Book Review — The Novel Habits of Happiness

5/5 Stars

The Novel Habits of Happiness is about Isabel, a philosopher living in Scotland with her husband and young son. Isabel is known for helping people with their problems, in addition to running her philosophy journal, and thinking about life an awful lot. She is challenged, though, when someone comes to her for help on the question of reincarnation.

I was given this book as a gift from my husband, who said that it had Stuart Mclean vibes (if you haven’t listened to Stuart Mclean, go to Spotify or Youtube right now and listen to his “Vinyl Cafe”).
That immediately sold it for me, as Stuart Mclean writes about mundane life in the silliest and most thoughtful ways. Alexander McCall Smith does the same, with each chapter of this book almost a little episode in the peculiar life of Isabel. What I love is that we get a glimpse into Isabel’s thought process, and Smith makes it so relatable, as if this could be your own thought process mirrored back to you on paper. And it’s not all about philosophy either. She has thoughts that dwell on judging people, on how she should raise her son, about what kind of lives everyone else is living.

I love the characters, and the fact that our views of them change with Isabel’s. As she finds out new information about them, they change to her, usually…