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[malabar]

The seventh book in the Ladies' No. 1 Detective Agency series.

I find this series to be comfort reading at its most soothing. (Of course, coming from someone whose other comfort reading is Stephen King, this may not be saying all that much!)

The continued adventures of Precious Ramotswe, head of Botswana's only woman-run detective agency, her assistant, Mma Makutsi, and an assortment of other characters. This time around, these include a cobra, a pair of tight shoes, and a few more purely African surprises.

One of the (few) criticisms leveled these books is that they portray life in Africa as unrealistically pleasant, though death and disease are definitely part of the background in the series. In the US and Europe, all we ever hear about is the bad stuff, and when we don't get it, we think there's something wrong. Smith addresses this in Blue Shoes and Happiness: at one point in the novel, Mma Ramotswe thinks aloud: "If only more people knew that there was more to Africa than all the problems they saw. They could love us too, as we love them." Seems quite a few people are getting the message: several firms now offer Mma Ramotswe tours of Botswana.

[shaw]

I enjoyed the first book, and the Laurel has liked the first three or for. It never became "comfort" reading for me, though.

It is interesting how certain countries give you exactly one image when named (or continents, now that I think about it) and how reading books with them as Setting do a lot to dispell that.

[malabar]

I suppose the same goes for any place that one isn't very familiar with - loads of folks in the US think all British people live in castles!

[shaw]

[malabar]

British people nearly wet themselves laughing at Dick Van Dyke's Mockney accent...