Thursday, April 15, 2010

Blue Shoes and Happiness by Alexander McCall Smith~Book Review



Blue Shoes and Happiness (No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, Book 7)


Blue Shoes and Happiness is the seventh book in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. This series is set in Botswana, South Africa where Precious Ramotswe is a private detective and runs the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency with her assistant Mma Grace Makutsi. Each book centers on life in Botswana and highlights the culture and challenges of their customers and daily life of the agency. In this book Mma Ramotswe is faced with her own challenges and must decide if as a "traditionally built" woman she should try to lose weight. She's able to district herself from taking this challenge on completely as they are focused on solving such problems as a cook being blackmailed as she is suspected of feeding her husband food taken from her work kitchen and a sneaky newspaper advice columnist who may be taking advantage of her unsuspecting readers and more.

I have enjoyed reading all of the books in this series and with this one, I listened to it on audiobook. The series is more of a gentle, cozy read as it is not violent and is told in a slow pace. The narrator, Lisette Lecat is a native South African herself and she is able to easily take on different accents of women and men during the reading of this book. She made the listening of this audiobook very pleasant and enjoyable. I listened to this in the car as I traveled and waited in the pickup line at my son's school. I looked forward to listening to the book and never lost interest in the story.

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series should be read in order as the stories do flow together. It's a series that I find I don't have to rush to get through. It's perfect to read or listen to when I want something light and gentle to read but is a series that has great substance and strong characters. There is always something interesting going on at the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. I plan to listen to the next one, The Good Husband of Zebra Drive as well and have it lined up to start next.


Disclosure: I borrowed this audiobook from the library. I am an Amazon associate and an Indiebound associate.


8 comments:

  1. I'm glad you liked this one! I've been reading this series with my book group and this is the last one we read together. We will probably be reading The Good Husband of Zebra Drive in a couple of months. I love all of the little lessons that are within the pages.

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  2. I started this series and enjoyed all the books I read, but quit the series for some reason. It sounds like I need to start reading it again.

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  3. My mom loaned me the first one of these and I just wasn't sure if I really wanted to read it. But if you're still enjoying them after seven, I'd say it's time to get started.

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  4. I love this series, but I've only done the audio versions. I'm not sure I'd love it so much if I read the books, but I just adore Lisette Lecat's reading of these books. I'm so glad to hear you enjoy her too.

    I get my audiobook time whenever I'm in the car alone, so it's my driving around town time that comes in 10-15 minute increments. This series is perfect for that kind of listening.

    My audiobooks are all a bit on hold right now because I'm in the process of listening to the entire Harry Potter series back to back. I'll be getting to the most recent two books in this series soon after I finish HP.

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  5. I read the first book years ago and liked it but never read any more. I really should listen to the whole series. I think it would be a good one to listen to.

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  6. sounds like another great find for the audio department!!! I'm really into the playaways right now and my library doesn't have too many of them, but I could so see me listening to this series in the car!!!

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  7. I'm only on the 2nd book of this series but I plan to read them all. I love the gentle writing and wisdom her puts in his stories.

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