Love Over Scotland (44 Scotland Street)

by Alexander McCall Smith | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 9780349119717 Global Overview for this book
Registered by Heaven-Ali of Birmingham, West Midlands United Kingdom on 6/14/2007
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This book is in the wild! This Book is Currently in the Wild!
15 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by Heaven-Ali from Birmingham, West Midlands United Kingdom on Thursday, June 14, 2007
I loved 44 Scotland street and Espresso Tales, so I am looking forward to reading this. I have another copy of this book, which will become part of my PC.

Edit 23/08/07
Another great installment of the 44 Scotland street series. I just love the character of Bertie - he is hilarious, and rather tragic at the same time, having such a terrible mother. Domenica's anthropological adventures are fascinating and amusing. As with the previous two books there is a lot that is quite profound in these stories, Alexander McCall Smith must really understand people, and enjoy taking a wry and affectionate look at the motavations of Edinburgh society.

aava (Finland)
clairmagnolia - (England)
Astrofiammante- (England)
carocharlton (England)
loribee - (England) it's here
brunton11 - (England)
yowlyy (England)
garibaldisghost (England)
Twynnie - (England)
KiwiinEngland (England)


Released 17 yrs ago (7/7/2007 UTC) at A fellow bookcrosser in By mail, A Bookring -- Controlled Releases

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Journal Entry 3 by aava from Jyväskylä, Keski-Suomi / Mellersta Finland Finland on Friday, July 13, 2007
I got back from my holiday this morning and this was one of the books that were waiting for me. I will start reading this one asap. Thanks for sharing this Heaven-Ali!

Journal Entry 4 by aava from Jyväskylä, Keski-Suomi / Mellersta Finland Finland on Wednesday, August 8, 2007
What can I say?This is just as charming book as all the others by McCall Smith. I did miss Bruce at first, it felt like there was a gap, but Irene did her best again to be the most wonderful and irritating character you can think. Hmh,I know: these are not real people but I just feel like they are my old friends and I want to keep on reading about their lives.

Thanks Heaven-Ali for organising this ring. I'll contact clairemagnolia for the address and send the book forward.

edit 16.8.2007: Mailed today so the book is now on its merry way to Clairemagnolia. Happy Reading!

Journal Entry 5 by clairemagnolia from Blackpool, Lancashire United Kingdom on Friday, August 24, 2007
Received safely from Finland. Very much looking forward to this, a perfect summer read!

Journal Entry 6 by clairemagnolia from Blackpool, Lancashire United Kingdom on Sunday, September 9, 2007
This series just gets better and better! Hope there's another one - I want to read more about Bertie and Irene especially, and Cyril of course!

This is now on its way to Astrofiammante.

Journal Entry 7 by Astrofiammante on Saturday, September 15, 2007
Received with thanks.

Journal Entry 8 by Astrofiammante on Friday, October 5, 2007
Posted on October 5 to Caroline080, who I understand has received it safely. Huge thanks to Heaven-Ali for making it available. And now for a proper review:

- - - - -

This is the third installment of Alexander McCall Smith's gentle and self-referential love affair with Edinburgh and its people - a romance he is also quietly carrying on in the pages of the Isabel Dalhousie novels. And, like the others, it is amusing, poignant, pensive, occasionally hilarious and inexpressibly sad by turns.

Our cast of characters has shifted and developed: Bruce Anderson is continuing his brilliant career in London and is (thankfully, I thought) absent from these pages. Pat MacGregor is starting a new life as a student while her boss, diffident gallery owner Matthew, has been reborn as a millionaire and is having to come to terms with his changed status and the way people react to it. Big Lou, coffee shop doyenne and dispenser of wisdom, is adapting to life with her long-lost American lover Eddie back on the scene while child prodigy Bertie is coping with the strain of having his teenage years visited upon him by his pushy mother while he is still only six. Domenica Macdonald is in the field, doing risky anthropological research on piracy in the Malacca Straits. Will she return unscathed? Angus Lordie is certainly hoping so, although it's questionable whether his gold-toothed dog Cyril gives a damn...

Something that interests me greatly about McCall Smith's writing style is the way it is episodic, in the moment and quite disrespectful of narrative conventions in some places. Aspects of the story that might, under other circumstances have been developed into major narrative threads fall by the wayside at the expense of other storylines. Narratives don't start and end within the covers of one book, and things that the characters become greatly exercised about turn out to have been mere storms in teacups. Just like real life, actually.

This is undoubtedly due to the fact that these lovely books are written as proper series novels and published by installments in The Scotsman newspaper. They were, according to an introduction written by McCall Smith for the first volume, inspired by a conversation at a party with none other than the Tales of the City writer Armistead Maupin. Tales of the City was famously published in this way in a San Francisco paper and McCall Smith claims them as a direct inspiration. Certainly this method gives his tales an immediacy, a verisimilitude and a marvellous excuse to drop in cameos of Edinburgh's great and good as they go about their everyday lives.

