Alexander McCall Smith 44 scotland street 6 Books Collection Pack Set RRP: £49.22 (Love Over Scotland, Espresso Tales, 44 Scotland Street, The Importance of Being Seven, THE WORLD ACCORDING TO BERTIE, The Unbearable Lightness of Scones)

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Once again, Bruce, the supreme narcissist and serial seducer, is engaged in his conceited and hurtful behaviour. Does he succeed this time and escape his karma?

In these affable, humorous books Alexander McCall Smith follows the lives of a group of people who reside in Edinburgh's "New Town" neighborhood. Many of the characters live in apartments at 44 Scotland Street - and others are their neighbors, friends and acquaintances.Angus turned to Domenica. "This view always makes me feel sad. I don't know why, but it does." He drew in his breath, savouring the freshness of the air. Freshly mown grass was upon it, and the smell of lavender, too, from Elspeth's kitchen garden. "Well, perhaps not sad--more wistful, perhaps, which is one notch below actual sadness.” Perhaps Bertie, the precocious five-year-old, will have the normal boyhood life envisioned by his father, Stuart. Bertie wants to attend Watson school, where he would get a chance to play rugby. He yearns for a life of fishing and rugby instead of yoga and Italian lessons orchestrated by his pushy mother. The relative peace and tranquillity of 44 Scotland Street is about to be disrupted. Irene is to return for a two-month stay, consigning Bertie to a summer camp. Not satisfied with that, she somehow manages to come between the enigmatic nun, Sister Maria-Fiore dei Fiori di Montagna, and her friend, the hagiographer, Antonia Collie. Bertie was composed of goodness, and sometimes goodness means that you take the blame for things you haven’t done. You accept it. You bear it. And he had borne so much in his brief seven years that a little more would not make much difference.” As always, characters reflect on, or expostulate on a variety of subjects, exposing the reader to small doses of gentle philosophy in the process. Childhood games, customer service, the comfort of continuity, envy, sonnets, Neanderthals, historical guilt, vanilla poetry, prayers and barking, bagpipes and belonging, oppression, justice and the blessing of benign government, the loss of the Gaelic language,and categories of rows in a shared flat: all these feature. And of course, McCall Smith can’t resist a dig at the Turner Prize.

Gilles Deleuze, when younger and before he was plunged into the terminal nightmare of COPD, juxtaposed the traditional with the zanily postmodernist very handily indeed, though his road was Woke. AMS lives in Edinburgh and a friend once told me I would love it if I ever went there. I hope I get to see it one day, but just in case I don't, I feel I have been there because Edinburgh almost becomes a character in this series. A Promise Of Ankles is the fourteenth book in the 44 Scotland Street serial novel by Scottish author, Alexander McCall Smith, and in it, the lives of the residents of 44 Scotland Street and those of their friends are, once again, updated for the continuing enjoyment of series fans. The audio version is narrated by David Rintoul.On my second read of this book, I enjoyed it possibly more than the first time because I knew what to expect. This is not a novel of plot and event. It wanders from one character to the next, and lets you into their stream of consciousness in a way that might feel frustrating if you want Things to Happen. But I love this book for its close affinity with the city of Edinburgh, and the feeling it gives me of getting introduced (or, even better, re-introduced) to people who have lived in and breathed the air of the Scottish capital so that it's part of who they are. And the reader has the privilege of just going along for the ride in their everyday lives... walking with them over to their favorite coffee bar, hanging out with them during a slow period at work, having incidental conversations that stray hither and yon, and musing with them over many of life's imponderables. It's the closest substitute I can imagine for traveling to Edinburgh and actually making friends with everyday people. You wouldn't expect to solve a murder mystery or embark on a romance for the ages on a real-life normal trip, would you? But you might expect to meet someone interesting and chat with them about this and that, and maybe even meet their friends, right? And not all of them will be your cup of tea--a few of them could be annoying. But it's a whole social process of slowly expanding the network of people that have let you into their lives and thought processes. That's what this book does. No more, but no less. It's as loosely plotted as life itself, but that's why I find it in a class by itself. While Bertie is precocious (a neighbor finds him reading a book on the life of Kierkegaard), he is sweet-tempered and just wants to be a normal boy. His best friend is Ranald Braveheart Macpherson. He wants to be a Boy Scout, but that group is anathema to his termagant, ultra-leftist, ultra feminist mother Irene. In past books, Irene has painted Bertie’s room pink, had him wear pink pants, attend yoga sessions, learn Italian, play the saxophone, and undergo psychotherapy for no other reason than Bertie is a normal little boy for all his intelligence. (BTW, Irene had an sexual encounter with said psychotherapist during a session at a flotation tank. This resulted in the birth o 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 small fact this book was originally serialised and a chapter was realised each week in an Edinburgh newspaper. While Pat works at Matthew’s gallery, she points out that one of the paintings appears to be the work of Samuel Peploe. It is interesting that Matthew, the owner of the art gallery, has almost no knowledge of art. He is not much of a businessman, either, and his bills are paid by his father, who gave him the art gallery.

The city of Edinburgh vividly comes to life in this gently satirical and humorous serial novel featuring the adventures of Bertie, a child prodigy and remarkably over-psychoanalyzed five-year-old; Cyril the dog, with a penchant for ankles; and the stylish painter, Angus Lordie. This lovely, captivating book is the 15th in the 44 Scotland Street series, set in Edinburgh. It reunites the readers with its quirky, charming and annoying characters. I have read the entire delightful series, and this might be my favourite one so far. Written with wit and wisdom and containing a gentle, thought-provoking philosophy about life, the ability to change, love, friendship, community, art, admitting one's defects, and taking control. Sono un'ammiratrice della Signora Ramotswe, quindi ho voluto provare questa serie dello stesso McCall Smith, ambientata a Edimburgo. Premetto che McCall Smith conosce bene il Botswana e la Scozia, perchè è nato e vissuto Zimbabwe e ha trascorso molto tempo in Botswana e Scozia.For if you’re living in a zany world like the rest of us - why not be a little zany Yourself? That doesn’t mean you have to set aside your scruples...