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The Lost Art of Gratitude: An Isabel Dalhousie Novel (Sunday Philosophy Club #6)
by
Alexander McCall Smith (Goodreads Author)
ISABEL DALHOUSIE - Book 6
Nothing captures the charm of Edinburgh like the bestselling Isabel Dalhousie series of novels featuring the insatiably curious philosopher and woman detective. Whether investigating a case or a problem of philosophy, the indefatigable Isabel Dalhousie, one of fiction’s most richly developed amateur detectives, is always ready to pursue the answers...more
ebook, 288 pages
Published
September 22nd 2009
by Anchor
(first published January 1st 2009)
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Reading about Isabel Dalhousie and her family is a bit like dropping in on old friends to catch up on the latest news.
Charlie, Isabel and Jamie’s son, is eighteen months old. When he is invited to a birthday party, Isabel meets Minty Auchterlonie, a financier she encountered as the editor of the Review of Applied Ethics. Minty confesses that she is troubled at work. Isabel never found Minty agreeable. However, Isabel, true to form, finds that she can’t help becoming involved. Isabel is as charm...more
Charlie, Isabel and Jamie’s son, is eighteen months old. When he is invited to a birthday party, Isabel meets Minty Auchterlonie, a financier she encountered as the editor of the Review of Applied Ethics. Minty confesses that she is troubled at work. Isabel never found Minty agreeable. However, Isabel, true to form, finds that she can’t help becoming involved. Isabel is as charm...more
I truly enjoy Isabel Dalhousie's philosophical tangents. There are those, I'm sure, for whom they are supremely annoying and all they want is for her to shut up and get back to the story at hand. But I love the weight she gives to questions of ethics and morality that so many of us skip by blithely, completely ignorant that there is even a question to be addressed. And I love that those questions distract her from the conversation or activity right in front of her. It draws such a picture of the...more
Having read the previous books in this series, I found this book to be somewhat less enjoyable than prior books in the series. I still enjoyed the visit but found the story-line with Minty and the non-resolution of ***spoiler*** lying, forgery, threats etc. to be less than satisfactory. Isabel's philosophy may allow her to feel that she has done/said the right thing, but that was essentially nothing. You know that Edmund Burke saying "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good me...more
This series is starting to grow on me. I've been confused because, although they're catalogued as mysteries, they're very gentle mysteries, having more to do with the eternal puzzle of why humans (Scottish ones, mostly) behave as they do. Isabel Dalhousie can't restrain herself from getting to the bottom of philosophical conundrums. In this particular episode, trouble in the form of a previous Nemesis (the wonderfully named Minty Auchterlonie) comes looking for her. As always, the "mystery" part...more
I really like this series. And it's nice to have a series that "just works", like a doughnut stick and milk; or a hot fudge sundae. Comfort food, comfort reading.
But this installment in the series is shortchanged by being termed merely "comfort reading". Yes, the flow of the writing style is very pleasant, but it's more than that. Isabel Dalhousie's musings on ethics, with her education as a doctorate in philosophy, lulls the reader, perhaps intentionally, into a sense that she's just being "aca...more
But this installment in the series is shortchanged by being termed merely "comfort reading". Yes, the flow of the writing style is very pleasant, but it's more than that. Isabel Dalhousie's musings on ethics, with her education as a doctorate in philosophy, lulls the reader, perhaps intentionally, into a sense that she's just being "aca...more
1 like · like · see review
It's been a while since I read a McCall Smith novel. It was a nice change of pace, what I call a "rambling mystery." Smith takes his time, accounting for mundane, daily tasks, small details, like cooking dinner or the view from a restaurant window.
