fact that all the action takes place in London and a Scottish village near Loch Ness (two of my favorite locations on the planet) doesn’t hurt a bit. OK — also I am a Jenny Colgan fan, so no surprise that I enjoyed this one.

Kind of a cross between “The Holiday” and “84 Charing Cross Road,” two Nurse Practitioner Liaisons switch jobs and houses for a three month period — Lissa Westcott leaving London for Kirrinfief, Scotland while Cormac MacPherson heads to London. Having never met, they get to know each other via daily email check ins and … you can guess the rest. Very nicely done — the perspective of the stranger learning the ropes in a foreign place (I’m sorry, but Scotland wins every time) — made me hunger to visit (a little difficult right now as we have to wonder when we will ever be able to travel again). Some lovely descriptions of nature, tight knit communities, friendship, and the excitement of learning something new. Very sweet ending.

Thank you to William Morrow Paperbacks and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on June 9th, 2020.

The Peppermint Tea Chronicles by Alexander McCall Smith (literary fiction)

Another nice installment of the 44 Scotland Street series — number 13. I enjoy every one of the books in McCall Smith’s series — I look forward to them as a treat.  McCall Smith is the master of exquisite usage of an enormous vocabulary. His writing is precise and insightful, and he wields his vocabulary in such a way as to make the nuance between words of similar meaning obvious.

His characters opine on subjects of private and public matters, and some of his “rants” are masterfully done. The paragraph on reading the news of the world on page 195 was worth the whole price of the book. I also loved his short treatise on “hold music” including this: “…although extensive research has revealed that the Flower Duet from Lakme is not only capable of soothing callers through delays of up to twenty minutes, but also has remarkable qualities in combating airsickness. That piece of music, purloined by British Airways as its theme tune, is suggestive of the soaring of both the human spirit and of aircraft — a happy coincidence for the airline with which it is identified.”

The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths

Thanks to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for an advance reader copy in exchange for my honest opinion. Book to be released on March 5, 2019.
Writing: 4/5 Plot: 4/5 Characters 4.5/5

A fun, fast-paced, whodunit where real life begins to resemble the sinister stories taught in Clare Cassidy’s Gothic literature course. Clare specializes in RM Holland, author of the classic: The Stranger. However, when her best friend and colleague turns up dead, with a line from the story by her body, things start to get chilling. Unsure of whom she can trust, Clare turns to her diary — only to find that someone else is writing in it as well …

The first person narrative alternates between Clare, her 15-year old daughter, Georgia, and Harbinder Kaur — the 35-year old, highly suspicious, Sikh, lesbian detective assigned to the case. Plenty of plot twists, good character development, and lots of fun literary references since much of the action takes place in the English department! Most of the action takes place in a small town on the Sussex Coast, but some beautiful scenes in Ullapool, Scotland as well.

A standalone mystery offering from Elly Griffiths, author of the Ruth Galloway series.