I understand that volume four is currently being serialised, I hope I am right and that the author goes on with it for as long as he continues to find it so entertaining.

Some links: Read more of the same at My Weekly Book, in which I attempt to read a book a week for a whole year...

Journal Entry 9 by carocharlton from Birmingham, West Midlands United Kingdom on Thursday, November 1, 2007
Received in the post from Astrofiammante - many thanks! I've read and enjoyed this. Now reserved for Loribee.

Journal Entry 10 by carocharlton from Birmingham, West Midlands United Kingdom on Thursday, November 6, 2008
Handed over to Loribee today - only a year after I received it. Apologies to Heaven-Ali and those who are waiting to read it!

Journal Entry 11 by loribee from Birmingham, West Midlands United Kingdom on Thursday, November 6, 2008
Passed on to me today by carocharlton. Soon I shall settle down with tea and toast to enjoy the continued happenings at 44 Scotland Street.

Journal Entry 12 by loribee from Birmingham, West Midlands United Kingdom on Thursday, December 11, 2008
Thoroughly enjoyed this book and ready to pass it on to brunton11. Loved the tension and resolution (!!) of the 'pirates' storyline!

Journal Entry 13 by wingbrunton11wing from Chester, Cheshire United Kingdom on Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Received yesterday - I'm looking forward to this one.

Journal Entry 14 by wingbrunton11wing from Chester, Cheshire United Kingdom on Monday, February 2, 2009
I enjoyed this one as much as the others. Thanks all for sharing - Yowlyy has asked me to send this to garibaldisghost first - Hopefully I can brave my way through the inch of snow to get to the post office tomorrow ;)

Journal Entry 15 by garibaldisgirl from Nottingham, not specified not specified on Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Arrived about a week ago - forgot to journal it.

Journal Entry 16 by garibaldisgirl at Carlton, Nottinghamshire United Kingdom on Friday, February 13, 2009

Released 15 yrs ago (2/13/2009 UTC) at Carlton, Nottinghamshire United Kingdom

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Caught on my ID by mistake handing to Dad (garibaldisghost)

Journal Entry 17 by garibaldisghost from Nottingham, Nottinghamshire United Kingdom on Friday, February 13, 2009
Originally caught onto my daughter's shelf - oops!

Journal Entry 18 by garibaldisghost from Nottingham, Nottinghamshire United Kingdom on Tuesday, May 26, 2009
I read 44 Scotland Street a couple of years ago and absolutely loved it.

This one is the third in the series and I've read it before Espresso Tales and although I loved it I think I should've read them in order - still still worth a 7/10.

Released 15 yrs ago (5/26/2009 UTC) at -- Controlled Release, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- United Kingdom

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On its belated way to the next person in the ring - enjoy!

Journal Entry 20 by Twynnie from Royston, Hertfordshire United Kingdom on Sunday, May 31, 2009
Arrived safely on Friday, thank you everyone for sharing! I haven't yet read Espresso Tales so this may take slightly longer to pass on as I want to read them in order, but I have acquired a copy already so I'm hoping I can fit them both in, in the next few weeks.

Journal Entry 21 by Twynnie from Royston, Hertfordshire United Kingdom on Sunday, July 5, 2009
This is the third in the 44 Scotland Street series, and I found it the most enjoyable yet.

Part of its joy is that I now feel I know most of the characters so well, that they seem like old friends. For this reason I would recommend reading the previous instalments in this series before this one, although I'm sure the book will still be a good read for anyone who has not.

In this episode in Edinburgh life Pat starts university, and immediately gets entangled with a somewhat dubious character named Wolf, while Matthew (still holding a torch for her) wonders what to do with his millions. Domenica swans off to study Pirates
in the Malacca straits, leaving Angus Lordie pining. He goes onto to experience more than this loss, adding tinges of sadness to the generally relaxed and unthreatening story. His bond with Cyril is touching (even for me, and I am naturally prejudiced against dogs!) and the letter he writes to Domenica and then tears up - to mention its subject would give too much away - is very moving and quite beautiful.

Meanwhile Eddie, Big Lou's erstwhile fiancé is up to his old tricks and her friends have to call in Glasgow gangster-type Lard O'Connor to resolve the situation. Bertie continues to quietly rebel against Irene, who has not changed one bit despite Stuart's newfound assertiveness in the last book (in fact Stuart has reverted somewhat to his old ways). She forces him to audition for the Edinburgh Teenage Orchestra, despite his being only 6,which a point of acute embarrassment for him!

Bertie is without a doubt the best thing in the book. His adventures with the orchestra (which despite his best efforts he cannot avoid joining) are hilarious. Bertie, without Irene in tow, is a force to be reckoned with and Paris doesn't know what has hit it! The sections written from his POV are delightful as well as funny and I just can't get enough of him. His observations when he speaks to Antonia (A new character introduced in this book - an aspiring historical novelist) near the end are priceless, and as Antonia observes, as interesting anthropologically as anything Domenica has discovered about her pirates.

