Yikes. Okay, so, I last dove into the first book of this series back in 2018. This is all kinds of awkward because I didn't think it was that long ago. Honestly. Pretty sure I liked the previous book, so I'm not sure why I waited to so long to dive into this one but maybe it wasn't available when I first looked? Again, not sure but at least I finally dove into Tears of the Giraffe.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to like this series - a lot. I know that it's still early to decide after diving into book 2 but that's the feeling that I'm going with (right now). Precious is all kinds of sassy and I need more of her in my life. She also kind of reminds me of Miss Marple in a way and I'm only stating that because I recently finished her series.

Other than that, this had some weird and crazy drama. Especially revolving around JLB - which THANK YOU, we are learning more about this mysterious guy. I mean if adopting kids is that easy I'm sure anyone would do it. Maybe talk to your fiancé before doing that? Maybe? Not sure.

In the end, this was a lot of fun and I can't wait to dive into the next one.

This second book is just as charming as the first. The structure of the story telling is the same and the characters are beautifully drawn. And Africa. Africa is a living character, complex and beautiful.

AR Quiz No. 68638
Accelerated Reader level: 6.0
with 10.0 points

See, this is the kind of stuff that makes me laugh out loud and it’s why these books will travel with me everywhere:

“It was always the same group of chickens: four hens and a dispirited and, she imagined, impotent rooster, who was kept on by the hens out of charity. The rooster was lame and had lost a large proportion of feathers on one of his wings. He looked defeated, as if he were only too aware of his loss of status, and he always walked several steps behind the hens themselves, like a royal consort relegated by protocol into a permanent second place.”

Cada vez gosto mais de Mma. Ramotswe e das suas investigações.

E' molto carino, breve e scorrevole ma non superficiale, apparentemente ingenuo ma pieno di "saggezza".
Mentre si legge sembra di stare sotto un'acacia, si vedono i colori del Botswana, le strade polverose, i bambini sorridenti.
E' la stessa meravigliosa parte d'Africa descritta nei "Racconti Africani" di Doris Lessing, ma qui c'è un tocco di - consapevole - leggerezza.
E il "giallo" è solo un pretesto per riflettere sulle vicende umane.

Sweet and satisfying lessons on life through the allegory of a wise woman detective in Botswana, Africa.�

I absolutely adored the first in Smith’s Botswanan stories, so after a while I set about tackling the sequel. I wasn’t disappointed.

TEARS OF THE GIRAFFE is the better book purely because Smith doesn’t have to carefully set up the situation and characters; we already know all about them, so he can just get on with it.

The best thing about this novel is all of the different ingredients thrown into the mix. We have another missing child, with a much more complex story this time around; we have a heart-breaking story of a couple of orphans, and we have further character development on the part of Precious’ love interest, Mr Matekoni, as well as her secretary.

As a whole the book seems a little deeper, a little more vivid, a little more in touch with the spirit of Africa, and it’s a delightful read.

Prešesa ir burvīga, toties autors pārlieku daudz moralizē par vecajiem labajiem laikiem un tikumiem un to cik viss tagad(stāsts noris 90.gados) ir sliki.
Būtu viņš mūsdienas redzējis...

Thanks to Goodreads friend Laura being persistent about getting me to try this series again, I FINALLY read this book. I’d read the first book in the series many years ago and liked it, but didn’t like it enough to read on. I think I’d even tried this one and put it down. I’d really struggled with this author’s writing style.

I was encouraged to read the audio edition with Lisette Lacat as narrator, and I’m so glad. I’m also glad that I decided to keep a copy of the paperback edition because it turns out I read this best by simultaneously listening to the audio book while reading the paper edition. A particular pleasure since, as is not always the case with audio books, the text was read almost precisely word for word. Only one word was wrong and contractions were used in the audio and not the paper book, but otherwise they were identical. So I read the Audible edition along with this edition: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...
How very weird at times though. One audiobook part ended when there were just five pages left to a chapter in the paperback. It took me a while but I learned that it was better for me to measure my reading progress using the paperback chapters and to simply stop the audio play when I was at a good point in the paperback.

I could get spoiled with the pairing of paper/audio editions. Reading this way would definitely help me read when I have difficulty concentrating, especially when due to neighbors’ noise, but also for when there are other reasons.

For this book the audio helped me tremendously with pronunciations and dialect! And I could see the humor via the audio that I missed when I tried to read the paper book by itself. Also, the paper book helped me concentrate on the audio, though I did have to rewind at times, rarely though. Reading the audio and the paper editions at the same time was a real pleasure and like magic for me. And this narrator couldn't be better. She is perfect. I plan to all this series’ books but I will definitely read the audiobooks, preferably with the paper editions too.

I can’t afford to buy books but I’ll be looking for a CD player. I can borrow CDs and paper books from the library. I think there might be some audio files too but not many, and right now I have no devices that would work with them.

I ended up liking many things about this story.

I thoroughly enjoyed the humor. It’s subtle but very amusing and most of it was based on observations of human behavior. Brilliantly done!

I loved so many of the characters and the relationships. They were a delight.

I appreciated how the various issues and sub-plots were resolved. Very satisfying!

I was so engrossed in what was going on that at some point I’d forgotten to be curious about the book’s title. The reader doesn’t learn the meaning of the title until the last two pages of the novel. I liked it!

I recently saw the 2016 movie A United Kingdom, twice!, because I loved it so much, and it was fortuitous to then start reading this book. They’re a wonderful pairing.

ETA: The "mysteries" in these books seem to be the side stories. The main stories in the books are simple stories about interesting people who live in Botswana. The mysteries are not the main attraction for me.

Book number 2 in a series of 19 written so far. So far these are fairly simple mysteries which include at the core, women in non-traditional jobs and life in rural Africa. I enjoy the simplicity and the casual way the stories develop.

I love this series about the No. 1 Ladies’ detective agency. I have been lost to them on the Libby app through the library. I have missed a few when I read them before. Thought it’s been so long since I read the books in print that I would just start at the beginning.
I just love the main character Madame M. And hearing about her solemn advice and way she solves her investigations. At the end of this book, she is now engaged and I’m looking forward to the next read.

The ongoing adventures of Mma Ramotswe’s personal life an detective work continue to be awfully hectic as she is newly engaged and her fiancé’s maid is up to something while she’s on her cases involving a missing American man and the infidelity of a butcher’s wife which involves their son’s paternity. A- (91%/Excellent)