This volume of the Isabel Dalhousie Novels begins with an accusation from Professor Dove, that pompous, self-important thorn in Isabel's side. Soon after, we are reacquainted with Minty Act... I can never spell her name. The gal from the first book of...more
This volume of the Isabel Dalhousie Novels begins with an accusation from Professor Dove, that pompous, self-important thorn in Isabel's side. Soon after, we are reacquainted with Minty Act... I can never spell her name. The gal from the first book of...more
The Lost Art of Gratitude is the 6th novel in the Isabel Dalhousie series by Alexander McCall Smith. In this instalment, Isabel has to deal with an accusation by Christopher Dove of plagiarism in the Review of Applied Ethics, has to break the news of her engagement to Jamie to her prickly niece, Cat, is coerced into mediating with the father of Minty Auchterlonie’s baby, meets Cat’s new boyfriend (a tightrope walker), engages a professional to capture Brother Fox and has lunch (a salad) with Pro...more
After all, what can one say about life that hasn't been said before? Jamie, Isabel, Grace, the aptly named Cat, and young Charlie are here presented for our quiet pleasure, going about their lives and moving through their entirely real world. The characters are deeply enmeshed in the pleasure centers of a certain type of reader, the one who smiles fondly at Ellen Glasgow or Elizabeth Goudge books when they emerge, raining the slight wisps of dust that neglect engenders, from a long shelf-slumber...more
3 likes · like · see review
This is my favorite book of all Alexander McCall Smith's and it is for one huge reason...the poem at the end. While the book is very entertaining and Isabel has numerous situations which cause her to work through various moral dilemmas; her insecurities about Jamie, what to do with the obnoxious Professor Dove, and especially the possibly amoral Minty Auchterlonie, the book is always more about then people than the plot. Minty approaches Isabel to help her resolve two connected issues and Isabel...more
This book was shelved with the mysteries but it is not a mystery. Nothing happens. There is no plot, no character development, in that the characters as presented in the first chapter are completely unchanged throughout the book. There is no action or adventure. The vocabulary is not outstanding; the authors thoughts are not thought-provoking; the style is mundane.
There is some weak humor as when the lead character "imagined herself in the street, dabbing disinfectant on passers-by, as a religi...more
There is some weak humor as when the lead character "imagined herself in the street, dabbing disinfectant on passers-by, as a religi...more
1 like · like · see review
I find Alexander McCall Smith to be a delightful storyteller. His novels are just that -- novel, with witty, droll characters, a thoughtful reflection on the state of human affairs on this spinning orb we call home and generous kindness for the foibles and straights we get ourselves into.
Isabel Dalhousie is my favorite of his protagonists, and The Lost Art of Gratitude is a comfortable walk through the streets of Edinburgh and her library stacks of Philosophical journals and texts (with numerous...more
Isabel Dalhousie is my favorite of his protagonists, and The Lost Art of Gratitude is a comfortable walk through the streets of Edinburgh and her library stacks of Philosophical journals and texts (with numerous...more
May 25, 2010
Zohar - ManOfLaBook.com
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2009
This was my first Isabel Dalhousie novel (but the sixth in the series), a philosopher who pontificates about the mundane and lives in her own private hell where every word, gesture and movement has to be thought about, absorbed and dissected.
The book, even though a quick read, is very slow to present itself. It takes about 60 pages before the plot starts and about 220 pages before anything remotely interesting (plot wise) is happening. That being said, I did not find the book boring. The charac...more
The book, even though a quick read, is very slow to present itself. It takes about 60 pages before the plot starts and about 220 pages before anything remotely interesting (plot wise) is happening. That being said, I did not find the book boring. The charac...more
I love the Isabel Dalhousie books! For those who are not familiar with her, Isabel is an Edinburgh-based philosopher (editor of The Review of Applied Ethics) with a toddler named Charlie, whose father is her much-younger paramour Jamie. Isabel also has a reputation for sleuthing, though there are those who call it interfering.
Early in this narrative, she runs into an old acquaintance, Minty Auchterlonie, who has a son about the same age as Charlie. Though Isabel has never thought of Minty as a f...more
Early in this narrative, she runs into an old acquaintance, Minty Auchterlonie, who has a son about the same age as Charlie. Though Isabel has never thought of Minty as a f...more
I've had Alexander McCall Smith on my list of authors to read for a long time.
He is quite good. I jumped in with the
sixth book in a series on a female philosopher in Edinburgh (home of Smith). Isobel is a thoughtful, kind woman and mother of an 18-month-old son.
It was as much philosophizing as story,
but the story itself was realistic and
interesting. I'll certainly be ready to
read more -- from the beginning. Quotes
(as always): Oscar Wilde gazing in dismay at the decorations surrounding his deathb...more
He is quite good. I jumped in with the
sixth book in a series on a female philosopher in Edinburgh (home of Smith). Isobel is a thoughtful, kind woman and mother of an 18-month-old son.
It was as much philosophizing as story,
but the story itself was realistic and
interesting. I'll certainly be ready to
read more -- from the beginning. Quotes
(as always): Oscar Wilde gazing in dismay at the decorations surrounding his deathb...more
While I still love the way McCall Smith writes, I love the characters in this series, and I love the setting, I didn't find this most recent installment to be of the same caliber as the first 3 or 4.
