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

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Author: Alexander Mccall Smith
Publisher: Pantheon Books
Category: Book

List Price: ~~Ł11.17~~
Buy Used: Ł1.86
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Used (14) from Ł1.86

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

25 reviews
Sales Rank: 565417

Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.1

ISBN: 0375422722
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780375422720
ASIN: 0375422722

Publication Date: April 18, 2006
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days

Customer Reviews:

Showing reviews 6-10 of 25

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another pleasant read April 15, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

Although I have not read all the books in the series I enjoy the easy style of the No 1 Lady Detective series. The books make ideal holiday or weekend reading not requiring much effort on my part but always being left with a nice positive feeling about the world.

This continues in the same vain as the rest of the books about Mma Ramotswe everyday life and investigations into small scale problems that are affecting the lives of her clients and acquaintances.

I especially enjoy the gentle reflections on life from an African perspective. When we see and read so much about Africa that associates it with war, famine and poverty it is good to read something that is so accessible and attractive to a Western audience which portrays the positive and everyday nature of African life.

5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant! Another wonderful book in the Ladies' Detective Agency Series! March 25, 2007
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

If you've enjoyed all of the other books in the series, then you should enjoy this one too!! I just love this series. Set in Botswana, Alexander McCall Smith writes so superbly, enabling the reader to cross continents and be right there in Gabarone with Mma Ramotswe, Mma Makutsi and Mr J.L.P. Matekoni. With touches of understated comic irony, this series are just a delightful light-hearted read. Watch out for the moral elements - Mma Ramotswe spends a lot of her time philosophising on life, and the good old days in particular when morals were better, young people were more polite and there was more respect in society... but her moments of reflection just add to the charm of these novels!

In this, the 7th in the series, life is finally becoming a little more settled for Mma Ramotswe. She is now happily married to Mr J.L.B. Matekoni (proprietor of the respected local garage "Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors"), between them forstering two children from the local orphanage. Her detective agency business is now respected and established and her assistant Mma Makutsi has finally found herself a suitable suitor / fiance! (although she still can't resist a new pair of shoes!!). However, Mma Ramotswe allows doubts to creep in regarding her traditionally built figure... perhaps she should start a diet? And some strange events require investigating... possible withcraft, a case of blackmail.

If you're new to the series, I recommend you start with the first book, "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency".

4 out of 5 stars

Same old shoes, same old happiness March 14, 2007
4 out of 6 found this review helpful

I have read and loved all Alexander McCall Smith's Botswana books, and so it breaks my heart to say this, but he really should stop writing them now. The beauty of Botswana and the old fashioned politeness of Mma Ramotswe, Mr J L P Matekoni and their friends is wonderful to read, but a book needs more impetus than that to carry it forward. The detective cases which spiced up the earlier books in the series have all but gone from Blue Shoes and Happiness, sidelined in favour of observations on traditional builds and cake, and the happiness of married life. It's lovely, but ultimately, it's not enough to carry a reader to the end of the book. I'm hoping that this was a blip, and that AMS will be back on form with the next book in the series. I'd love the Ladies' Detective Agency to hold on to their number one spot, but I think it might be time for them to retire.

2 out of 5 stars

A bit dull and lightweight March 14, 2007
14 out of 20 found this review helpful

This is the first in this series that I've read. Yes, the characters are slightly endearing but it's a bit dull and lightweight - which some might view as a virtue but bored me rather quickly. The mysteries are somewhat unsatisfactory and the whole book doesn't really sustain interest. The cod philosophy used to pad out the plot doesn't help too much either - dilemmas like whether Mr JLB Matekoni should be allowed to buy a new chair, or the traumas of Mma Ramotswe being "traditionally built" are scarcely the stuff of revolutions. Oh, and the continued habit of Mma Ramotswe of referring to her husband as "Mr JLB Matekoni" becomes tiresome and irritating rather more quickly than the author intended.

Apart from that, it will keep you mildly entertained for a couple of hours, but I can't really recommend Mr McCall Smith's story. Sorry!

3 out of 5 stars

More of the same March 5, 2007
5 out of 6 found this review helpful

I like McCall Smith, and I think Mma Precious Ramotswe is fabulous. But this book doesn't really do anything we haven't seen several times before. There's a couple of nice bits, and I liked seeing Precious happily married and concerned about whether she's getting a bit TOO "traditionally-built", but all in all I wondered what actually happened in this book. There's blackmail and a couple of minor crimes to be investigated, but overall it compared badly with Precious in that it felt a but too thin...