An extract of this on the internet piqued my curiosity, and after unsuccessfully searching Bookcrossing for a bookring and several second hand bookstores, I bit the bullet and bought it new.

But, ironically, I don't have time to read it at the moment, so have decided to start my own bookring (my first) and read it when it comes back to me.

Please PM me if you are interested in joining. I will take up to 10 participants in the order I receive the messages (rather than grouping by state or city).

I'm afraid I have to limit the bookring to Australia at the moment due to shipping costs. (Apologies to international Bookcrossers.)

Participants (this list was amended on 18 May 2005 as TQD has asked to be removed and Peggysmum has asked to be moved to the end; amended 20 June to add Funkybamboozle; amended 24 July to add Puppymummy):

1. Catsalive
2. AmberC
3. Lakelady2282
4. BrisKJJ
5. Kalasue
6. Peggysmum
7. Funkybamboozle
8. Puppymummy
9. Back to Saki.
Bookring now closed.

Standard rules apply:

1. Please journal the book when you receive it so other participants can keep track of where it is and how far down they are on the list.

2. Please try to read and forward the book within four weeks of receiving it yourself.

3. When you are ready to send it on, PM the next person on the list and request their snail mail address. If you don't hear back within 10 days, contact the following person on the list (and please PM me to let me know too).

Happy Reading!

RELEASE NOTES:

Mailed to Catsalive today.

I've received this book - it's 3rd in my TBR list. Great covers on these McCall Smith books.

A lovely, gentle, well-written tale. Definitely worth the effort. Isabelle & Jamie are excellent characters & I would read more of these. I was disappointed in the lack of resolution though. What happened with Johnny, Minty & Paul? I do think it leaves a bit to much up in the air. I'm no philosopher so I can't make those same value judgements - you can't for other people.

Off to amberC tomorrow.

received in the mail today. i was very surprised to see the parcel delivery lady was working tday. i have 2 other bookrings to read first. why do bookrings arrive all at the same time?

I was a bit disappointed in this book. A very slow, very gentle book with no real ending.
Isabelles moral superiority and her judgements of others were a bit annoying. I kept waiting for something to happen.

Being posted to Lakelady tomorrow as peggysmum wishes to be skipped at this time.

Was wondering what I could take to my mother's tomorrow and here is the perfect book just arrived. Looking forward to reading it.

I found it comforting in a strange sort of way to spend time with Isabel Dalhousie. I actually enjoyed all her musings as I am interested in Philosophy. The ending didn't worry me at all. Perhaps we will meet these characters again in another book. My only criticism is that Isobel's sensibilities seem to me to be that of a much older woman - more like in her sixties. Perhaps the age of the author himself?

Still waiting to hear from tqd for her address to post this out.

I have pmed tqd twice but haven't heard from her. I'm guessing she is very busy with her new baby. Not sure what to do about this. Let me know Saki.

RELEASE NOTES:

Picked this book up at the PO today. I have a couple of others TBR first, but bill get to it ASAP. Looking forward to it because I haven't read any McCall Smith before.

I enjoyed this book with its relaxed pace and slightly quirky storyline. I thought that Isabel was an interesting and likeable character. I can identify with her amateur detective urges - I think I'd do the same thing!

Will post off to Kalasue as soon as I get the address.

Kalasue has bought her own copy of this book, so it's off to Peggysmum in tomorrow's post.

Thanks for this one, Saki. Of course it arrived the same day as two other rings; but that's par for the course. Hope to get to it by next weekend.

A good solid 7 for this one.

Refreshing to read moral philosophy in a book of crime fiction. McCall Smith writes very well about philosophy and Isobel Dalhousie is as captivating a character as Mma Rawotse in his Number 1 Lady Detective Agency Series. In fact they are very similar characters!

I enjoyed immensely Isabel's musings on the nature of truth and the moral duties of individuals. He writes this well and engagingly. What he does not do well is suspense. I felt no threat from any of the main suspects, even when it was obvious that was what he was attempting. What actually happened to Johnny - where did that go?

Highly recommended read. Thanks Saki.

Off to funkbamboozle in tomorrow's post.

Received today - look forward to reading this. I loved the No. 1 Ladies detective book (cant remember the exact title), and the second book after that - but became bored with the series. Hopefully this new series will be better

I'm sorry but I'm at page 152 and forcing myself to continue. The problems I have encountered so far:

*the plot just doesnt grab my interest all too well;
*Isabel seems like a middle aged sticky beak. She lacks charm and just isnt amusing;
*The whole ethics and morality VS law and punishment didnt grab me in teh way I thought it would, and I was rather tired about or the "should she...should she not" debate;


I will persist, but this weekend Im going to put the book down, read something else and come back to it during the week. I will mail it out shortly there after.

Mailing out tomorrow

Received safely, thank you all!

I really loved this, I enjoy the relaxed pace of his writing and this was the sort of thing that I expected when I first picked up 'The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency'. Isobel reminded me a little of Miss Marple, even though she is supposed to be younger, and I appreciated the little segues into moral musings, they were interesting to contemplate and stretch the brain a little.
I thought I would have this finished on the weekend, but then my parents visited (for almost ten hours! Too much I tell you!) so I have finally got it ready to post back home today. Saki, thank you for sharing and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Arrived in the mail today looking considerably more well read than last time I saw it! Thanks to everyone who participated in the bookring - for your comments and for keeping the bookring moving smoothly and at a steady pace. Ironically, I have no more time to read this book now than when I bought it, so my own comments will have to wait a little while yet. But this has been such a satisfying bookring, I am thinking of starting one for the sequel which has just been released ...

I don't read much crime fiction, so I'm not sure whether my disatisfaction is with this book alone or just that I don't enjoy the genre. I felt this book was very weakly plotted. Various plotlines were established and then suddenly the novel was over before they were developed any further. Was that the point of it? That in real life, these fictional amateur sleuths would be completely inadequate and it would all come to nothing?

The enjoyable part of the book was the exploration of Isabel's character, although I felt she would have been more at home in a different type of novel. She reminded me of Jane Austen's Emma - an intelligent woman with a comfortable life who is nonetheless somewhat bored and lonely, and so dabbles in the affairs of others and imagines conspiracies which are not quite there. I did enjoy the way Mr Smith blurred the lines between Isabel's serious moral enquiries and her moralistic judgments about other people's lives.

I notice that in my last journal entry, I mentioned that I might set up a bookring for the sequel. But not having enjoyed in this one very much, I'm not inclined to read the next in the series. I hope no one is too disappointed.

I am running another bookring, though, for a completely different kind of book - Star of the Sea by Joseph O'Connor. See my bookshelf for more details.