The characters in this series are well developed, but they seem not to be growing in strength are doing "new" things. This is an easy read and the outcome is easy to predict. I have enjoyed this series, but this one is the least favorite of them. I look forward to the next to see how the relationships develop - maybe marriage would strengthen the relationships in the book?

Unfortunately the new 44Scotland Street novel only can be described as pleasant. Isabel is somewhat tedious in this story and is becomoing obcessive about her younger lover. It is not the best of the series, altough a "plesant" and easy read.

This one will keep you up all night turning pages, even if you are not already hooked on Isabel Dalhousie and company.

McCall's extended portrait of life in Edinburgh is both thought-provoking and emotionally delicious as we follow Isabel's ups and downs and find ourselves strangely comforted by the humanity and vulnerability of her life.

Will her beloved Jamie be enticed by an American composer to leave Edinburgh to further his career as a concert bassoonist? Did the doctor do it? Why does Grace claim Isabel's baby boy Charlie is her own son? Will Cat ever figure out why she chooses the wrong men? Do people, even nice Edinburgh people, actually go about telling lies every day?


Curl up with a cup of strong black tea with cream and plenty of sugar as you get to know Isabel a little better.

You won't regret it.

The Comfort of Saturdays is the fifth book in the "Sunday Philosophy Club" series, which feature Isabel Dalhousie, philosopher and occasional amateur sleuth. I should say at the outset that I adore this series. Isabel is a very likeable character with lovely little observations about life and its everyday moral dilemmas. But having said that, this is the book that I have liked least in the series to date. It felt like Isabel spent too much time thinking and not enough doing, to the detriment of the book's momentum.

The story picks up a year after "The Careful Use of Compliments". Isabel and Jamie's son Charlie is now 15 months old. One thing that felt wrong to me as a mother was Isabel's relationship with Charlie, which seemed very functional. She spends so many hours fretting about Jamie - does Jamie love her? is he happy? is she at risk of losing him? how can someone so beautiful want to be with her? - while she seems far less interested in her own son.

The book opens well. Isabel is asked to investigate the circumstances behind a doctor's disgrace over a medical scandal. At the same time, Jamie has developed a friendship with a mysterious composer by the name of Nick Smart. However it felt like McCall Smith lost interest in both of these storylines, which get pushed to the back and never get fully resolved. Instead we spend a lot of time with Isabel and her insecurities. For the first time we see sides of Isabel which are not very appealing: for example she harbors a grudge over a loan that she has made and is quick to pass judgment on Eddie's girlfriend based on the way she looks.

Despite all of this, McCall Smith is still a lovely writer. I always feel a little lighter in spirit after reading his books. The Edinburgh settings are captivating and Isabel has an original and refreshing take on life.

If you haven't read any of the earlier books in this series, don't start with this one. Without the entire back story, many of the subtleties in the story will be lost.

Alexander McCall Smith continues his thoughtful investigation of the social contract and doing the right thing to others in a moral sense. Isabel Dalhousie, being portrayed as a mere human who knows ethics, struggles on behalf of us all with jealousy, regret, sloth, and concern for the hurting. How should we react?

In this story, Isabel finds that her worries about losing Jamie seem to be growing. She continues to keep barriers between them while wanting to take the barriers down. Social engagements with people her age are particularly uncomfortable. She feels particularly threatened by Jamie's new friendship with a young composer, Nick Smart.

Isabel is shocked to find that her old foe, Christopher Dove, is trying to manipulate her into publishing an article in the Journal of Applied Ethics. She grits her teeth at the effort required to treat Dove fairly.

After a dinner party, Isabel is approached by the wife of a disgraced medical researcher to see if Isabel will try to find some way to rehabilitate the researcher's reputation. Isabel is no Miss Marple, and her efforts lead her in an unexpected direction.

Between the major plot lines, Isabel takes great pleasure in her son, Charlie, her peaceful life, helping Cat out while she visits Sri Lanka, and looking to help those in need without hurting anyone's feelings. That last challenge is more difficult than she imagines.

As always, the story exudes joie de vivre, affection for Edinburgh, pleasure in the company of others, and happiness in trying to do the right thing. It's a nice recipe for brightening up your day . . . so that even a rainy Saturday can look like heaven on Earth.

Enjoy your life!

In a world of excess and detachment, it is an incomparable pleasure to read an author's work which deals with how humans interconnect and how we sometimes hide our feelings even from ourselves. Alexander McCall Smith's stories always start out gently, build to a crescendo, and then leave one so much more aware of one's humanity and so much more aware of one's own honest self. My husband and I have read everything this wonderful author has written, and eagerly await each new offering. Oh, thank you, dear Mr. A. M. Smith! Oh, thank you, Isabel!

This is another example of why Alexander McCall Smith is such a unique author. I enjoy following Isabel Dalhousie and the events surrounding the other characters in this series. However, as in the best of things, it's not so much about the destination as it is the journey. The journey here is made enjoyable by McCall Smith's humorous and insightful peeks into human nature through Isabel's philosophical meanderings. I also enjoy the way he discreetly pokes fun at societal quirks that we are all familiar with but may not have really noticed. This is a book to be savored like good chocolate.

"The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday" is the fifth installment in Alexander McCall Smith's Isabel Dalhousie Series and it will not disappoint the many devoted readers who have come to appreciate the gentle humor and examination of life's moral dilemmas that are at the heart of this group of books.

