The Unbearable Lightness of Scones

-by Alexander McCall Smith.

This is one of a series of the 44 Scotland Street Series, which was a serial story - appearing daily in the newspaper. How quaint is that? Love it.

It wasn't very confusing to come in midway through the series (I think this is #5), though I wonder a bit at back story.

It's hard to say what I love most about Alexander McCall Smith's stories - I got addicted to The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books and forced them on many people. I think what I love most is how setting is a character. I thought that was only in the Ladies Detective Agency books, because Botswana (the land of Smith's childhood) is such a wonderful place. But I see now that he has done the same with Scotland, and it's wonderful. Scotland is an active character throughout all the stories, and I'm enjoying it thoroughly.

Nothing really happens in these stories, and I like that, too. It's all about character development, and their relationships.

I also really like how Smith can make me laugh and make me see things in a new way. I'm an ardent feminist, but Bertie's mom shows me how it is to go overboard with that - and with Smith, it's not that he's ardently anti-feminist, he just finds humor in everybody. He's going on now about men talking about moisturizer, and I find it refreshingly silly and warm.

But perhaps what I like most is that I got to see him speak at the Los Angeles book fair (or whatever it's called), and he is just the warmest, most humble person ever. He's just so darned charming that I can so picture him as a character in any of his stories. I would so drink tea with him. Any and every day of the week.

This is not deep reading, but it is PERFECT for light reading fun. Alexander McCall Smith makes me happy in a very Scottish way.