Bertie plays the blues

Image borrowed from www.foyles.com
where you can purchase this book from to avoid the tax dodgers.

I've been saving my last 44 Scotland Street book for a while, so I know I have a supply of my favourite author, and favourite book to look forward to but finally, I could stand it no longer and plucked it from the shelf of Alexander McCall Smith.  My copy was signed by the author, picked up from Cogito Books in Hexham (brilliant bookshop in Hexham- stocks Persephone books and all sorts of wonderful books) and a present from my parents in law.

It didn't disappoint.  Alexander McCall Smith is just a wonderful author.  Witty, quirky, poignant, has a fantastic outlook on life and his philsophizing over certain ideas or facts just fits in with my mind.  I delight in each and every thing I read by him.

I was concerned as I concluded the book that this book felt like the end of the series but luckily I've just seen two more books on line. No hints or anything family, but you know, I've only read up to this book....

Several characters have adventures and misadventures:
Bertie decides to put himself on Ebay to be adopted but sadly this doesn't work out for him, so he and his best friend Ranald decide to set off to Glasgow for him to be adopted.  The conclusion is, I hope, that his overbearing mother will start to treat him more like a little boy rather than a project.
Domenica and Angus are soon to get married but then some man from Domenica's past turns up- I was really worried by this turn of events- that type of thing doesn't happen in AMS's books surely, but you know, there are always twists in the tale.  Big Lou in the cafe falls out of with Matthew from the gallery but then when Pat, Matthew's ex girlfriend comes to work for him again, she helps to smooth things over. And Big Lou decides to go on a blind date with Pat along to help her. I was WILLING Big Lou to finally be lucky in love,but her Elvis Impersonator date might not be what she'd have hoped for, I was glad that perhaps things might work out for her elsewhere. Finally, new parents of triplets, Matthew and Elspeth are sleep-deprived and accidentally remove the tags on their new children's ankles thus meaning they may be changing the identify of their children without their knowing!  They get a new nanny and decide that perhaps they don't like living by the nudist camp! Oh and egotistical Bruce is back! Why can't Pat resist his charms?

SUCH a dose of wit, good spirits, musings on life and good kind people, I really really loved this one, even more so than the previous ones particularly as lots of stories and threads of characters stories turn out well- hence me thinking this might be the last one. If you want to feel good about the world and life, give Bertie plays the blues a go, it won't disappoint!

The house on Blossom Street

My Mum said I must borrow this book as I was sure to like it.  She was right.

The central link to this book is a knitting shop entitled A Good Yarn in a Seattle town.  The four main characters Lydia- a 30 something girl who has spent her life struggling against a returning brain tumour. IThe stress claimed her father and now she wants to live again through the one thing that has kept her going through the hard times: her knitting.
Alix is a punky young girl, abandoned by her parents and fighting for herself yet never believing she's good enough- she has a good heart and a determination to keep clean though.
Carol yearns for a baby, a baby her body keeps rejecting. She's down to her last IVF chance and doesn't know what she will do if she doesn't manage to carry a pregnancy to term. 
Jacqueline is a pricky, snobby society lady, rich and spoilt who can't bear her Southern daughter in law.  Her husband plays away and she just can't help jabbing out at anyone in her way.

They are all drawn to Lydia's shop for reasons linked to their difficulties.  As they learn to knit, they forge friendships and links.

This book had a lot of heart.  I wanted all the characters to be well and right. I wanted it to work out for them.   It is rather chick-lit but it has a lovely innocent quality to it at times (not always).   I like books with happy endings and yes it has one of those. I like the changing relationships and dynamics between characters in the stories.  I like the knitting references (which again serve to make me lament my own Knittus incapabilitus!)

Read it if you want a light read that makes you feel you'd like the world to be a kinder place which works out!