The narrative somehow manages to be both relaxing and exciting at the same time – I wish I knew how he does it. The episodic format - which comes from the story's original serialization in the Scotsman, helps with the pace and does not disrupt the flow of the story at all. There are constant little cliff-hangers at the end of many of the sections which have the effect of keeping you waiting for the next chunk of each character's story, and unable to put the book down. Events in the lives of these characters are not world changing, but they seem very important nonetheless, although there is never any real menace or threat even from Eddie or the aptly named Wolf.

If anything, McCall Smith's style most resembles a chatty but brilliantly observed letter relating events in the lives of family members or acquaintances, who are much loved but rarely seen. His characters feel like friends and their story is ongoing, not something that can be resolved neatly as you would expect in the average novel. I am already looking forward to reading the next instalment!


I have KiwiinEngland's address so this will be on its way tomorrow, hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Journal Entry 22 by kiwiinengland from Dunedin, Otago New Zealand on Friday, July 10, 2009
Safely Arrived, thank you. I need to read the second book (which I found last weekend at the BCUK Uncon in Edinburgh)

Journal Entry 23 by kiwiinengland from Dunedin, Otago New Zealand on Tuesday, December 8, 2009
A good airport read where short chapters means you don't loose the plot. I enjoyed Cyril much more in this book, but ponder the introduction Antonia who seems very similar to Domeinica.

Would have loved more of Bertie in Paris, his comments about life for me make the book.

Journal Entry 24 by kiwiinengland at Manchester, Greater Manchester United Kingdom on Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Released 14 yrs ago (1/16/2010 UTC) at Manchester, Greater Manchester United Kingdom

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I am posting to the Releanna, as an early celebration of a very important birthday in February, many happy returns.

Journal Entry 25 by Releanna from Wien Bezirk 23 - Liesing, Wien Austria on Tuesday, January 26, 2010
thank you so much for this birthday surprise! I love 44 Scotland Street series :)

Journal Entry 26 by Releanna from Wien Bezirk 23 - Liesing, Wien Austria on Sunday, February 14, 2010
another very enjoyable 44 Scotland Street novel.
I especially enjoyed Bertie's adventures in Paris and the love between Angus and Cyril.
Domenica's adventures with the pirates are very interesting, too.
And again, I had an urge to hit Irene on the head several times...

Journal Entry 27 by Releanna at To another bookcrosser, A RABCK -- Controlled Releases on Thursday, June 3, 2010

Released 14 yrs ago (6/3/2010 UTC) at To another bookcrosser, A RABCK -- Controlled Releases

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have fun reading :)

Journal Entry 28 by Annimanni at Espoo, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Received with thanks :)

Journal Entry 29 by Annimanni at Espoo, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Tuesday, July 12, 2011
I think I like this series better than the Mma Ramotswe one, which of course is wonderful too. I love all the Scotland Street characters - particularly Bertie & Irene (I'm afraid I occasionally recognise myself in her :D) and I'm also partial to Cyril <3 How lucky that I have the next couple of books on my TBR pile, too!

Journal Entry 30 by Annimanni at Espoo, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Monday, July 18, 2011

Released 13 yrs ago (7/19/2011 UTC) at Espoo, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland

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Next off to Halonhakkaaja as a wishlist RABCK. Enjoy!

Journal Entry 31 by winghalonhakkaajawing at Kuopio, Pohjois-Savo / Norra Savolax Finland on Friday, July 22, 2011
Thank you! And certainly I'm going to enjoy :)

Journal Entry 32 by winghalonhakkaajawing at Kuopio, Pohjois-Savo / Norra Savolax Finland on Thursday, September 22, 2011
I DID enjoy the book! Thank you so much!!!

I wanted to read the books in this series in right order. Finally I managed to get the previous one, Espresso Tales, so after enjoying it, I immediately read this also. The charaters are so wonderful! In the first book, 44 Scotland Street, there were so many characters, it was sometimes difficult to remember them. But now they are old friends, so there aren't any problems anymore. Funny and wise, that's what McCall Smiths' books are!

Journal Entry 33 by winghalonhakkaajawing at Kuopio, Pohjois-Savo / Norra Savolax Finland on Friday, September 30, 2011

Released 13 yrs ago (9/30/2011 UTC) at Kuopio, Pohjois-Savo / Norra Savolax Finland

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I'll post the book soon forward. Enjoy!

Journal Entry 34 by winghetku77wing at Tampere, Pirkanmaa / Birkaland Finland on Tuesday, October 4, 2011
4.10.2011 The book arrived by mail today. Thank you for fulfilling my wish, halonhakkaaja!

Journal Entry 35 by winghetku77wing at Uphagen's House / Dom Uphagena in Gdańsk, Pomorskie Poland on Monday, October 14, 2024

Released 2 wks ago (10/14/2024 UTC) at Uphagen's House / Dom Uphagena in Gdańsk, Pomorskie Poland

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I left the book on a bench in the museum lobby.

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