Evening Cocoa - Rated 
This book is very pleasant and undemanding stuff.
The plot inches along and any pretense at investigating crime has been abandoned. There is a twist at the end, but the next book synopsis gives it away.
You can read these books quickly and with little effort but the main character (Isabel Dalhousie)occasionally becomes annoying and the book sometimes just becomes an exposition of moral philosophy with the characters fading into the background.
So nothing special, but not dreadful either.
My goodness, Isabel Dalhousie is human after all. - Rated 
I was very disappointed with the first Isabel Dalhousie book, 'The Sunday Philosophy Club'. Most of the characters, and especially Dalhousie herself, emerged with all the character of a cardboard cutout. It isn't just that they were so different from the Mma Ramotswe books, the first two Sunday Philosophy Club books were plain boring by McCall Smith's standards.
I still find the main character's endless witterings about moral philosophy irritating, but she has at least progressed in this novel to show that she has real, everyday, human feelings. As the book progresses, the entertainment value (and that surely is what these books are about? Maybe not?) increases, and Smith releases a nice bombshell at the end.
At last I can look forward to the next Dalhousie novel.
The Examined Life Examined - Rated 
Once upon a time philosophers dealt with practical questions of ethics: When is it appropriate to lie? When can you take another life? When may you be silent while another makes a mistake? Alexander McCall Smith returns us to those musings, dressed up in the clothing of a divorced woman, Isabel Dalhousie, dealing with her personal life and her profession as the editor of the Review of Applied Ethics. For those who like some intellectual depth with their stories, this series will be most rewarding. For those who want big laughs and ironies that make you instantly smile, go back to The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency.
This is the third book in the series. In the prior books, Isabel shows herself to be a woman who likes to take her time to examine her behavior . . . before acting . . . and usually kicks herself when she doesn't let her intellect lead her. While being concerned about her niece, Cat, Isabel mostly is disappointed that Cat has rejected the handsome and worthy Jamie for a series of less good marital candidates. But Isabel has taken solace in keeping Jamie for a friend, while Jamie pines for the uninterested Cat.
When it rains, is that a blessing . . . or bad luck? In Scotland where it usually rains, you'd better take the former attitude. That's the theme of this story: How should you handle the unexpected?
The story moves forward on a number of fronts: Isabel develops an interest in an odd couple of Americans who turn out to be friends of her cousin; Cat has a new man in her life; Isabel and Jamie seem to drift closer together than either expected; Isabel helps Cat find some new help; and Isabel sets out to buy a home for Grace, her housekeeper. Each story element turns on the nature of male-female relations and examines those relations in different ways.
While there are the usual conundrums (What if someone misunderstands your purpose and offers you a bargain? What should you do if you think someone is in bad relationship? What's the right reaction when love offers itself?), there is actually more plot development in this story than in the previous two combined. I also liked the way that this book points out the limits of trying to lead with one's mental faculties. There is, after all, a strong emotional side to all of us.
I found my interest in the series to be greatly increased by this book. I'm very much looking forward to the next installment in the series.
Bravo!
Turning from gentle philosophy to middle-aged angst - Rated 
I like Alexander McCall Smith's books a great deal. I like the Sunday Philosophy Club series. I even like this book (I dithered over the 2 star rating I eventually gave it, and I think probably I have been rather harsh, as it is still a very enjoyable read). But the characters are now becoming annoying and constantly excusing their own behaviour, rather than simply being themselves (as I reckon they were in previous books).
Isabel Dalhousie is a single woman, aged 42. She is a lonely woman but is happy with her job and had a comfortable independent income, so never has to worry about money. She lusts after her niece's ex-boyfriend (I know, it's meant to be love, but she wouldn't love him if he wasn't so physically attractive, it's mentioned numerous times in the book). OK, warning, SPOILER AHEAD... And then she gets pregnant by this man who is 14 years her junior, but far from being the independent woman I would like to think her to be, she is too scared of asking him if he loves her, or telling him she loves him, in case she scares him off. This isn't love or modern thinking, this is a nervous and lonely older woman on the cusp of menopause (implied) and it annoyed me mightily! And she "excuses" her affair with him (personally, I don't think she should have even been *that* worried about the age difference, being an educated woman and knowing that this is not a teenage boy or a stupid man) with the knowledge that her own mother had an affair with a man younger than herself, so that means it's "in her blood" to go for younger men. Aaaargh. So much for philosophy and free will.
This is still a very readable novel. But if it was the first Alexander McCall Smith book a person ever read, I think they would probably be reluctant to read any others. However, after all my negative ranting here, I do plan to read the next in this series, so I think that shows it isn't all that dreadful! Also, I do think it is unfair to compare the Sunday Philosophy Club series to the Precious Ramotswe books - yes, they are by the same author but they really are not alike at all, and comparison is unfair.
Isabel Dalhousie returns, not a lot happens, but still a good book - Rated
Isabel returns in this, the third, in the Sunday Philosophy Club series of novels. The characters continue to grow on me, and so despite the minimalist central plot, I enjoyed this book more than the previous two.
Alexander McCall Smith doesn't need a thrill a second or cleverly twisting plot to offer us an enjoyable or enlightening read. His gentle writing provides us with a thought provoking observation on the moral dilemmas that some of us may encounter on our own journey through life, and the fact that the characters are perhaps a little too convenient doesn't matter. After all this is fiction.
If you enjoy McCall's Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency, you are very likely to enjoy the company of Isabel Dalhousie.
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