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what a treat!
I can't believe it's taken me till now to read this book, what with the buzz around its first publication & subsequent sequels. Anyway, I've just read No 1 Ladies and Tears of the Giraffe and all I can say is that it's taken me way too long to discover Precious and her cohorts.
Amusing reading with enough seriousness to keep one engaged. Lucky me - I have the...
Publié il y a 15 mois par reading mom
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› Voir plus de commentaires 5 étoiles, 4 étoiles |
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so-so
Light-hearted reading. Very cute, very different cadence to the narrative. Enjoyed it. Not a strong plot, especially if you like page turners. This book meanders like a collection of short stories. America-bashing while glorifying Botswana. I guess readers have a love affair with Africa and I think that's why this book gained great reviews. There was a lot of...
Publié le Oct. 14 2004 par Brazerilia Minons
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› Voir plus de commentaires 3 étoiles, 2 étoiles, 1 étoiles |
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what a treat!, Aoû 13 2008
I can't believe it's taken me till now to read this book, what with the buzz around its first publication & subsequent sequels. Anyway, I've just read No 1 Ladies and Tears of the Giraffe and all I can say is that it's taken me way too long to discover Precious and her cohorts.
Amusing reading with enough seriousness to keep one engaged. Lucky me - I have the rest of the series to discover - I hope they are up to the quality of the first two, which are EXCELLENT!
Share these with your teens, too. Good stuff.
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African Wisdom, Sep 12 2007
Written by a man, The No1 Ladies' Detective Agency has enough of a feminist persepctive for me to feel I was reading something actually written for me, rather than feeling as I usually do when reading, that I am trying to take pleasure in literature created for an audience of which I am not a part. McCall Smith' s feminism is simple but fundamental : men should not beat their wives, the better fathers are those who encourage their daughters to be independent and realise their dreams, women have a right to happiness.
These beliefs are just part of the basic philosophy of the central character, Mma Precious Ramotswe, the first lady detective in Botswana, who imparts her basic moral philosophy at the same time - murder is worse than lying, relationships are more important than money, intuition is a kind of knowledge. While all of this philosophy may seem clichéd, as perhaps it is, it appears naturally in the book as part of the character and helps us to understand her approach to solving the cases brought to her.
Woven throughout all of this is a picture of Botswana, considered by Ramotswe, and presumably McCall Smith, as the best and most successful country in Africa. Independent from the British since 1966, there is enormous pride in her accomplishments, and only the ongoinging black magic practices of some of the country's witchdoctors cast a shadow on the shining accomplishments of Botswana's diamond-fueled progress.
Most powerfully of all, it is the love of the land that sings throughout the book. Botswana - stretching from the Kalahari desert to the Limpopo river, a country where « there is a place for me, and for everybody, to sit down on this earth and touch it and call it their own ». A country with its distinct riches - « that was what her country was so rich in - emptiness...those empty spaces, those wide grasslands that broke and broke the heart ». With its thorn trees that know how to survive in the searing heat and the birds and snakes of Mother Africa. Where nature is a family member and where the rising of the sun and its setting at the end of day are events to be savoured in the daily rhythm of life.
I read this book in a relaxed afternoon, and felt I had passed my time with a pleasant companion, who had painted pictures for me of a place I might otherwise never visit.
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No 1 in my book, Jui 20 2006
Highly intelligent and pleasantly plump, Precious lived in Gaborone, the capital city of the African nation of Botswana. Her father had left her a nice inheritance. But what would she do with it? Open a detective agency of course. She has no experience or potential clients, but she has "a tiny white van, two desks, two chairs, a telephone, and an old typewriter." And don't forget the secretary. Precious, or Mma Ramotswe as she is referred to, uses her hunches and ends up helping people, sometimes with hilarious results. She does, however, also face dangerous situations with boldness. Life handed Precious Ramotswe a few curve balls. She refuses to feel sorry for herself and does what she wants to do with her life, no matter what her culture dictates. The reader will cheer Precious on and find inspiration from this character's no-nonsense methods.
Also recommended: "Katzenjammer" by Jackson McCrae.
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so-so, Oct. 14 2004
Light-hearted reading. Very cute, very different cadence to the narrative. Enjoyed it. Not a strong plot, especially if you like page turners. This book meanders like a collection of short stories. America-bashing while glorifying Botswana. I guess readers have a love affair with Africa and I think that's why this book gained great reviews.
