Product Description

The key to contentment in the Scottish climate is the right attitude to rain - just as in life the key to happiness lies in making the best of what you have. Bruised in love by her faithless Irish husband, Isabel Dalhousie is a connoisseur of intimate moral issues: she edits a philosophical journal and spends a great deal of her time considering how to improve the lives of those around her. There is her housekeeper Grace, whose future she must secure; her niece Cat, who is embarking on a new relationship with a dubious workaholic mummy's boy; and even an American couple newly arrived in Edinburgh on a tour. And then there is Jamie, Cat's ex-boyfriend, a handsome, gifted musician fourteen years Isabel's junior, with whom she is slowly and hopelessly falling in love. Intensely thoughtful and consistently entertaining, THE RIGHT ATTITUDE TO RAIN is shot through with compassion and unassuming intelligence.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2730 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Review
** 'Isabel is an appealing character, always trying to work out the right thing to do, and McCall Smith presents her with a series of dilemmas ?This is an unconventional novel, in which the power of emotion to cloud human intelligence takes precedence, but it is shot through with a gentle humanism that will delight McCall Smith's admirers' SUNDAY TIMES ** 'Delightful ... McCall Smith is a writer who celebrates kindness, in short supply in the world today' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH ** 'Isabel is an appealing character, always trying to work out the right thing to do, and McCall Smith presents her with a seri

Sunday Times
'Shot through with a gentle humanism that will delight McCall
Smith's admirers'

About the Author
Following a distinguished career as a Professor of Medical Law, Alexander McCall Smith has turned to writing full-time. He is the author of over sixty books on a wide array of subjects, and his books have been translated into thirty-seven languages. He lives in Edinburgh with his wife.

Customer Reviews

A comfortable book to read at bedtime
I started with book 4 of the series and then read 1, 2 and this one (no 3). I'm hooked and will have to order number 5! These books are perfect for bed-time reading. You enter the gentle world of genteel Edinburgh following life's up and downs of a nice forty-something woman (Isabel Dalhousie). She has inherited wealth and has a part-time job as an editor of a philosophy journal so has time to ponder the world around her and be a bit of an amateur detective. It's all very engaging and charming and doesn't keep you awake at night. I think these books will have a particular appeal to those of us who are familiar with the parts of Edinburgh and Scottish Borders in which these books are set.
It would be best to read the books in chronological order as there is an evolving story in Isabel's personal life that unfolds over the series.

Evening Cocoa
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.
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.