Isn't that a catchy title? It's the title of a book. It's a very good book, I enjoyed it immensely- and I love the title. This summer I read another book by this author, also because the title reached out and tickled my fancy. That book, The Full Cupboard of Life , was my introduction to Alexander McCall Smith.

As an aside here, I first spotted these books in September of 2004 in the airport bookstore while Arthur Pendragon was preparing to fly to London for a semester. The titles and the covers interested me then, but I'd forgotten- until one very hot day last summer when I was hiding from the heat at Barnes & Nobles.

About a month later I picked up the first in the series, The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency, at a library book sale, and the most recent read I bought at WalMart. I'll be looking for more.

I am not normally one who looks for *detective* or *mystery* books. I'm a gentle fiction reader who doesn't like cursing, too much intense action(if my heart is going to work that hard, my body should be accomplishing something!), or details of the characters sex life- it's like a bowel movement I can just assume they have one, I don't need the details. So, you can imagine I don't often find much browsing through newer releases. I often depend on book lists and books being recommended from friends.

These books are fun, think of Jan Karon, Miss Read type stories. They are set in Botswana, Mma Precious Ramotswe is the only lady detective in the country and she solves mysteries for people and finds lost things and is just very wise and observant. They speak and think in a very simple, very polite fashion that is quite charming. She is an avid tea drinker, it comes into all the stories.

"Certainly Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni would not have done that- and indeed she had never seen Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni touch the kettle in all the six months since their marriage and his arrival in the house on Zebra Drive.  Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni liked tea, of course- it would have been difficult to marry a man who did not like tea- but he very rarely seemed to make any tea for himself.  She had not thought about this before now, but it was rather interesting, was it not, that somebody might believe that tea just happened along? Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni was not a lazy man, but it was remarkable to reflect how most men imagined that things like tea and food would simply appear if they waited long enough."

"We are very fortunate," said Mma Makutsi. "We know that."

"And you now have that nice new house," the neighbor went on, "and that interesting job of yours. People must ask you all the time: What is it like to be a private detective?"

Mma Makutsi smiled modestly. "They think it is a very exciting job," she said. "But it is not really. Most of the time we are just helping people to find out things they already know."