| The Sunday Philosophy Club (Isabel Dalhousie Mysteries) | 
 enlarge | Author: Alexander Mccall Smith
Publisher: Anchor
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  142 reviews
Sales Rank: 15061
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.2 x 0.7
ISBN: 0349118698
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9781400077090
ASIN: 1400077095
Publication Date: July 12, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Some wear on book from reading, spine creases, wear on binding and pages, we guarantee all purchases and ship all items via USPS mail.
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| Customer Reviews:
 The bassoonist and the philosopher October 29, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
Isabel Dalhousie, editor of the Review of Applied Ethics, lives an affluent, contemplative life in Edinburgh. After a concert she sees a man fall to his death from the balcony of the concert hall and reasons that as the last person he saw before dying, she owes Mark Fraser something -- in this case, to discover whether he was pushed.
Convinced that he was murdered, Isabel makes inquiries among Fraser's colleagues in the financial world. There are a number of possible suspects and not all is what it seems. Isabel consults with her opinionated housekeeper, Grace, and partners in her investigation with her niece Cat's former boyfriend, the handsome bassoonist Jaime. After some surprises and a brush with personal danger, Isabel comes to the truth.
THE SUNDAY PHILOSOPHY CLUB is the first book of Alexander McCall Smith's Isabel Dalhousie series. Like the "traditionally built" Precious Ramotswe in McCall's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, Isabel takes a thoughtful approach to all her affairs; just as you'd expect from a philosopher who loves music, Scottish art, and the poetry of W.H. Auden. The mystery is not the main event in this series, but rather a showcase for Isabel's moral digressions. If you're into blazing action, this book won't have enough movement for you. But if you'd like to stroll the streets of Edinburgh and experience life through the considering eyes of a philosopher, give this series a try. Four stars for characters, plotting, charm and reflection. The missing star may be reclaimed when we know Isabel better.
I listened to the audio download from Amazon subsidiary Audible, Inc, which is the same production available on unabridged CD; read with philosopher-like steadiness by Davina Porter.
Linda Bulger, 2008
 Tedious, TMI about the mundane inner workings of the heroine's fossilized mind October 9, 2008
Supposedly the star of this show is a well educated women in her 40's. Unfortunatly, her inner musings are mundane, repetative and seem more typical of someone in her 80's who has lived a dull, rule-dominated life. Further, she lacks common sense in human relations. She leaks her anxiety in damaging ways onto others and the author tries to convince readers that this reflects some comprehensible moral code about truth telling. The transcription of this dreary woman's inner musings is boring in the extreme, even for someone like me, who enjoys ethical discussions. It seems that the author took an intro course in ethical/moral reasoning and feels qualified to wax eloquent about tempests in teapots. What I don't understand is why a publisher wouldn't have the good sense or courage to tell this previoulsy successful author that she is out to lunch with this dreary tome. I'll probably never know who killed that young man because I can't bear to proceed further into the book, but here's my guess - Neil did it to get rid of a romatic rival. The insider trading tip was a lie to send our heroine down the wrong path.
Dull story; unBEARable heroine September 11, 2008
This story was a very slow mover. In spite of the fact that the main character, Isabel, believes that a young man has been pushed over a balcony, nothing goes along at a pace that suggests that there might be a crime that wants solving.
In my opinion, Smith's writing was awful. The main fault is in Isabel, who is undoubtedly one of the most smug and pretentious heroines in modern literature. She's a truly annoying character, but what's bad is that she -- a philosopher, mind you -- has no self-awareness of what a twit she is. At one point, she reflects (with lots of mental back-patting) that she is a person who "believes in privacy," all while she's being a pushy and obnoxious nosey parker, intruding on people's grief and their personal lives in the name of "moral responsibility" to the man whose death she witnessed. I know. I didn't think it made any sense, either.
She simply could not have been more irritating. Plus, the ending fell flat -- it was a truly uninspired way to finish off the story.
The greatest recommendation I can give is that this book is not long at all. If you insist on reading it, it won't take long for you to finish it. You can return it to your public library before it is overdue. Because....you aren't going to BUY it, are you?
A solid start August 22, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is very weak as a mystery, but as you'll see if you follow the series, the mystery is not the point. While the first two books are billed as "Isabel Dalhousie mysteries," the last two are labelled as "Isabel Dalhousie novels," which is more accurate. Alexander McCall Smith does an excellent job of creating a world that you'll want to revisit over and over. Isabel Dalhousie doesn't come off very well in this book, making snap judgments and jumping to erroneous conclusions, but over the course of the series I've come to consider her quite sympathetic and entertaining. I like this book in itself for the interesting details about Edinburgh; with subsequent books, the series only gets better.
Prose for the soul. Life is good. August 5, 2008
Ok, I agree that the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency seems to have more flavor than the Isabel Dalhousie series - but isn't it because we find Africa much more exciting than Scotland? Because we find it exotic and warm and we are pleasantly surprised with the human universals we discover in Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi?
My opinion is that both series have the same writing quality, it is just that we don't know as much about Botswana and its people, as we know about Europe. And it makes it a more interesting read for us - as I am sure it would be the reverse for the African readers.
I liked the first novel of the Isabel Dalhousie series, it is a very enjoyable read. And the series gets better and better. I like the warmth and goodness and common sense that emmanate from McCall Smith's prose. It just feels good, cozy even. No big surprises, just a book to keep you good company, anytime, anywhere, and to remind us that life is good (and we can contibute to that, too).
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