Review of 'The uncommon appeal of clouds' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds is the ninth book in Alexander McCall Smith’s Isabel Dalhousie series. Although I’ve read books from one of Smith’s other series, this was the first book I’ve read from the Dalhousie series which features Isabel Dalhousie as a philosopher and amateur detective. While I enjoy Smith’s writing style which is very straightforward and easy to read, and I liked the mystery plot involving a missing painting, I couldn’t stand Isabel Dalhousie. I understand that she’s a philosopher by trade, and having taken my fair share of philosophy classes in college I understand how philosophers can be, but every page, every scene with Isabel featured a 5-10 minute digression, a navel-gazing session on the most minute of minutia and by the end of the book I just couldn’t stand it any more. It got to the point where I didn’t want anyone to even talk to …
The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds is the ninth book in Alexander McCall Smith’s Isabel Dalhousie series. Although I’ve read books from one of Smith’s other series, this was the first book I’ve read from the Dalhousie series which features Isabel Dalhousie as a philosopher and amateur detective. While I enjoy Smith’s writing style which is very straightforward and easy to read, and I liked the mystery plot involving a missing painting, I couldn’t stand Isabel Dalhousie. I understand that she’s a philosopher by trade, and having taken my fair share of philosophy classes in college I understand how philosophers can be, but every page, every scene with Isabel featured a 5-10 minute digression, a navel-gazing session on the most minute of minutia and by the end of the book I just couldn’t stand it any more. It got to the point where I didn’t want anyone to even talk to Isabel because I knew that would set off another 4 pages worth of philosophizing. Since this was the first book of this fairly long series that I’ve read I have no way of knowing whether the portrayal of Isabel in The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds is a one-off or if that’s how she is in the other eight books, and I have no interest in finding out. I will happily search out some of the other series from this prolific writer, but this book did not work for me.