44 Scotland Street: 1

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Five-year-old Bertie is a Grade 6 on the saxophone and speaks fluent Italian as a result of his pushy mother, Irene. Bertie gets into trouble and is expelled from East New Town Nursery. His mother forces him into psychotherapy, and his dreams of being a normal five-year-old continue to be thwarted. The fifth book in the 44 Scotland Street series, The Unbearable Lightness of Scones, finds Bertie still troubled by his rather overbearing mother, Irene, but seeking his escape in the Cub Scouts. Matthew is rising to the challenge of married life with newfound strength and resolve, while Domenica epitomizes the loneliness of the long-distance intellectual. With his customary deftness, Alexander McCall Smith once again brings us an absorbing and entertaining tale of some of Scotland’s most quirky and beloved characters—all set in the beautiful, stoic city of Edinburgh. And so, one imagines, realizes the inveterately sensible and polite Alexander McCall Smith, turning a staid and placid corner of sedate old Edinburgh, and coming unawares upon some of the Road Kill of modern life.

I suppose we should all remind ourselves of our view. things may get bad and then we say to ourselves remember your view and then everything looks better.” From the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency to Isabel Dalhousie, Alexander McCall Smith is famous for crafting warm and witty series beloved by fans around the world. One of his most charming series, 44 Scotland Street, tells the story of this cozy Scottish neighborhood’s residents, including the star of the show, Bertie, a remarkably precocious boy—just ask his mother. Ramsey Dunbarton, retired lawyer whose main claim to fame is his erstwhile performance as the Duke of Plaza-Toro in The Gondoliers In this series, there are two psychiatrists, a writer, an artist, an anthropologist, an art dealer, a wine merchant; there are interesting people I often learn something from. It's kind of like someone serving a salad and they sprinkled some cool spices on it first. Makes it better than you expected. The new tenants turn out to be five university students, and everyone knows students can be bad news with their parties and such. Nevertheless, Domenica is impressed when she meets the 'leader' of the group, an affable, well-built young man named Torquil, who has a strikingly handsome face with dimples.Alexander McCall Smith had already created two incredibly diverse series — one with Mma Precious Ramotswe, the intuitive and clever Botswanan detective who debuted in the novel The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, and philosopher Isabel Dalhousie of The Sunday Philosophy Club series — when a chance meeting with Armistead Maupin gave us 44 Scotland Street. Speaking with Maupin, the author of Tales of the City, gave Smith the idea of borrowing the idea of the apartment house in San Francisco and transplanting it to Edinburgh’s trendy New Town neighborhood. This being Smith, the result isn’t the least derivative. Excitement abounds when the revolving door of life brings fresh faces and hilarious new developments to the residents of 44 Scotland Street. The ever-arrogant Bruce Anderson overestimates his skill at cryptic crosswords, and is offered a role in a morally questionable real estate scheme by a former schoolmate. When by chance he learns who the buyer is, he faces a moral dilemma. It all becomes moot when nature interferes in a very dramatic way. is still being plagued by his classmate Olive, who's constantly make spiteful, cutting remarks and insisting that Bertie will have to marry her.

This is the 15th book in the "44 Scotland Street" series. It can be read as a standalone, but familiarity with the series is a plus. In short, I love you, Alexander McCall Smith. Especially now, for so many reasons. America loves you. We appreciate your good-natured self and your wisdom and your culture and your decency and social butterflied-ness. You are a good man. Thank you for writing so many books to keep us busy. Long live AMS! The action takes place entirely in a small area of Edinburgh, Scotland, but we never get enough of a description to have any real sense of the places or environment in which events are taking place. Several of the characters live in a rooming house, but we never get to see the house, the street, or much about the interiors of any of the rooms we visit. It’s much like watching a play on a bare stage which has characters dashing in, delivering a few lines, and dashing out again. We don’t get those lovely descriptions that Trollope, for example, gives us that bring characters to light and give us the sense that we would know them if we ran into them in the street; I could walk past any one of the characters in this book with no spark of recognition whatsoever. Nor do we get any real sense of what Scotland Street looks like, nor of the interior of the art gallery where two of the characters work, nor of any other venue in the book. For a book that takes place in a real place, one has to go to Google Street View to get any sense of the environment in which the characters move. The latest installment of Alexander McCall Smith’s perennially popular and irresistibly charming 44 Scotland Street series. I always enjoy the books in this series, and like the fact that the novels - replete with words and phrases from the author's profession as a legal scholar - expand my vocabulary. Recommended for a bit of light reading.

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As always, Sister Maria-Fiore dei Fiori di Montagna is her hilariously helpful self by way of being nosy, but in doing so, resolves a huge concern for Big Lou following her wedding. Bruce’s visit to the monastery changes his life even more. Irene is a changed woman. Wait, really? We shall see, I suppose. I only wish we’d had more interaction with Bertie in this novel. The eternal seven-year-old is largely absent here, with only a few peeps into his camping (mis)adventures. What there is of Bertie, though, shows his patience and kindness, and is endearing and makes one love him even more.