"Comforts..." continues philosopher Isabel Dalhousie's well-meaning attempts to find safe passage through the daily minefield of moral issues that routinely come her way. As a stand in for "Everyman/Everywoman," she gives voice to anyone who confronts these same life crossroads and tries to take the right direction in each situation. It seems to me that she also serves as medical ethicist McCall Smith's Scots alter ego in raising these issues for public examination as well.

This book moves Isabel's relationship with her younger boyfriend down the road a bit, demonstrating how love and self confidence are not always fellow travelers. In Isabel's case, however, there is more than the glimmer of a silver lining here that we would expect to be further explored in the next installment of the series.

"The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday" provides the comfort of well-evolved characters and the now familiar and interesting environment of the city of Edinburgh. As always, the author provides an intelligent story line that provokes some thought and reaction to its characters. He does not, on the other hand, provide a heavy duty plot or black and white conclusion to the story.

Altogether, a very enjoyable book--particularly for those who have been following the series. Maybe not the first book in the series for newcomers to begin with.

Excellent "next chapter" in this series about a very interesting woman. I enjoy the philosophical tidbits he inserts into the story - Smith also takes a chance with this character in allowing her to become a mother and to have a younger lover. Very different from the series with "Precious" but intriguing in it's own way.

I love this series from Alexander McCall Smith. He continues to flesh out the characters as only he can--Isabel's romance with a younger man, the complication of a child born from that romance, and all that entails. Add, the ethical dilemmas with the unraveling of a mysterious circumstance and you have a very well rounded book to think about and enjoy.

The treats of a "muddy Saturday" are somewhat reminiscent of being thrown on one's own resources during a blizzard or lengthy electrical outage. The vagaries of Nature often steer us toward activities that give unexpected pleasure.

In our woods we allow the surroundings to play their natural role - - and we are happily distracted by 'our' fox, birds making seasonal visits, turkeys and deer. This book by Alexander McCall Smith is a different sort of 'treat' - - it won't bowl you over but it will add a certain comfort to an inclement day.

McCall Smith increasingly delivers surprises - - How does he juggle the series he has created? Somehow I am also surprised when I find any of his books NOT an absolute favorite. "Comforts" is the 5th in the Isabel Dalhousie series. It is not a favorite (I couldn't say it is "fabulous"), yet I feel assured that there will be another book, and other chapters for each of his characters, claiming our attention.

Now that's a happy thought to help me overlook whatever tension the weather might serve up. What could be more comforting on such a Saturday as yielding to the charms of A - M - S?

(commentary-with-a-small-"c" by mcHaiku)

I've always liked Isabel Dalhousie. In the beginning of the series, she is everything she is now except one: she wasn't insecure. Even getting together with Jamie, she took charge. It was great to read. I love strong women.

However, the last book and this one, she has degenerated into a really insecure person. And her infatuation with Jamie is a bit disturbing. Very little is written about his good heart, but every few pages we get a description of how good-looking he is, of how he is hers, and how proud she is of his good looks and flat belly, and on and on an on. It got really irritating.

And sadly, her son, seems to be incidental. There are no description of strong feelings for him. It's a tepid relationship at best. Jamie is the obsession. Again, disturbing.

That and the sad lack of plot. What the heck is with Nick? I'll still keep reading though. I love McCall Smith's novels.

I just finished reading my new copy. (I might add that I pre-ordered it from Amazon, it arrived a full week after copies appeared in my local bookstore, and it ended up costing me twice as much as one of those copies would have.) I love the Isabel Dalhousie series, but I'm not sure about this latest addition. Alexander McCall Smith's novelistic meanderings have never bothered me before, but this time around there seems to be a stronger flavor of much ado about nothing. It's not so much that plotlines were introduced and went nowhere; that's par for the course in an Isabel Dalhousie novel. It's that the plotlines didn't amount to much at all. I was also horrified by an instance in which Isabel jumped to a conclusion about another character without the least bit of evidence. She has done this before, of course, but this time it was especially jarring.

On the other hand, Mr. Smith does an excellent job of describing the feelings of a woman in love, and as always Isabel means well and does her best. There is a nice moment where someone is caught acting like a "loser," to use the popular term, and Isabel responds with compassion rather than censure; it is for moments like these that I read the novels of Mr. Smith. I was also glad to read more about Eddie, for whom I have a soft spot.

I've found that I enjoy the Isabel Dalhousie novels even more on rereading, so I'm reserving judgment. For now, three stars.

I also love Alexander McCall Smith and Isabel Dalhousie is one of my favorite characters. This novel is so enjoyable, as there are plenty of observations on human nature and the beauty and history of Scotland. I had a few laughs out loud while enjoying Isabel's latest situations. However, I agree with another reviewer that the subplots did not go anywhere. I was a little disappointed, but even a book without a plot written by McCall Smith is better than many other books out there. And he is so prolific, you can't really fault him. I can't wait for the next installment in this series, as the characters are so real and interesting.

Alexander McCall Smith is one of my favorite authors. This book, though, is a little heavy on the philosophical musings and a little light on plot. I have always liked the main character, Isabel, the editor of a publication titled "Review of Applied Ethics" because she is a cerebral person; because she raises and attempts to answer an assortment of ethical, historical, and philosophical questions; and because she is an independent sort. But there are so many "asides" here - so many quips and quotes and intellectual musings, that they become a distraction and disrupt the flow of the story.

As one of the reviewers said, McCall Smith's books are addictive. I haven't given up reading his books. Just not a big fan of this one.