A Review: The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

I gave this book five stars out of five on http://www.goodreads.com/

I am a big fan of Alexander McCall Smith's Botswana series. I don't think I've ever been disappointed in anything I've read of his. Precious Ramotswe, the owner of this agency, the first in Botswana, is a beautiful soul. There is simply no other way to describe her. She is believable, she has suffered, she understands suffering, but most important, her heart is big enough to contain a vast forgiveness, though she will not let true wickedness go unpunished. I review Precious because without her the books would be impossible. She is the heart of the books and to me the books seem like the heart of Botswana, a country I have never visited, but now want to. I am a big lover of tea: black tea, some green tea, Earl Grey tea, the hit-me caffeinated kinds of tea, but I have become a non-caffeine rooibos tea drinker because that is what Precious drinks, only she calls it bush tea. All my reviews of every book I have read in this series would be identical. I never imagined that a man, one who isn't even from Africa originally, could present a "traditionally built" African woman with the kind of gentle, loving honesty that is shown in these books. Read them. They are wonderful.