| 44 Scotland Street | 
 enlarge | Author: Alexander Mccall Smith
Publisher: Anchor
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy Used: $0.01
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Avg. Customer Rating:  67 reviews
Sales Rank: 6086
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 1400079446
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9781400079445
ASIN: 1400079446
Publication Date: June 14, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Book shows obvious wear on spine & cover. Your average used book; 1 Hour Ship! ** 96% positive feedback past 90 days--new management overhaul! ** Shop the Internet's most eco-conscious bookseller and keep the earth clean! ** Red Carpet Books = Red Carpet Service.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Disappointing Series - Scotland Street January 5, 2007
2 out of 6 found this review helpful
I was disappointed in this series. I had read the entire series of the Number One Ladies Detective Agency and loved the simple but charming prose. I had also read the entire Irregular Portuguese Verbs series and loved it for the witty arrogance of the main character. I was amazed that these two series had been written by the same author, since they were so diametrically different in their writing style. Therefore it was with great hopes that I bought the Scotland Street series. But I found it so utterly pretentious with characters who throw latin phrases around like colloqualisms and who seem altogether too clever to ever ingratiate themselves to the reader.
Droll stroll in Edinburgh December 30, 2006
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is an enjoyable read that sets the reader up very nicely for a sequel. Mccall Smith is almost totally focused on character development--and good characters they are, too. Readers who need a strong baselline plot will be less intrigued with this book, but the author's easy writing style has something for everyone. By the end of the novel, I found myself interested in seeing the city of Edinburgh which serves as a major "character" here. Good read.
 Funny December 4, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book was a little slow in the beginning - I was just about to toss it aside thinking it had all this character development and no action - when it finally kicked in and I couldn't put it down. There are some very interesting and funny characters in here, which provide a further in depth portrayal of Edinburgh, Scotland where the story takes place. The reading can feel a little staccato; the chapters are only a couple of pages long, but that can be expectd since they were first published as a daily series in THE SCOTSMAN newspaper. There are many funny stories in here, and when I reached the last page, only one of these gets resolved, which is a little disappointing but nonetheless, they were so amusing and funny, they are still very enjoyable. I eagerly await for the second volume.
Funny stories about Edinburgh and the folks who live there.
Witty November 13, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Alexander McCall Smith's latest series introduces us to characters ranging from the egocentric Bruce whose full time job consists of taking baths and admiring his looks in the mirror to Irene, the neurotic mother who has encouraged her young son, Bertie, to learn Italian and the Saxaphone despite his protests and then there is Pat, the attractive college student on her 2nd Gap Year who recognizes the good in people despite falling in love with Bruce, albeit temporarily. While I enjoyed all of the story lines and characters, I found the relationship with Pat and Domenica, her elderly neighbor, most interesting given that many young people dismiss the elderly as being boring and unworthy of their time which is so often not the case, as Pat recognized.
Like other reviewers, the only potential downside to this book was the references to Scottish politics and customs that I couldn't relate to not having lived there... at the same time however, that is what makes it interesting because it opened my eyes up to another world which is the whole point of books in my opinion.
 pastiche October 28, 2006
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
It's a lightly amusing pastiche of the lives of the occupants of a block of flats in Edinburgh. A young couple have a 5 year old son, Bertie, who is the centre of his mother's life and albeit that the child is intelligent, perhaps more than just intelligent, the mother has decided that his life must be crammed full of "significant" pastimes, like speaking Italian and playing the saxaphone. The poor little boy only wants to be left alone to play with his train set and to play football with ,as yet, non existent friends. Another occupant is a 20 year girl who is beginning her second gap year between school and university ( we never find out why she's doing a second year!), and shares a flat with a beautiful looking young man who is a complete narcissist. The stories are an amusing, light read but go nowhere, without a beginning or an end, and finish, leaving the reader up in the air.
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