Isabel Dalhousie Mysteries -- Alexander McCall Smith

I don't like his other series. The famous one. I'm sorry. I like the main character, who is a woman of substance and very funny. But the books--they're just too gentle and slow-moving and precious and quirky, and it's really hard to keep plowing ahead when I just don't care all that much about the mysteries that don't seem too mysterious.

The Isabel Dalhousie mysteries are--well, pretty much the same. Pretty quiet, the mysteries aren't particularly mysterious, but I like them so much better. They feel more urban, and contemporary. I like the cut of Isabel's jib--she is an ethical philosopher, and there is a lot of speculation about ethical morals and quandries. And she's an older lady who's in love with her niece's ex boyfriend who is 15 years younger, and I am salaciously intrigued. The stories move slowly, the resolutions are not very resolute, and I shouldn't sit and read these back to back, the way I did the first two because the problems with the series will just get larger and make me irritated, but I'll keep picking them up slowly, when I need something light to read.