Part of the problem is that while the main character is always pondering ethical issues (which makes sense, as she is the editor of the Review of Applied Ethics, and considers herself to be a moral philosopher), things got almost a tad preachy in this book.
It seems to me that usually, it's just the...more
Part of the problem is that while the main character is always pondering ethical issues (which makes sense, as she is the editor of the Review of Applied Ethics, and considers herself to be a moral philosopher), things got almost a tad preachy in this book.
It seems to me that usually, it's just the...more
Another pleasant and interesting book in this series! Alexander McCall Smith, who brought us Precious Ramotswe, also brings us the similarly-upright but more sophisticated Isabel Dalhousie, a philosopher, who edits a journal of the same, and lives in Edinburgh (as does the author). In this book, Isabel gets entangled in the machinations of an old acquaintance, a duplicitous and ruthless woman, and has to extricate herself. Isabel and the author can ruminate on the existence of evil people, who a...more
Ok, we're up to Volume 6 of the Sunday Philosophy Club/Isabel Dalhousie "mystery" series, so what else is there really to say at this point. Except to wonder what ever happened to the Sunday Philosophy Club and are these ever really mysteries... or more Isabel wiggling her way out of situation after butting in to someone else's business?? Ha! Likewise, I can cut-and-paste any of my Alexander McCall Smith reviews -- in this series or No. 1 Ladies -- and reiterate how light, easy, comforting, plea...more
This book wasn't super wonderful or anything. It had more action in it than the others in the series have.
Isabel runs into a woman that she knows one day who invites Isabel and her family to her son's birthday party. While there she (Minty)asks Isabel for some help, claiming that she had an affair with another man who is really the father of her child and not the husband and he is threatening her to get to the child and wants Isabel help her. So she talks to the guy who says that he's not doing...more
Isabel runs into a woman that she knows one day who invites Isabel and her family to her son's birthday party. While there she (Minty)asks Isabel for some help, claiming that she had an affair with another man who is really the father of her child and not the husband and he is threatening her to get to the child and wants Isabel help her. So she talks to the guy who says that he's not doing...more
This is the 7th in McCall Smith’s Isabel Dalhousie series. Isabel, Jamie and their son Charlie have settled into a comfortable domestic routine. They reluctantly accept an invitation from an acquaintance, Minty Auchterlonie, to attend her son’s birthday party. Isabel is drawn into Minty’s secretive dealings with a young man with whom she had an affair, and who is the father of her son. Meanwhile, Isabel is embroiled in a controversy over plagiarism in the journal she edits, the Review of Applied...more
I'm not sure how Alexander McCall Smith cranks out the several series that he is juggling at the moment, but I'm enjoying them as they are published. In this sixth edition of the Sunday Philosophy Club series, Isabel Dalhousie faces an intriguing series of events which she faces with her usual moral and ethical approach. The issues she faces are faced by each of us on a daily basis. We say things that we don't really mean, we don't say things that we should, and we find ourselves in morally and...more
Alexander McCall Smith creates these wonderful characters, that essentially have rather agreeable lives. I think of all his characters, Isabelle leads the most charmed life. She is intelligent, well-educated, and well-to-do. She has a handsome, sensitive and younger fiance, who has fathered her beautiful and well-behaved son. And she enjoys her job.
All in all there is simply no angst, nor traumas and nary a crisis on the horizon. But despite the lacks these things, Alexander crafts a beautiful s...more
All in all there is simply no angst, nor traumas and nary a crisis on the horizon. But despite the lacks these things, Alexander crafts a beautiful s...more
Not a "murder" mystery, but there are certainly mysteries to be solved an Isabel can't help getting involved. Meeting up with Minty Auchterlonie again, after a few years, leads Isabel on a twisted journey. Isabel is moral philosopher and Minty gives her plenty of moral dilemma's to ponder. In the end, while Isabel feels she has handled Minty well, I found the resolution a bit less satisfying. While Minty is called on her misdeeds, she really doesn't pay for them.
It was enjoyable, though to catc...more
It was enjoyable, though to catc...more
There is a comfortable familiarity in the Isabel Dalhousie series, which always reminds me of Seinfeld and its 'show about nothing'. Because really, these books are NOT plot-heavy and sort of gently ramble their way through a series of not very exciting events and end in a mild, sputtering anti-climax. Don't get me wrong -- I love Isabel, Jamie, Charlie, Grace, Cat (sort of...), Eddie, etc., but these tend to be the books about nothing.
