Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Precious Reads
In Precious Ramotswe, Alexander McCall Smith creates a beguiling character. Precious is a detective, the first female detective in Botswana and owner of the No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Precious is a middle aged woman with a prominent posterior, whose self image and poetic praise of the simple things in life - like a dish of cooked pumpkin - are arresting to a reader surrounded by urban materialism and Western notions of attractiveness. Through Precious, the reader is willingly enticed into a love affair with the landscape and values and people of Botswana. But Precious is far from a simple woman. The stories about the tragic life of her beloved father, her own disastrous marriage and move into the detective business are all enlivened by her capacity to find lessons from each painful experience. It therefore comes as no surprise that she is a very successful detective. Helped along by her handy and hilarious "how to" text, her undeniable intellect and talent for nosiness, she is soon finding answers where others have not. There are three books in this series and they are all wonderful. Each left me with a smile on my face and a desire to reread some of Precious' wry observations (favourites include those about the sad weaknesses of men and a number about the inferiority of neighbouring African countries) or her poetic descriptions of the world around her. The mysteries - plus their solutions - are also satisfying.
Rating:  - Double Duty
Alexander McCall Smith's The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is a passionate tale of a love affair with Africa alongside a poignant tale of a struggle for gender equality. Precious Ramotswe, a private detective, sets up her first business venture in the African country of Botswana with her inheritance from her father's death. Coupled with Precious' desire to honor her father's cherished memory, this rotund detective is driven to make a solid place for herself in the male-dominated professional world. Social commentary abounds throughout the text through small details. For instance, the success that Precious meets in her detective endeavors stems not from her trusty "Detective Guide" written by a male but from following her own female intuition. Also, the author's passion and respect for an independently governed Africa shine through as peaceful Botswana is continually juxtaposed with the apartheid-ridden South Africa. Readers will enjoy the adventures and risks that Precious Ramotswe encounters through this fun, unique, and socially challenging first novel of the series.
Rating: - The No. 1 BOOK
A far cry from the fast paced, violent nature of the Walter Mosely mysteries, Alexander McCall Smith's The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency opens on the doorstep of a calm, warm afternoon in Botswana, Africa, with Precious Ramotswe sipping tea on the porch of the detective agency that she opened with the money from the inheritance bequeathed to her by her beloved father. She lives a difficult life, facing the loss of her mother at an early age, betrayal by her husband, the death of her child, and the death of her father. Initially the townspeople are skeptical of her agency because of her gender, but she repeatedly proves that her wisdom and her instincts are invaluable to the successful resolution of cases dealing with various types of charlatans, disappearances, and crimes. Through the pure, limpid quality of straightforward storytelling, we see that she becomes a community confidante, a "fixer of lives" conducting herself with dignity and grace, yet doing what she must do to put those lives back together when they fall to pieces. On a continent faced with impending changes due to exposure to the modernity of the western world, Mma Ramotswe represents a passionate tribute to the beauty of the old Africa, recording the "unrecorded voices" of those who still follow the old traditions and reminding us that, when thought gets you nowhere, you still have to eat your pumpkin.
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