Book: The Unbearable Lightness of Scones by Alexander McCall Smith

This is Mr. McCall's new 44 Scotland Street novel, and it is the first one of that series that I've read. I always find his books a delight no matter what he writes about. This series is about the lives of neighbors and friends who live in Edinburgh. There is a marriage and subsequent honeymoon in Australia, precocious 6-year-old Bertie, his pals--including the bossy Olive--and his parents Irene and Stuart, a vainglorious young man named Bruce, Big Lou who owns the neighborhood coffee shop, Angus and his dog Cyril and Domenica. There are 100 chapters, and the threads of these various people and their daily activities move through the book as McCall gently advocates civility while writing about the common and uncommon, the ordinary and extraordinary, little mysteries, and the worlds of adults, children and dogs. The author is prolific, yet he writes with grace and humor as his characters move under his microscope, wherever they are in the world.