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Title: The Full Cupboard of Life: More from the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith ISBN: 0-375-42218-8 Publisher: Pantheon Pub. Date: 20 April, 2004 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.38 (29 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: People Are People All Over The World!
Comment: In Smith's 5th book in the "No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" series, he again concentrates on many of his recurring themes. Smith uses the detective agency as a backdrop, to discuss the morality and ethics of Botswana, as a microcosm of the whole world.
Because Botswana is a relatively small country, much of it being desert, the Botswanians tend to know each other, all over the country. This intimacy of course is less in the urban environments than in the more traditional rural areas. Nonetheless, by American standards, even the urban life is rather suburban if not rural in appearance.
The issues that Smith concentrates on are the feelings that are universal in virtually every society. While there are specific nuances in each country, and within a country, in each region, still, there are certain things, that are common to all. Men will always seek the love of women. Women will always be more selective than men in choosing their mate.
In Botswana, the meeting of the traditional versus the contemporary is deeply explored. The role of women in the Botswanian society is investigated and parsed. There are many types of women in Botswana, as there are many types of women in any part of the world.
But Smith also finds, that there are similarities between men and women, and that these similarities are universal and accepted by almost all societies. By using Botswana, as a developing third world nation, Smith allows the reader to look back at the early days of his/her own country, and then see how far their country has come, from inception, to today. While the detective plots lend an interesting backdrop to Smith's message, the real concentration in all of Smith's books in this series are the way in which people do treat others, and the way in which they should treat others. The book provides another wonderful view of cross-cultural interactions and perspectives.
Rating: 5
Summary: Wonderful to visit Botswana again
Comment: If you ever have the chance to attend a book event with Alexander McCall Smith, don't miss it. He is funny, smart and sweet and the large group had a wonderful evening.
The title of this book seems to sum up Smith's outlook on life. This book carries the story forward in Gaborone. I love spending time with the characters in Botswana. I asked Mr. Smith what the people of Botswana think of the Ladies Detective Agency books and he said the people he spoke with seemed to like the books and the postive depiction of their lives and country.
I will continue to look forward to the rest of the books in this series and the upcoming Sunday Philosophy Club series.
Rating: 5
Summary: The title says it all. Life is a very "full cupboard" here.
Comment: In his fifth novel about the #1 Ladies Detective Agency, run by Mma Precious Ramotswe, author Alexander McCall Smith presents the full cupboard of Botswana life in all its richness. For Mma Ramotswe, people and their relationships are paramount, and she believes that these relationships are facilitated by Botswana's traditional code of behavior, with its customs of greetings, sitting down together, drinking bush tea, and casually talking around a subject, rather than addressing it aggressively. Life is a rich, full, and happy experience for Mma Ramotswe, who can find out everything she wants to know from her broad network of family and friends. Engaged to the good-hearted Mr. J.L.B. Matakone, who has not yet set a date for a wedding, she helps him surreptitiously with his problems and cooks and cares for the two orphans he has taken into his home.
In this novel, full of gentle humor and wisdom, Mma Ramotswe and her friends face several "difficult" problems: A woman who has made a fortune establishing hair-braiding salons hires Mma Ramotswe to find out whether her suitors want to marry her for her money. Mr. J.L.B. Matakone finds himself tricked into "volunteering" to do a parachute jump, in order to raise money for the Orphan Farm run by the intrepid Mma Potokwane, who refuses to take no for an answer. He is also disturbed to discover that First Class Motors, a rival garage, has sold improper parts and failed to service a classic old Range Rover correctly, and he has been procrastinating about confronting the garage owner or reporting him to authorities. Mma Makutsi, the assistant at the detective agency, has been so successful running the Kalahari Typing School for Men at night, that her dream of renting her own house has now come true, and Mma Ramotswe is helping her to furnish all two rooms.
With an obvious lack of exciting plot lines, the reader focuses completely on the characters-- beautifully drawn, sometimes flawed, and always forgiven their faults. In a pace as leisurely as life in Botswana, McCall Smith recreates the colorful everyday lives of these ordinary people, who treasure friendships, treat each other with respect, and possess inherent good sense. Honoring the values that contemporary readers sometimes do not take the time to preserve, McCall Smith portrays complex social relationships in very simple and direct prose. Warm, gently humorous, and loving, McCall Smith creates a kind of vicarious nostalgia for this way of life, a nostalgia which readers will continue to indulge and treasure as the series continues. Mary Whipple
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Title: The Kalahari Typing School for Men : More from the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith ISBN: 037542217X Publisher: Pantheon Pub. Date: 29 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Morality for Beautiful Girls (No.1 Ladies Detective Agency) by Alexander McCall Smith ISBN: 1400031362 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 12 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Tears of the Giraffe (No.1 Ladies Detective Agency) by Alexander McCall Smith ISBN: 1400031354 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 03 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (Today Show Book Club #8) by Alexander McCall Smith ISBN: 1400034779 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 06 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Heavenly Date: And Other Flirtations by Alexander McCall Smith ISBN: 1841954667 Publisher: Canongate Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $21.00 |
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