The Sunday Philosophy Club (Book 1)
by Alexander McCall Smith
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Read in January, 2007
recommended to Elfdream by:
read other words by the authorrecommends it for: people who wonder about life
I didn't think I would like this series as I found myself comparing Isabel to Precious (from the author's other series 'The Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency). The contrasts were obvious.Isabel Dalhousie is a very different heroine from Precious. Where Precious was a gentle simple soul Isabel is complex creature. Precious accepts life as it is and Isabel wonders why? As time went on I found myself growing fond of Isabel. She is just as fascinating a creature as Precious once you understand her.
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Read in December, 2007
This is the first book in the Isabel Dalhousie series, and while fans of the Ladies' No. 1 Detective Agency series will recognize the folksy and cozy narrative style, Isabel Dalhousie is a different kind of protagonist than Mma Ramotswe.
Like the Ladies' No. 1 Detective Agency books, this story is not plot driven, but character driven. Like the Homer Kelly mysteries of Jane Langton, Alexander McCall Smith's myster...more
Like the Ladies' No. 1 Detective Agency books, this story is not plot driven, but character driven. Like the Homer Kelly mysteries of Jane Langton, Alexander McCall Smith's myster...more
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Read in April, 2008
Okay, I have always read this author's name as "Alexandra McCall Smith," I guess because his really famous series is that African ladies' detective club one, and I'm a big sexist jerk. I was telling my mom about the books I'd picked up at the Richmond Public Library book sale, and she had to correct me. Oops.
I didn't enjoy this much. The mystery wasn't very interesting. I didn't care for the subplot about the niece's love-life or the sub-subplot about the main character's lost lov...more
I didn't enjoy this much. The mystery wasn't very interesting. I didn't care for the subplot about the niece's love-life or the sub-subplot about the main character's lost lov...more
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Read in September, 2007
I wasn't crazy about the narrator. I couldn't help but read it in the voice of that lady from The Splendid Table on NPR - it was uncanny. I like her on NPR where it's okay to over-annunciate and pretend to connect with the hoi polloi by knowing everything about the history of corndogs (but in fact only eat them ironically), but she's too airy to narrate a whodunit. The protagonist, Isabel Dalhousie, is the editor of an ethics magazine and the asides about ethics and philosophy are as dry as they...more
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Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
mystery and philosophy lovers
I love the fact that Isabelle Dalhousie is the president and cofounder of a Sunday philosophy club that can never get around to meeting because Sunday is such a bad day....I also like her categorizations of people. For example, she believes in the existence of the "profoundly unreasonable," a small subclass of people who are beyond any reasonableness of solving their own problems or their problems with the interactions of others. I also like her belief that one must have a "moral...more
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Read in May, 2008
recommends it for:
fans of Alexander McCall Smith
I've read other McCall Smith series (No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, Scotland Street and the Igelfeld books) and enjoyed them so I thought I'd give this one a go.
I didn't enjoy it quite as much as some of the others books, but it was very well written and I'll definitely read the next one in the series as I'm interested in where the characters are going. I especially like the way in which AMS gives information on the background of his characters without being too obvious "Here's the bac...more
I didn't enjoy it quite as much as some of the others books, but it was very well written and I'll definitely read the next one in the series as I'm interested in where the characters are going. I especially like the way in which AMS gives information on the background of his characters without being too obvious "Here's the bac...more
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Read in July, 2008
Can you tell I have been reading through most of Alexander McCall Smith's books lately? It has been a bit of a sad summer for me and his books have filled a real need to escape for a few minutes to foreign destinations. In this series of books, we meet a Scottish heroine, a philosopher named Isabel, who lives alone and is quite independent yet lonely. She is exactly my age, 42! :)
Isabel has a habit of involving herself in other people's lives...in this novel she witnesses someone fall of...more
Isabel has a habit of involving herself in other people's lives...in this novel she witnesses someone fall of...more
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To be honest, I'd have to call this series a guilty pleasure. The plotlines don't always ring true to life, although I've never been a wealthy philosopher living in Scotland, with a major crush on my niece's ex-boyfriend, an oboe player wh's at least a decade younger than me. I'm not as intellectual as Isabel, or as nosy, but I happen to love anyone who ponders the bigger moral questions in life, and who loves a crossword puzzle and a cup of freshly brewed coffee. So there you have it. Although ...more
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Read in July, 2008
This was a good little book in the genre of a regular person who gets involved in a mystery, mainly because they don't stop when other people would have. The main problem I had with the book is that the author had the main character always going off on mental philosophical explorations which really interrupted the flow of the main story. It was rather choppy and I took to skimming those sections in order to stay with the story better. It was also interesting how the author worked so hard to i...more
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Read in May, 2008
recommended to Jessica by:
Jenrecommends it for: Anna P!
