Il club dei filosofi dilettanti

I was just telling a friend that I rarely leave two-star reviews, but this is one of them. I probably wouldn't have read the entire book (Davina Porter's usual terrific narration notwithstanding), except for the resolution of the "mystery" presented at the outset; to avoid a spoiler, I'll leave it t Leggi tutto

EXCERPT: Isabel Dalhousie saw the young man fall from the edge of the upper circle, from the gods. His flight was so sudden and short, and it was for less than a second that she saw him, hair tousled, upside down, his shirt and jacket up around his chest so that his midriff was exposed. And then, st Leggi tutto

Sound the Post Horn! Isabel is off and running again... And Isabel is anything but a mere Sunday Sleuth. No, she’s a total self-starter, and just as curiosity can kill us cooler-brained cats, it is ALWAYS time, regardless of consequences, for her to play Holmes to us more pedestrian Watsons. You see ( Leggi tutto

This is a quick and likeable read that is mildly engaging. It is the first of the philosopher Isabel Dalhousie series set in Edinburgh. She edits a philosophy journal on applied ethics and ponders on the ethics and morality on the minutae of life. Upon seeing a man fall from a balcony at Usher Hall, Leggi tutto

به عنوان داستان پرهیجان پلیسی نیایید سراغش، چون موضوع پلیسیش خیلی کند پیش می‌ره و چیز خاصی نداره، ولی اصل ماجرا در دوراهی‌های اخلاقی مختلفیه که نویسنده و کارآگاهش در داستان مطرح می‌کنند. برای من انگار عصاره‌ی خیلی از کتاب‌هایی که خوندم و فکرمو مشغول کردن، به شکل خیلی مستقیم و در عین حال جذاب، در این Leggi tutto

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, a bassoon player who's at least a decade younger than me. I'm not as intellect Leggi tutto

Alexander McCall Smith is best known for his No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, of which I am a fan. He has another series featuring Isabel Dalhousie, a cultured and wealthy Scottish lady (and I use the term advisedly), which sounds far more like my usual preference than a genial African woman.

 I didn’t think I would like this series as I compared 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 a complex creatu Leggi tutto

I wasn't crazy about the narrator. 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 sound - the ethical quandaries she finds herself in aren't engaging. And she needs a flaw - co Leggi tutto

As with most of Alexander McCall Smiths books, the plot is only half the story. This series is about Isabelle Dalhousie, an educated middle aged woman living in Edinburgh, Scotland. She reviews magazine articles for a Philosophy of Ethics journal and is a member of the Sunday Philosophy club if and