It is always pleasant to brew a cup of Bush tea and visit with the Number One Ladies Detective Agency.
The investigations are light, and nothing particularly earth-shaking happens in this edition. Just another slice of life in Botswana.

the world is noisy and i needed a break. blue shoes and happiness is the very definition of what's needed when its loud, stressful and unkind.

I love Precious, Mma Ramotswe, as a protagonist. Having not read this series in a while, I realized that the charm comes from these characters, the kindness they innately have and the love for all the things that's nurtures - the land, the animals, the culture and their country.

Its nice.

Onvan : Blue Shoes and Happiness (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, #7) - Nevisande : Alexander McCall Smith - ISBN : 1400075718 - ISBN13 : 9781400075713 - Dar 256 Safhe - Saal e Chap : 2006

What a mishmosh! I didn't understand two of Mma Ramotswe's cases and the outcomes of all three (four?) were unsatisfactory. To make matters worse, the large print edition (at least) had a missing sentence, missing paragraph or missing page between pages 229 and 230. This rendered the solution of the "frightened town mystery" even more obscure than it already was.

How sloppy!

And Mma Ramotswe spent entirely too much time on daydreams while her clients were talking to her. I had to skip some of them.

Still present is the Botswana lilt in the storytelling and dialog. But, for once, that couldn't make up for the confusion and worthless digressions. It's too bad because this has been a remarkable series.

I love these books from the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. The dialogue, description of the countryside and local customs, and vividly described characters all make you feel like you are there in Botswana. I laugh when I hear Mma Ramotswe talk about her traditional build, as she enjoys the greasy doughnut snacks. It seems like every culture has someone like her assistant, Grace Makutsi, a rather plain looking girl with big glasses who instead prides herself on her high scores from the the Botwana Secretarial school she attended. She does find a fiancee, but is afraid she has scared him off with her talk about feminism and so entices Mma Ramotswe's husband to buy chairs from his furniture shop, trying to help the business and not appear too radical in her ideas about the relationships between men and women. The mechanics who work for Mr. Matekoni also show up in every culture--they seem to always be taking breaks, making rude comments to the young girls who walk by, and needing constant instruction and encouragement to stay on task, but also pretending to be brave when a cobra appears in Mma Ramotswe's office and throwing a wrench at it! We see the fear and superstition in the lives of the village people who believe that this snake (who has been rescued by someone from an animal preserve and turned loose near their village) is bad luck, and how their fears actually influence how they feel and behave. It's interesting the comments about the greediness of those who drive Mercedes Benz cars, items of status and wealth that often divide the very rich from the very poor in this developing nation. Many of the cases that Mma Ramotswe undertakes in this book seem to have in common the fact they they have all written for advice to Auntie Emang, and our detective uncovers what is happening and wraps up many of her cases with this discovery. Part of the title comes from the blue shoes that Grace Makutsi has to have, even though they are a size too small and hurt her feet. I guess loving shoes and beautiful things as well as vanity may also be something true in every culture!

I enjoy the heart-warming vignettes and the richness of the simple stories. Plus you get wonderful insights into Botswana - it's people, culture, landscapes, etc. Life lessons are also weaved into the short vignettes. The book opens with the pondering of problems - with the land, the weather, and the problems that people make for themselves. Also, solutions that must be found for problems that people bring to the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency to investigate. The story is as much character driven as it is problem driven.

The vignettes include:
- Mma Ramotswe likes to read The Daily News each morning, especially a new advice columnist named Aunty Emang. She is dismayed by Aunty Emang's short curt answers to advice solicited. Mma Ramotswe thinks most problems can be diminished by the drinking of tea and the thinking through of things...

- Mma Makutsi finds a cobra in the office under her desk! Charlie, the mechanic apprentice who works for Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni has an incorrect idea on how to get rid of it.

- Mma Ramotswe is a "traditionally built woman" and has been comfortable with her size until comments are made. She decides to go on a diet. Can she stick to it?

- Poppy Maope is a cook who is frightened of losing her job. The senior cook, Mma Tsau, and Poppy work at a college. Mma Tsau is feeding her husband all the best food - food that belongs to the college. Poppy has been threatened with dismissal because she knows.

- In confronting Mma Tsau, Mma Ramotswe discovers that Mma Tsau is being blackmailed but not by Poppy. The blackmailer turns out to be a real surprise!

- Mma Makutsi and Phuti Radiphuti have slipped comfortably into an arrangement and are now engaged. They have a discussion at dinner one night about feminism. He feels, without revealing it to Mma Makutsi, that feminists like to criticize and upbraid men, put them in their place, and emasculate them. He asks her if she is a feminist, and thinking he means a modern thinking woman, she answers yes. He doesn't show up for dinner the next night. Has she inadvertently sabotaged their engagement? The solution is quite unique with the help of Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni who is clueless.

- Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi go shopping. Mma Makutsi sees a pair of blue shoes in a store window that she just has to have. Mma Ramotswe tries to talk her out of them. Mma Makutsi learns a valuable lesson when she wears them to work the next day.

- The ladies visit the Mokolodi Game Reserve to visit Neil Who asks them to investigate a problem. There are odd things going on and there is a bad feeling about the place that is frightening the workers. Is witchcraft involved? Mr. Polopetsi, who was hired in the last book to work part-time in the garage and part-time for the detective agency, decides to solve the problem on his own to surprise Mma Ramotswe. That doesn't work out well.

- A young nurse, Boitelo Mampodi who works at the local clinic, has suspicions about the doctor she works for. She has discovered faulty blood pressure readings that are being kept secret for unobvious reasons. She has brought this matter to the ladies' attention out of public duty - she can't pay.

The adopted children, Motholeli and Puso are absent in this book. I like the slow pace of these little stories. It sounds like the ruminations of human nature, traditional values, the meaning of life, and the enjoyment of it might be boring, but it is not. They lend to the good feeling you get from reading these books. Highly recommended series.

I love the feeling of these books. And the diet experience made me laugh.

Perfect.

impossible to describe the calm and joy this author and these books have brought me throughout my life. i started reading the series as a teenager, and have reread them all through out my life. Alexander McCall Smith writes for this female character Mma Romatswe with absolute precision to her - i feel like i know and love her like a family member. reading these mysteries, woven together with such beautiful attention, make me feel the entire range of human emotion possible, all with a gentleness of being told in a calm relaxed thoughtful tone. i really equate the feeling of reading a book by this author with actually drinking a warm sweet cup of tea. it is that comforting. 5 stars for every book of this series.

Yet another fun read in this series. As always, Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi, along with Mr. Polopetsi, solve personal and professional problems. The solutions are not always neat and clean, nor do they always achieve perfect justice. But these books still satisfy. They are funny and generally a good take on the state of humanity these days.

This book is #7 of a much loved series of mine. I've read most of these before, but I'm reading through again because many new books have been added to the series since I last read them. This is a comfort series for me and they are easy to pick up and put down without forgetting what is going on. I love the slow paced life in these books set in Botswana, Africa.

"That is the important thing ... To feel happiness and then to remember it."

Well, that works for me. This book is so soothing, Precious Ramotswe is so restful, such a lovely, comfortable read. There are several nasty crimes that get sorted out along the way, but it's the characters that make these such an enjoyable read, & the love of country that shines through the dust of Botswana. I don't know about those blue shoes but this book certainly gave me the happiness - I must remember that.

I can still picture Jill Scott as the traditionally-built Precious after all these years - such a shame there weren't more episodes.