There was a lot of male-bashing, but some good guys too, though expressed more subtly. The characters are entertaining, but again the plotlinein this book is dull. The novel is just barely worth reading for the pleasant local color, but as far as mystery fiction goes, I would rather reread Ellis Peters, Anne Perry, Elizabeth Peters, or Cynthia Peale.
The back cover led me to expect "the case that tugs at her heart, and lands her in danger, is that of a missing eleven-year-old boy, who may have been snatched by witch doctors." What?! Where?! The missing boy case was a teensy part of the book, and certainly did not tug at my heart strings at all. There was barely anything made of it at the end. I would have liked to see at least two of the stories to be tied together, or for some clue from another case to help solve the case of the boy's disappearance. Nothing like that is part of the book.
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INCREDIBLE!!!!, Aoû 22 2004
THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST CREATIVE NOVELS I'VE EVER READ. I CAN'T IMAGINE WHO WOULDN'T SIMPLY LOVE IT. I THOUGHT I LOVED MARK HADDON'S "the curious incident of the dog in the night-time" AND JENNIFER PADDOCK'S "a secret word." BUT THIS ONE SET IN BOTSWANA JUST MIGHT REALLY BE NO. 1.
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Out of Africa, Juil 22 2004
Par Un client
As much a loving and beautiful song to Africa as it is a mystery, THE NO.1 LADIES DETECTIVE AGENCY will have to be the best thing you read this summer. Written in a simple style that evokes African fable, the book is episodic in construction, offering several different tales from Mma Ramotswe's casebookPrecious Ramotswe is a single, forty-something woman in Botswana who opens a detective agency with her inheritance. In the beginning of the book we learn about her father's life as a miner and we are introduced to the country. We also learn about Precious' upbringing, her head for figures and her failed marriage. Precious struggles with establishing a new business, but she gets cases. They are not all the typical detective story mysteries about malicious crimes. Most are more concerned with the human heart and relationships between people. Also recommended: BARK OF THE DOGWOOD
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Not so much of a detective as a loving description of Africa, Juil 20 2004
After the death of her father Precious Ramotswe uses the inheritance to buy herself a house and an office from which she starts the first detective agency in Botswana. Business starts slowly, but she gets a number of clients with problems ranging from missing husbands to fraudulent employees and she starts to build up a reputation leading to new clients. The book describes some of the cases that Mma Ramotswe solves, but the real star of the book is Africa: there are long, loving descriptions of the nature, the people, the culture and the life in Africa and anybody who has been to Africa (and subsequently loves the continent despite all its problems) can use this book to refresh their memories and long back to those real African nights. Don't read this as a detective but as a book about Africa.
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A somewhat laborious read, Juil 19 2004
Par Un client
I wanted to read this book because of the positive reviews it had received. The book was hard for me to get into. I wanted the mystery to present itself sooner than it did. Too much time was spent on the main character's history, which I suppose was to set up the series. When she finally got a case, it was resolved very quickly. I realized that this book would describe several simple, quick cases she had worked on rather than having a main mystery that would serve as a plot. It was interesting to have Africa as a backdrop, but that is not enough to make me want to read other books in this series, the first book of which disappointed me.
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Not so much of a detective as a loving description of Africa, Juil 19 2004
After the death of her father, Precious Ramotswe uses the inheritance to buy herself a house and an office from which she starts the first detective agency in Botswana. Business starts slowly, but she gets a number of clients with problems ranging from missing husbands to fraudulent employees and she starts to build up a reputation leading to new clients. The book describes some of the cases that Mma Ramotswe solves, but the real star of the book is Africa: there are long, loving descriptions of the nature, the people, the culture and the life in Africa and anybody who has been to Africa (and subsequently loves the continent despite all its problems) can use this book to refresh their memories and long back to those real African nights. Don't read this as a detective but as a book about Africa.
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charming from start to finish, Juil 18 2004
Par Un client
Mna Ramotswe is the most colorful character to grace the pages in a long time. Her wonderful vivid accounts of Africa and its people are splendid and warm. I discovered her quite by accident and can hardly wait to find our her next excellant adventure. The audio books are a wonderful way to immerse yourself from the stresses of a busy day or a wonderful companion on a piece of exercise equipment. I hope you will enjoy the No 1. Ladies Detective agency adventures as much as I have.
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