I have never really have any interest in reading the books by this author, but recently a member friend suggested I would probably like them so I decided to give the first one a try. Actually I chose the second in the series by mistake. In the end it didn't really make any difference.The book is fairly short and an easy read. The cover is colourful and striking. The style of writing is quite unique. It is simple and straightforward with a gentle feel, almost old fashioned in a way and somehow it...

I don't seek out Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books, and yet when I run across them in a clearance rack I can't help but pick them up. Tears Of The Giraffe is the second in the series, and it is just as charming, just as gently comic, as the first installment. My only problem with the book -- and it's little more than a nagging feeling in the back of my head -- is that the author's depiction of his protagonist, the exceedingly down-to-earth, compassionate and somewhat

In this book the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency continues to solve mysteries and in the same tied-up-quite-nicely style. Early in the story Mma Ramotswe receives a proposal of marriage. Wondering whether (view spoiler)[ Mr J.L.B. Matekoni will turn out to be as good as he seems (it's alleged in the last book that he is the sort of man who would help out with chores around the house) my fears were allayed when he adopts some children after hearing their harrowing story. His kindness to them reveal...

"Tears of the Giraffe" continues in the same vein as the first book in the series, offering us a number of delightful mini-story mysteries as Mma Ramotswe becomes more confident in her detective skills.This 2nd book picks up right where the 1st left off and we get more background into the cast of characters surrounding Mma Ramotswe.Most of the read is lighter fare with some humorous moments but, just like "The Number One Ladies Detective Agency", Alexander McCall Smith manages to weave some trag...

3.5 stars

4★“ ‘You are a fortunate man,’ said the jeweller. ‘Not every man can find such a cheerful, fat woman to marry. There are many thin, hectoring women around today. This one will make you very happy.’ Mr J.L.B. Matekoni acknowledged the compliment.”As you can see, Botswana has a culture all its own. Our attention is on the one and only Precious Ramotswe, founder and owner of the now well-known No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. This is an agency unlike any other, and it’s in a unique part of the world...

I absolutely adored the first in Smith’s Botswanan stories, so after a while I set about tackling the sequel. I wasn’t disappointed. TEARS OF THE GIRAFFE is the better book purely because Smith doesn’t have to carefully set up the situation and characters; we already know all about them, so he can just get on with it. The best thing about this novel is all of the different ingredients thrown into the mix. We have another missing child, with a much more complex story this time around; we have a h...

I enjoyed the tv show, now I am enjoying the books.

I have a lot to say about Alexander McCall Smith’s series. It is for readers who don’t mind jumping outside a structure and especially; for appreciators of the rich, intricate privilege of immersion in someone else’s culture. Acquaintance with Botswana, Africa is the point. Mysteries are on the side but this series certainly belongs to the genre, in the Botswana way. An incongruous person and place make Precious Ramotswe’s career whimsical; except that it works! Her ‘No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agen...

Thanks to Goodreads friend Laura being persistent about getting me to try this series again, I FINALLY read this book. I’d read the first book in the series many years ago and liked it, but didn’t like it enough to read on. I think I’d even tried this one and put it down. I’d really struggled with this author’s writing style. I was encouraged to read the audio edition with Lisette Lacat as narrator, and I’m so glad. I’m also glad that I decided to keep a copy of the paperback edition because it

Although it’s been a while since I read the first book, I’ve enjoyed returning to this series set mostly in Gabarone, the capital of Botswana, about the continuing adventures of Precious Ramotswe and her unique detective agency. While I normally am not a big fan of cozy mysteries, I love this series.There is such a gentle sweetness to these books that it makes me want to crawl inside of them and lie down (like my favorite book by my favorite author, Cannery Row.) In this entry, Mma Precious Ramo...

I think a lot of the reviews appear to ignore this is a series written as a tea cozy mystery genre type. Genres follow commonly accepted rules of plotting and characterization depending on the type of genre. Every once in awhile critics get excited over a "genre bending" book because a book didn't follow the rules. This series is NOT genre bending. What it is is an extremely well written, warm, amusing, tea cozy that lightly touchs on many aspects of African life, VERY lightly. A light touch is

I happened on this series a few years ago. I read the first book and enjoyed it. Then, discovered there had been a short running television show, of course I watched it and enjoyed it a great deal. So, getting back to the books has been a pleasure. This one, I elected the audio version, narrated by, Lisette Lecat, was excellent!

My third read. And it still holds up well. Love this series!<><><><>This is a wonderful series to read and to reread. This may be my favorite of them all, or at least in the top three. It's the feeling I get when I read or listen to these books that I love to return to: a feeling of satisfaction, as though all is right with the world (even when all is not right in the present moment). In this series, though, good triumphs over evil, and you pretty much know that going in. And then, at the end, i...

This is Smith’s follow up to the The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency and is another delight. The primary tale is Mma Ramotswe helping an American woman find out what happened to her son ten years ago. The Detective agency grows when Precious takes on her secretary as an assistant detective and gives her a case of her own. Ramotswe’s fiancé is visiting a local orphanage where he provides mechanic services for free when, after she learns that he is to be married, the madam in charge badgers him to

Not sure what McCall Smith's series did to pee me off so much back when I first read it in 2004, but I gave it and its subsequent volumes a measly Two Stars, but that's what I did. Looking back on this series I found it enlightening and interesting getting into the nitty gritty of life in a small-town Botswana; the life, the trials and the tribulations of a woman trying to set up and run her own detective agency. This instalment sees the main protagonist PI Precious Ramotswe investigating a miss...

Mma Ramotswe felt afraid. She had experienced fear only once or twice before in her work as Botswana's only lady private detective (a title she still deserved; Mma Makutsi, it had to be remembered, was only an assistant private detective). She had felt this way when she had gone to see Charlie Gotso, the wealthy businessman who still cultivated witch doctors, and indeed on that meeting she had wondered whether her calling might one day bring her up against real danger. Now, faced with going to D...

I read this series and the Philosophy series when the world is unbearable and my emotions are out of kilter, they always cheer me up and help me through. If books are prescriptions, these would be mood lifters. Times when my husband lost his job, or did not get the job we thought looked liked a sure thing, times when we nearly lost our home and I had a heart attack, these books have helped us through. Times are better now, but it is a comfort to know Precious and Grace and their friends & relati...

A delightfully gentle series of books by Alexander McCall Smith - set in and around Botswana's capital city of Gaborone and stories of the 'No.1 Ladies Detective Agency'.McCall Smith has created a lovely world of mainly (very) amateurish sleuthing - which whilst ostensibly the theme which is central to these books, is ultimately almost incidental. The main draw here is the cast of well drawn, well written, very memorable and on the whole very endearing (if occasionally frustrating) characters -

My new go to place when I need a break from intense, gory, violent mysteries...It brings calm and happiness back.