September 2006 Archives
Rather annoyingly, realised that I'd picked up the 6th in Alexander McCall Smith's gentle and enjoyable series featuring the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, and whilst waiting in LHR for my departure to Islamabad I opened In the Company of Cheerful Ladies to discover that Mma Precious Ramotswe and Mr J.L.B. Matekoni are now married and I have to wait until I get back from my holidays to find out the detail!!
In the Company of Cheerful Ladies introduces a new character to Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, after Mma Ramostwe knocks Mr Polopetsi off his bicycle, and Mma Grace Makutsi finds true love at last, after taking up dancing lessons. In the meantime, one of the apprentices find religion, the other gets entangled with an older, married woman and Mma Ramotse first husband, no good Note Mokoti, returns from South Africa, bringing nothing but trouble....
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I'm sorry to say that I've given up on this novel. I fear it suffered by being tackled at a time when work was busy and stressful - when only easy reading is desired - and Phil and I were watching Our Friends in the North on DVD, which covers somewhat similar territory: the loving yet difficult relationship between a successful middle-class son and a strong, successful working-class (grand)father and the disappointment-filled relationship between successful son and alcoholic father(figure). The 1960s boom in high density public housing and development of New Towns of high rise flats provide another common strand.
The Kalahari Typing School for Men continues to feature the personal and professional life of Mma Grace Makutsi - who sets up a typing school for men, and a boyfriend, but alas, whilst the school is a success, the nascent love life is less so.
The cases handled by Precious Ramotswe and Grace Makutsi include a man who wishes to atone for misdeeds of his youth and a female physiotherapist who turns to the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency having become a dissatsfied client of the recently opened Satisfaction Guaranteed Detective Agency, run by the rather unpleasant Cephas Buthelezi.
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With work calling in crazy hours, I was definitely in need of some lightweight fiction in September for the rare moments when I felt the desire and had the energy to read. So I was very happy to find the next four books in Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series in the library.
In Morality for Beautiful Girls we find Mr J L B Matekoni suffering from depression, and Mma Precious Ramotswe called upon to do some detective work into the morals of the four finalists in the Miss Glamorous Botswana competition, and the relationships at play in the family of the nameless Government Man. In the meantime, Mma Ramotswe and fiance Mr J L B Matekoni bring their respective businesses under one roof, and Mma Makutsi displays unexpected skills at managing Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors' two workshy apprentices.
Buy it: Amazon link