| Espresso Tales | 
 enlarge | Author: Alexander Mccall Smith
Publisher: Anchor
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy Used: $2.48
You Save: $11.47 (82%)
New (54) Used (51) Collectible (2) from $2.48
Avg. Customer Rating:  33 reviews
Sales Rank: 19428
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 0307275973
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.917
EAN: 9780307275974
ASIN: 0307275973
Publication Date: July 11, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Standard used condition.
|
| Customer Reviews:
 A Complete Delight! February 28, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you don't find this book laugh-out-loud funny, then you will have altogether missed the point! Every bit as delightful as 44 Scotland Street, the parody of Edinburgh characters continues in the author's usual witty fashion, with scenes of the ridiculous (but often not altogether impossible) and individual personality traits highlighted to the greatest degree. It's a superb comment upon the ridiculous... In fact, do we even realise how ridiculous our society can potentially be!?
Get back in touch with old friends from 44 Scotland Street. There's Pat, the young 20-something soon-to-be student... should she go to the nudist party at Moray Place? She's still working in the Art Gallery for Matthew & it's now turning a profit... can Matthew find some confidence? The erstwhile narcissistic Bruce had decided upon the wine trade as his latest venture, having recently been fired from his career as a chartered surveyor... of course, it doesn't bother him in the slightest that he knows nothing at all about wine! Pat's neighbour and friend Domenica is still there with her insightful comments upon humankind. So too, Angus & his faithful friend, Cyril. But more to the point, this book focuses most of all upon little Bertie (now 6) and his insufferably pushy mother, Irene. Can Stuart stand up to Irene and let Bertie be a little boy? Bertie is finding his way, having just started school, he is now tentatively trying to make friends & "fit in". But this is difficult for Bertie with his pink dungarees, his pink bedroom, his yoga classes, and Italian lessons, the sessions with the psychotherapist & his Grade 7 saxophone. Bertie wants to love mummy all the time... but is finding it very difficult...
Just as its predecessor the book is written with short pithy chapters (over 100 of them), each presenting a mini-story & social commentary of their own. Some reviewers have found the political chapters boring, but that IS totally the point - read them & you'll see why & don't worry, they're short! I loved every bit of this book & everyone with a good sense of humour should find something to enjoy.
Delightful January 19, 2008
Just finished this delightful book and enjoyed every page. I love the diversity of the characters- all so dead-on, I feel like these are real people. The author has a way of saying so much in not too many words. I've never been to Scotland but feel like I have a clear picture of various slices of life there. Probably my favorite character is the little boy, Bertie. I can't wait to find out what happens in the sequel.
I've read all the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books twice, and listened to them all on audio. I was hoping this Scotland Street series would be good, and am so glad it is.
More about Bertie . . . January 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Little Bertie has some triumphs in this charming sequel to 44 Scotland Street. Lots of new giggles in Espresso Tales and just as delightful as 44 Scotland street is. Alexander McCall Smith is a genius who captures the essence of a character in as few words as humanly possible. I think you'll enjoy this book so much more if you read 44 Scotland Street first.
It's all about Bertie December 24, 2007
After reading 44 Scotland Street I was left with one burning question: what about Bertie? Will he ever get out from under his mother's stifling influence? Will he get to play Rugby? How will he deal with his oblivious psychiatrist? All the characters of the series are interesting to one degree or another, but as I picked up this book it was Bertie's story I really wanted to know.
Fortunately, Smith delivered. In this volume we get to see the world through Bertie's hyper-intelligent but still immature eyes. And I was thrilled that rather than simply playing the situation for laughs, as "44 Scotland Street" had done, in these stories Bertie gets to break out of his routine, have a series of adventures, and achieve the sort of semi-definitive conclusion that was only afforded to Pat in the previous volume.
That's not to say that the stories of the rest of the characters are not interesting. I found the evolution of Bruce, the thick headed narcissistic roommate, to be particularly satisfying. It helps that Pat had, in the first book, already gotten over her crush on Bruce, which was so obviously unwise that you couldn't help but expect disaster on every page.
The only false note in this collection is the Ramsey Dunbarton storyline. A grand old gentleman who seems to have done nothing much with his life, and yet talks about it incessantly, his chapters were simply boring. Perhaps if I were Scottish I would be able to see all sort of subtle in jokes that would turn him from boring to charming, but as it is I'm glad he only shows up from time to time.
But that is only a blemish on a great collection. I'll be reading the next one as soon as I can get my hands on it!
 Good second novel but not as good as the first! October 19, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The old characters are back! Pat, Bruce, Matthew, Domenica, Little Bertie and his parents are great in this series.
I know a lot of reviewers are raving about Ramsey Dunbarton and his appearances in the second book. I enjoyed him in the first novel. I think the reason why I enjoyed him in the first novel was because you were given a little bit of him in doses. In this sequel you get a lot of him! He was funny in the first book because of his ramblings but in the second one he is talking about his memoirs. These memoirs sections are so boring! He isn't funny anymore to me because he is going on and on for pages at a time about his life. The funny parts of the memoirs are usually his wife who has to sit and listen to them and some little bits of his life that make him look like a git!
The rest of the book regarding Pat and the rest of the gang on Scotland street is just as good as the first book, if not better! Pat meets a guy that has a interesting hobby. Bruce, and his god-likeness, starts a wine store even though he doesn't really know muchragarding wine. You can see how the characters have grown and Bertie and his father get more of a back bone regarding Irene, the overbearing mother.
|
|
|