I read this book on the flight back from Sweden, and loved it the whole way. It's a mystery novel, but the real mystery happens to be applied ethics and modern morality. Not a lot really happens, but Isabel Dalhousie, our sleuth/philosopher at the center of the book is so delightfully distracted by the bigger picture throughout and so astute in her observations of the tiny ways in which modern society is unraveling itself that it's hard not to love the book anyway. I did find that there were a c...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in November, 2007
I suspect I would have been a little bit more forgiving with this book if I didn't have any prior knowledge of philosophy. The narrator is supposed to be the editor for a philosophy journal of applied ethics, and the novel therefore includes a lot of asides about what the right ethical approach should be, but a lot of those asides are either totally misleading or just plain wrong. (Kant lovers, get out your hankies, your man is done no justice here.)
My other point of contention is that as a ...more
My other point of contention is that as a ...more
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recommended to Suhaila by:
Neelam
"Isabel Dalhousie saw the young man fall from the edge of the upper circle, from the gods. "
The narrator seems bland for a sleuth, but I was struck by her first lines. I kept reading, determined to resolve the mystery of the contrast between the poetic opening and the seemingly mild and matronly manner of the narrator. I liked the book because Isabel is a different sort of heroine/ sleuth. She reminds me of how a normally quiet and mild mannered person can suddenly surprise yo...more
The narrator seems bland for a sleuth, but I was struck by her first lines. I kept reading, determined to resolve the mystery of the contrast between the poetic opening and the seemingly mild and matronly manner of the narrator. I liked the book because Isabel is a different sort of heroine/ sleuth. She reminds me of how a normally quiet and mild mannered person can suddenly surprise yo...more
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Read in August, 2007
Being a fan of Smith's No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, I felt it was about time to pick up the Isabel Dalhousie series and see how they suited me. At first, I couldn't shake the feeling that this series was just the Botswana books, but set in Scotland. I'm glad I didn't let that deter me, though! The series, and Isabel Dalhousie, are definitely their own, not just a rip-off of his previous series.
At times, Isabel would get a little long-winded in her ramblings, but the story and characters we...more
At times, Isabel would get a little long-winded in her ramblings, but the story and characters we...more
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I've not read the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books, although they have come highly recommended. I found this one at a used book shop in Louisiana and picked it up. I like it more than some friends (who told me to steer clear of it entirely!). I enjoy the main character, her neuroses and her life, and also her no-nonsense housekeeper. But the book proceeds at such a slow pace: I guess the author aims for "deliberate," as in "philosophers are deliberate" but it comes a...more
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Read in April, 2008
My wife, newborn baby, and I read this book primarily during nursing sessions. The short chapters were perfect for the 10-20 minute sessions. I enjoyed the clever dialogue and short philosophical tangents. I also appreciated the plausibility of the plot. It was simple and realistic. There didn't seem to be any catering to modern society's need for continuous action and increasingly far-fetched plots. It did not seem like the story was written for an audience, but the audience was invited i...more
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Read in March, 2008
I like Alexander McCall Smith's Ladies' Detective Agency series better than this series, but they have the same pace: Methodical writing that wanders with the characters' musings down some interesting trains of thought. Occasionally I get impatient with the musings and just want to get on with the story, but it wouldn't be the same if the pace was any different. It does make me slow down from my normal pace of life and take a moment to enjoy another environment. I am moving on to the next one...more
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Read in February, 2007
recommended to Rosie by:
mommy dearest
Alexander McCall Smith has done something extraordinary - he has made me want to travel simultaneously and impossibly to both Botswana and Scotland.
I kept expecting this to be a standard mystery, but it really never gets to that pace. I feel like I'm just along for the ride with a delightful heroine, wondering what she'll think of next. That goes for both this and the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series as well. I just like hanging out with Isabel Dalhousie and I like hanging out with Pr...more
I kept expecting this to be a standard mystery, but it really never gets to that pace. I feel like I'm just along for the ride with a delightful heroine, wondering what she'll think of next. That goes for both this and the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series as well. I just like hanging out with Isabel Dalhousie and I like hanging out with Pr...more
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Read in October, 2007
This novel is billed as a mystery, and I guess it is one, in a sense, but its main appeal for me is the protagonist herself, Isabel Dalhousie, an editor of the Review of Applied Ethics slash amateur detective. Her philosophical musings on various subjects that cross her mind are an absolute delight to read! She is one funny lady. This may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I truly enjoy them and will seek out the other books in her series, and will definitely try to get my hands on the ...more
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Read in March, 2008
I liked it. it was about Isabel whose niece had to go away for a wedding and she was in charge of Cat's (niece) delicatessen and in the beginning everything goes swell, while learning about everyone's business. she meets this gentleman, who seems attractive, and he had a heart surgery- heart transplant and gets to know more of the person who has the new heart and who had the heart. she dives into a huge mystery and in the end, there are disgusting, horrible results that i cant describe them. ull...more
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