Acquire Today Trains Lovers (Signed Edition) Scripted By Alexander McCall Smith Available Through Ebook

is an interesting genre, though that might not be quite the right word: a way of looking into various people's thoughts on a journey, on the same subject.
In this case the subject is love, fascinating to all readers, Alexander McCallSmith

is on my list of trusted writers, I can't go wrong picking up one of his, though I still suspect him of keeping his manuscripts in the closet prewritten, he is so prolific!

This story is full of hints and beginnings, provocative details that leave you wanting more, just as, perhaps the people felt about each other as they disembarked the train having shared intimacy with strangers through conversation.
Balancing that is the relief that they are safe from needing to share more, this was a chance encounter with the train trip defining the parameters, Short and sweet, with just the right amount of metaphor in the images glimpsed outside the train windows,

McCall Smith seems to be writing books that explain his philosophical ideas more than his wit and storytelling, He concerns himself with the moral dilemmas in life usually not the major ones but rather those that happen in our daytoday encounters with other persons, In this book he presents a construct he calls "moral luck" but he does not clearly integrate it into the stories,

Trains and Lovers is a book of four stories combined through a train ride, While each of the four riders present a story, each weighs what is important to tell and how their story will be received by the other three, The stories cover topics of love, home and family, personal striving, and their questions and doubts, The setting for the book is a moment in time in an isolated space allowing the author to place the individual stories anywhere in the world and with few time constraints.


The book started slowly I had moments of thinking I did not want to continue reading, Gradually, however, my interest in the characters increased and I enjoyed the writing,.stars. People who happen to meet on a long train journey share some of their stories about how they or those close to them found / lost love, Some of the stories were fourfive level, and one in particular wasn't really interesting, but as always, I love the sentiment behind all of AMS's works, He observes human behavior beautifully and leaves you with an uplifting feeling,

I enjoyed paper amp audio versions, Robert Ian MacKenzie narrates the audio, as he does for many of this author's books, Another wonderful story by Alexander McCall Smith, He is always writing a new wrinkle into humanity each book and how he is able to do this just amazes me his characters never seem to repeat.
This book is a story of four people who are riding a train together and begin to share bits of their lives, I love that McCall Smith is able to share the back story of each person and then also add in their doubts and assumptions about the other three seated in the spots beside and across from them.
He has such crazy insight into a person's worries and insecurities but he writes it all in a gentle and very funny way, It's as if each word is carefully weighted in the sentences he writes, nothing extra or frilly,

I think that, with publishing a book like this, he must have characters and books just swimming around in his head all the time and has to write them down.
The people he populates his series with like Isabel and Precious must be like constant companions for him and then something like this pops up perhaps on a train journey or after hearing of one and he has to put it all down just to clear his head for the next one.
He doesn't include a pile of descriptive text in his paragraphs and yet I always feel like I am in the same place as his characters every time! I enjoy that a book written by Alexander McCall Smith is like reading someone's journal with a little bit of extra detail about the setting thrown in, these people have things going on in their lives that are embarrassing or joyful, so the reader gets to feel a part of it.
Like a movie, really.

I understand that there are library patrons out there that are not fond of Alexander McCall Smith and have heard from some that one or another of his series isn't their favourite but this Trains and Lovers is a good place for a reader to start.
It's a book club book because there areperspectives to enjoy here so the chance of finding something to talk about his high, It's a pretty fun summer read as well, I know that I'll pick it up again, probably on a dreary February day, and be again so thankful that this strange lawyer and professor of medical ethics is somewhere out there taking a few minutes of his day to knock out another book to cheer my day.
One of my favorite parts of traveling has always been the people I meet along the way, Much to the amusement or chagrin of friends I've travelled with, I'm known to strike up conversations with passengers seated around me, particularly prone to oversharing and delving deeply into as much of their own lives as they will allow.
After all, as Smith points out in this book, who are your passengers but strangers who are likely to disappear in a few hours, never to be met again

In Trains and Lovers Smith presents us with four particular people, each carrying a history as all of us do that allows them to connect in a seemingly random pattern that later proves to be an intricately woven fabric of the emotions that make us all human.
And though, in truth, the common thread that runs through them is rather weak and a reach at times, each individual story is so intriguing, its easy to forgive the jarring jumps from character to character as the tales are propelled along by turn.


If I'm to be utterly honest, I devoured the Precious Ramotswe stories at alarming speed by couldn't get through even the first chapter of the Isabelle Dalhousie series.
This book is somewhere in between, The characters are sweet and familiar in their bumbling heartfelt ways, and the setting ensures that everything moves along fast enough that no one is stopping for tea and sandwiches in between.
Although the page count won't make it seem novella length, the large print and small pages make this book a breeze, perfect for the last book of!

