The Right Attitude to Rain

This is the third book in the Isabel Dalhousie series by Alexander McCall Smith. He’s written heaps and heaps of books, but this is the only series that I follow of his. It’s really original, because the plot doesn’t matter at all, it’s mostly just Isabel musing about various things – philosophy, namely, because she’s the editor of a journal of applied ethics.

I didn’t even know this book was coming along, and I didn’t know if it’d be good, but man, it really was. Hooray that the beautiful Jamie loves her back! I really didn’t think that would happen. And it doesn’t stop Isabel from thinking about all the bizarre and human things she thinks about, like the ethics of emailing, like the fox that lives in her garden and the particular words in Scotch that are so beautiful. Like her favourite poem which is, hooray, my favourite poem, too! (Auden’s Lullaby)

This kind of book wouldn’t appeal to everyone. I love it, because it’s so human. It’s so ordinary, it’s just like reading thoughts but expressed more clearly than most of our tangled ideas. And McCall Smith uses a very unique writing technique - he uses almost always third person limited perspective, but very very occasionally will jump into one of the other character's heads. Which seems "wrong" but turns out to be very powerful. Oh, I hope this isn't the end! I really, really hope that another book follows this one.