Alexander McCall Smith does it again!

books:


	• Blue Shoes and Happiness (No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, Book 7) Alexander Mccall Smith Anchor, 2007 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 102 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Not the best of the series

I've been entranced by the previous books and the insight they give into an unfamiliar and lovely culture but found myself impatient with this one. It seemed more superficial and repetitive in its commentary, which seemed a bit like boilerplate in places. I enjoyed the story of Mma Makutsi and her communications with her fiance and the unmasking of the blackmailer and the other mysteries, and was touched by Mma Ramotswe's interaction with the American women, but felt these took up less of the book than in past books.

Precious is.......

What can one say about this marvelous series by Alexander McCall Smith. I've bought them all and have become more enchanted and entertained by each book. In her gentle, restrained manner, Precious Ramotswe, private investigator extraordinaire, and her assistant Mma Makutsi, whose love affair is in peril due to her femminist leanings, encounter a cobra in their office, deal with a bad omen in the guise of a wounded bird, purchase a new chair, encourage a new employee to dectect, and try to solve a blackmail plot that has Mma Ramotswe investigating the kitchen of a private school to find who the blackmailer is and bring them to justice.

Add to this Mma Makutsi's pair of tight fitting, uncomfortable yet beautiful blue shoes, the daily pots of red bush tea, and most shocking of all a new diet by Precious to lessen her "traditional" build, and you have a story that enchants and beguiles the reader. Precious is a lady as well as a detective; she knows truth must be laced with compassion and she understands both the strengths and frailties of human nature. She also has a deep fundamental understanding of what makes people tick and this is what makes her a great dectective, capable of solving small and big myteries. McCall Smith writes simply and lovingly about Botswana, the land that Precious knows is not perfect, but yet is better than anywhere else. He also seamlessly interlaces the people and their way of life within the mystery.

I can't say enough about The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series, buy them all, sit back, read and enjoy a different and wonderful mystery series. These books are keepers.

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The Sweet Saga Continues

There is so much wisdom and humanity in these meandering stories of Mma Precious Ramotswe and her colleagues and family that they have come to be a kind of comfort food for the mind and soul for this reader. "Blue Shoes and Happiness" contains the same kind of common sense and wit that is characteristic of the entire series. These are people that you really care about, and though the author rarely telegraphes the outcomes to the mysteries and challenges that Precious Ramotswe and her Watson, Mma Makutsi, take on in each book, there is always a clever resolution. How Alexander McCall-Smith came to channel so convincingly these Botswanan women and men is a wonder. The books, including "Blue Shoes and Happiness" are wise and satisfying. The homey philosophy ultimately explained in this book's title is something we can all understand and relate to. If you need a little mental chicken soup, read this book or one of its precedessors.

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Amusing, informative reading

I have read the entire series by Smith. The books give some wonderful insight into life in Botswana. The characters are well-developed and real. If you are looking for light reading, I would highly recommend starting with the first book and working through the series.

Alexander McCall Smith does it again!

Blue Shoes and Happiness is the seventh installment of Alexander McCall Smith's successful No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series. Not typical mysteries, the books meander gracefully to their conclusion rather than proceeding with page-turning thrills. As Assistant Detective Grace Makutsi says, "Mma Ramotswe [proprietor of the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency] does not solve crimes. She deals with very small things. [...] But [...] these small things are important for people" (53).

Set in Botswana, the books are full of full of wisdom and humanity as well as sympathetic and subtly drawn characters. Smith writes in such a way to emphasize the different pace of life in Botswana. Just reading one of the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency books forces the reader to slow done and relax, making them the perfect fare for a weekday evening.

In Blue Shoes and Happiness, Precious Ramotswe and her detective agency take on a number of new cases; her new assistant-assistant detective gets a chance to prove his detecting skills; and a new character appears in the form of Aunty Emang, the local newspaper's agony aunt. Additionally, Grace Makutsi's relationship with her new fiance is on rocky ground after she admits to being a feminist. The novel's most shocking thread, however, concerns Precious Ramotswe's decision to go on a diet. Yes, there's blackmail, and a home intruder, and a cobra in the office, but none of these things is nearly as significant as Ramotswe, a champion of the rights of the "traditionally-built," deciding that she needs to lose weight.

While the books do stand alone--each begins with a little summary of what has happened in the previous books--people new to the series should probably start with a different book. Blue Shoes and Happiness, while continuing in the same vein as the earlier books, may be slightly less accessible to neophytes. Readers familiar with Ramotswe and the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency novels will appreciate the mysterious pumpkin that threads its way through the book and Smith's exploration of gender issues. To others, these things may feel just a bit too foreign.

Armchair Interviews says: While Blue Shoes and Happiness may not be the best book way for new readers to be introduced to the series, however, fans of Precious Ramotswe and the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency will find it enchanting.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, page 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

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