Unbearable Lightness of Scones

By: Alexander McCall Smith

Narrated by: Robert Ian MacKenzie

New York Times best-selling, award-winning author Alexander McCall Smith delivers the fifth entertaining novel from his 44 Scotland Street series.

Precocious six-year-old Bertie joins the scouts to escape his mother, Matthew learns to handle the challenges of marriage, and Domenica deals with loneliness. Even four-legged Cyril gets in on the action, finding himself a bit of canine romance.

©2009 Alexander McCall Smith (P)2009 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"It is impossible to come away from an Alexander McCall Smith novel without a smile on the lips and warm fuzzies in the heart." ( Chicago Sun-Times)

always hated books about kids and dogs

but I look forward to the next installment of the 44 Scotland Street to learn how Berite and Cyril are faring. I listened to all five available audiobooks in the series this summer and marvel at how McCall Smith keeps me addicted to his story lines and characters. MacKenzie's narration is a big part of the charm.

I look forward to the next in the serial (I hear that Bertie turns 7) and I wish Audible could exchange its complimentary subscription to the NY TImes for the Scotsman so I did not need to wait!

Touching bit of love

I really like Alexander McCall Smith's writing and his sentiments about the important little bits of life.

I can imagine some readers new to the series might wonder why he gets such good ratings. For me, I like the touching characters, their ethical concerns about how to behave and the author's very realistic view of what we really think day to day.

The warmest character has been ending each book in this series with a poem about love that is very real, and I like that very much.

I find myself setting aside my duties in life to listen to any book I buy authored by Smith.

The narration is exquisite.

The characters are becoming old friends

I'm definitely hooked on this series now, even though very occasionally it drags. The charm, the wisdom and the humour more than makes up for it. The narrator, Robert Ian Mackenzie couldn't be better.

Kept Expecting A Plot, but enjoyed it nonetheless

I guess I go this on a BOGO sale or something, because now that I come back for #2, it turns out this was #5, not #1. I really don't like listening to things out of order and I did kind of wonder that it seemed like I should have known more about the characters than I did as I listened. Nice narration, though. There's only so much a grown man can do to sound like a 6 year old I guess, but his phrasing and inflection were in no way annoying. I am very particular about narrators. I plan to listen to more of these when I need a soothing voice.

I quite liked that the dog is a character in his own doggy way. I kept expecting Something To Happen. Well, lots of things happened, but nothing really happened. It turns out it really is just a nice long story about some fairly normal and nice Scottish People who live near one another and have sort of everyday adventures, joys, and sorrows. Once I figured out that it wasn't really supposed to have a plot exactly, I quite enjoyed it!

This book has been the best yes of this series!

I hated to finish this book because I love the story lines of the characters! AMS takes his characters off into some interesting places and doings! I could have listened to so much more...So on to the next one!