No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency

I’m now done with the first book in the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, about a fat woman from Botswana who uses her inheritance to start a detective agency. Mma Ramotswe is endearing, even if she’s not particularly good at sleuthing. She’s very kind and very opinionated – I love her for that.

Let’s just say that I’m hooked. I’ve officially joined the cult following of Alexander McCall Smith and plan to read all his books hereafter. I’ve already requested the next two books in the No. 1 Ladies’ series from my local library.

Lately I’ve been reading some meaty child-rearing books. It was rather nice to throw a “candy” book into the mix.

Although the book was pure fun, it was also full of random philosophical musings. Like these two …

“That is the problem with governments these days. They want to do things all the time; they are always very busy thinking of what things they can do next. That is not what people want. People want to be left alone to look after their cattle.”

“The problem, of course, was that people did not seem to understand the difference between right and wrong. They needed to be reminded about this, because if you left it to them to work out for themselves, they would never bother. They would just find out what was best for them, and then they would call that the right thing. That’s how most people thought.”

One funny story about this book is that I was nearly done with it on my return flight from Los Angeles when, at the climax of the plot, I turned the page and discovered there were eight pages missing!!! (This is the potential problem with library books, I suppose.) I don’t think I’ve ever been so annoyed in all my life. There I was 30,000 feet up in the air – suspended in more than one sense of the word – and with nothing to read! ARGH.