Ladies' Detective Agency novels for philosophical asides such as this: It was a curious thing, she thought, that a person's eyes should tell you so much about what was going on inside them. This entire series is character-driven with an emphasis on problem solving rather than intense detective work. His obvious knowledge of African customs in that part of Africa is endearing to someone who lived in that part of the world for very many years. She shares the office with Grace Makutsi, whom she once hired as a secretary and considers a friend.

Grace keeps overreaching her position in the agency and Precious is increasingly tired of trying to defend her right as the No. It is a pleasure to step out of the rat race and spend some time with old friends, intriguing mysteries and a journey to a satisfying conclusion. He is professor emeritus of medical law at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and has served on many national and international bodies concerned with bioethics. There were so many ways in which people might reveal their thoughts and emotions — gestures of the hands, smiles, shrugs. It was important, she felt, to keep your working life separate from your home life; she knew far too many people who allowed the cares of the job to intrude upon their home life, and these were the people who tended to become depressed or suffer from something that she had recently read about in a magazine - something referred to as burn-out.The remainder of the novel is mostly about Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi going about their business; Mma Ramotswe's inner musings; and the characters drinking tea and having rambling conversations. One day the white van would finally expire, but that day had not yet come, and until then it did what was asked of it patiently and with dignity.

Throughout it all, the ladies (and their men) muse on many topics: unheeded parental wisdom, the benefits of occasional consumption of unhealthy food, the proliferation of extra features on any saleable item, the demise of dining tables and plates, and the curse of phased redundancy and planned obsolescence. If there was reproach in Mma Ramotswe’s voice, it was mild; so mild, in fact, that it seemed to go unnoticed.Grace and Mma Ramotswe meet Grace’s childhood friend Patience, who appears to be dealing with her own issues. Precious wonders if she’s about to face a coup, but Mr JLB Matekoni wisely diagnoses the sort of insecurity characteristic of someone with poverty in their past. It is accepted by you that Daunt Books has no control over additional charges in relation to customs clearance. However, her son is disrupting her newfound happiness with constant angry outbursts and meanness directed towards her new partner. I like the main character PI Mma Precious Ramotswe’s formal and polite speech and kind treatment of others.

I picked it up at random from the library and wasn’t impressed by the lack of dead bodies in a cozy mystery (blame it on my bloodlust). We learned how to read a face right from the very start when we were looking up at our mother and saw her looking down at us. Of course there were factors at work in the background, foremost of which was the word of mouth on which every business ultimately would succeed or fail.This is a different kind of cozy mystery where there isn’t necessarily a dead body, but there is plenty of detecting. He was born in what is now known as Zimbabwe and he was a law professor at the University of Botswana. A Song of Comfortable Chairs is just that: time out in a comfy chair where the rhythms of Africa sweep over you. The agency was going through a quiet spell—several major inquiries had recently been satisfactorily concluded—and she had no appointments that day. In a world where there aren’t always answers and at a time when we are all looking for answers, this is a fabulous read.

B. Matekoni was busy performing open-heart surgery on a battered Land Rover, and did not see her, but Fanwell, his face streaked with grease, raised a spanner in salutation. As with the other 22 books in this series, this is an enjoyable read that combines humor, social commentary, mystery and well-developed characters. The Ladies Detective Agency aspires to solve troubles and conflicts in their clients' personal lives or small business problems. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.That was the problem, she reflected; that was the source of so much unhappiness - there were people who made it their business to stop other people from being themselves; who tried to make people be something they did not want to be. For instance, when Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi are discussing nurses with a carpenter, the man expresses shock at the idea of male nurses. We use Google Analytics to see what pages are most visited, and where in the world visitors are visiting from.