I don't know if I'm getting mildly bored or if this one wasn...more
I don't know if I'm getting mildly bored or if this one wasn...more
I randomly picked this up at the library after noticing the author's name (I haven't read any of the books in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, but I memorized the author's name!). It's the sixth in the Isabel Dalhousie series, which worried me before I started reading, but, fortunately, it stands on its own.
Isabel edits a philosophical journal and the thing I like most about her is her constant analysis of the situations she finds herself in (I would provide an example, but I gave the book t...more
Isabel edits a philosophical journal and the thing I like most about her is her constant analysis of the situations she finds herself in (I would provide an example, but I gave the book t...more
Oct 12, 2009
Donna
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
fans of gentle reads and non-murder mysteries
Recommended to Donna by:
6th in an interesting series
Shelves:
gentle-reads
OK, so Isabel is a philosopher and while I occasionally enjoy her evaluation of various daily events, this time it started getting on my nerves. I don't know how her fiance, Jamie, stands it. Her mind is always wandering down tangents and wondering whether she should really be thinking what she is thinking.
However, once she decides to intervene in the problem thrust upon her by an acquaintance, it's really interesting to watch her work. At least 4 times in this book she says things (to 4 differe...more
However, once she decides to intervene in the problem thrust upon her by an acquaintance, it's really interesting to watch her work. At least 4 times in this book she says things (to 4 differe...more
"It was just too easy to say that adults did not like stories that were simple, and perhaps that was wrong. Perhaps that was what adults really wanted, searched fore and rarely found: a simple story in which good triumphs against cynicism and dispair. That was what she wanted, but she was aware of the fact that one did not publicise the fact too widely, certainly not in sophisticated circles. Such circles wanted complexity, dysfunction and irony: there was no room for joy, celebration or pathos....more
This series seems to have lost its way a bit. I didn't enjoy this book nearly as much as the earlier ones. There was just so very little plot this time.
Sometimes I find myself intensely irritated by Isabel Dalhousie, which I suppose is partly jealousy since I have a philosophy degree myself but unlike Isabel I am obliged to make a living so I can't just sit around reading and writing philosophy, musing about random topics, listening to music and eating expensive food. Yes, I'm jealous of a ficti...more
Sometimes I find myself intensely irritated by Isabel Dalhousie, which I suppose is partly jealousy since I have a philosophy degree myself but unlike Isabel I am obliged to make a living so I can't just sit around reading and writing philosophy, musing about random topics, listening to music and eating expensive food. Yes, I'm jealous of a ficti...more
I am a huge fan of McCall Smith, eagerly awaiting his next publication, and there are many. But I found this story became tedious. Perhaps if this was the first Isabel Dalhousie book one was to read, then the constant fawning over her son and her boyfriend (much younger) would be novel (pardon the pun). By the time I was into this third book about Dalhousie, who edits a philosophy magazine, I was pretty tired of her, and Smith's competent writing did not save the day. Every little teeny event an...more
Isabel Dalhousie is a character who always takes me - outside of my normal fiction box of mysteries and contemporary fiction - to a gentle contemplative spot where I can think about questions of morality and philosophy without seeking solutions. The Edinburgh of Isabel Dalhousie is filled with elegant houses, excellent cafes and shops and the joy of her love. Her son Charlie and fiance Jamie fill her life in the spaces void of the Philosophical Review and the conundrums of her acquaintances.
I li...more
I li...more
Ohhh, this one was so suspenseful. The woman, Minty, was such a wicked lady and she really made Isabel jump through hoops for nefarious purposes. I don't think I would have been so forgiving as Isabel. Brother fox played a bigger part in the story this time--he was injured and Isabel and Jaime had the fox trapped so they could call the vet and heal it. Jaime and Isabel are engaged and Isabel buys a ring for him. I thought she would put reference to a poem on the inside of his ring but she puts s...more
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Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the international phenomenon The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, the Isabel Dalhousie Series, the Portuguese Irregular Verbs series, and the 44 Scotland Street series. He is professor emeritus of medical law at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and has served on many national and international bodies concerned with bioethics. He was born in what...more
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“Myth could be as sustaining as reality - sometimes even more so.”
—
6 people liked it
“Moral beauty existed as clearly as any other form of beauty and perhaps that was where we could find the God who was so vividly, and sometimes bizarrely, described in our noisy religious explanations. It was an intriguing thought, as it meant that a concert could be a spiritual experience, a secular painting a religious icon, a beguiling face a passing angel.”
—
1 person liked it
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Dec 15, 2010 07:36am