This is a sweet too sentimental, possibly story of four strangers on a train, traveling from Edinburgh to London, and telling the stories of their lives to each other.
One man keeps his story to himself, but the reader gets to read it, It's all about strangers, friends, and love, And maybe at the end of a rough year, it was a nice sendoff, Audio book read by Robert Ian MacKenzie


I love Alexander McCall Smith, I love the way he puts together an ensemble of characters and slowly reveals their everyday lives and the little and big dramas hidden in plain sight,

In this novel not part of any series four strangers meet on a train bound for London from Edinburgh, As they get acquainted their stories come out, David, a middleaged American businessman, sees two men saying goodbye at the station, and is reminded of the young man he met in his own youth, A young Scot, Andrew, reveals how he captured the attention of a coworker when he noticed a problem with a painting thats been credited to an earlyseventeenth century artist.
Kay relates how her parents met, married and ran a train station in the Australian Outback, Hugh missed his stop one day on the train, and met a woman he let into his life,

Each story offers some insight into the many ways that love finds us, enriches us, or disappoints us, For some of these characters the love is in the past, for others it shows promise of continuing into the future,

The audio book is masterfully performed by Robert Ian MacKenzie, He has clear diction, a good pace and is a skilled voice artist, able to differentiate the many characters,

I traveled a lot on trains during thes, When I discovered this standalone book about trains by Alexander McCall Smith, I just had to read it,

The book is well written, It is about four people traveling between Edinburgh to London, They tell each other stories about trains that have changed their lives, The four people were one woman and three men, The woman was from Australia, one man from Scotland, one from England and one from America, The book is the usual AMS story, It is a delightful meandering story with a moral base, I found it a charming relaxing story, I know that people either love AMS books or hate them, I happen to love them, I have been reading very long books recently so this short book was a great relief,

I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible, The book is five hours twenty minutes, Robert Ian Mackenzie does an excellent job narrating the books, Mackenzie is a British actor and audiobook narrator,
“Each of us has his or her reasons for being as we are, for continuing with the lives we lead ordinary lives, of course, but touched here and there with moments of understanding and insight, and sheer marvel.
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Lovely little read. Alexander McCall Smith is known for gentle humour and a light touch, and he shows a great fondness for humanity, occasionally slipping over into sentimentality, One suspends judgement on that, however, because he takes you on a very pleasant journey, This book was definitely an antidote to the last book I reviewed, which takes a very dim view of humanity Gone Girl, This book slides along on the welloiled wheels of clarity of sentence and phrase, understatement, and introspection, as four train passengers converse and, to varying degrees, tell their stories.
There are references to philosophy in there the examined life and moral luck for the reader to ponder on, but they are carried lightly, It is a celebration of love, but is not without its sadness as love is shown to expose our ability or failure to trust one story with humour, one with poignancy.


It won't appeal to everyone, All the characters are selfconsciously just and wellmeaning, although a little abrasiveness threatens in the character of Hugh, Do there really exist persons so civilised Probably not but it's so nice to hope,

Part of the formula, and why it can work, is the 'strangers on a train' situation not like Hitchcock's!, The characters tell their stories in the vacuum of the journey, in a moment of reflection away from the bustle, It's well worth taking a seat in their carriage, L'idea di questo breve romanzo mi è piaciuta molto: quattro sconosciuti che si trovano a dividere lo scompartimento di un treno e si scambiano le loro storie, Casualmente come se non bastasse l'ambientazione ferroviaria ciascuna di esse è legata a treni e stazioni: il treno sul quadro considerato del XVII secolo che fa rivalutare Andrew come critico d'arte agli occhi dei colleghi la vita del padre di Kay, capostazione della stazione isolata di Hope Springs, in Australia Hugh che scende alla stazione sbagliata dove incontra Jenny, la donna con cui stringe una relazione David che, vedendo due fratelli che si abbracciano davanti al treno, ripensa al suo rappoto con Bruce.

Però però. Troppe confidenze troppi fatti privati messi in piazza con sconosciuti che in realtà non si sa chi siano e magari potrebbero conoscere l'amico dell'amico del tizio e del caio sono coincidenze che capitano.
Non so, questo non mi ha convinto: è vero che in certe circostanze si è più loquaci del normale, ma è difficile che si racconti la propria vita in modo così completo, per quanto lungo sia il viaggio.

E poi, si scende dal treno e non si saprà più nulla dei compagni di viaggio, Se ci sarà un lieto fine alla loro storia, se il dubbio che avevano verrà confermato o smentito, Eppure, durante quelle ore di viaggio, abbiamo condiviso una parte della nostra vita con i nostri compagni di treno,
Non fosse stato per quel viaggio in treno, questi quattro individui non si sarebbero mai conosciuti, A volte succede, coi viaggi, che ci si ricordi delle persone ancora più che dei luoghi, In questo senso, i lunghi viaggi possono essere paragonati al servizio militare, agli anni passati in collegio o perfino allesperienza condivisa di una catastrofe naturale, E così accade che entriamo in contatto con persone che non avremmo mai incontrato altrimenti, non fosse stato per quellattimo in cui abbiamo condiviso un momento di pericolo o dinfelicità.


Un treno può nascondere un altro treno, ma può anche nascondere ciò che avviene al suo interno: gli incontri, le rivelazioni, gli scambi di occhiate, le decisioni che prendiamo e le cose che impariamo nel corso del viaggio.
I treni sono oggetti comuni, quasi banali, ma possono rivelarsi attori e vettori di ciò che di più vasto e insondabile esiste al mondo: il nostro bisogno di dare e ricevere amore nella quotidiana e universale battaglia contro la solitudine.

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