My ward book club is doing this book, and I'm so glad they are! I just finished it this morning as I walked to work, and I really liked it a lot.
It's about a woman named Precious Ramotswe, who opens up a detective agency with the money she inherits from her father when he dies. It is set in Botswana. And it is really just a charming, adorable, fun book. It would be a perfect book to read while you're traveling, it goes quickly and easily, and pretty much every chapter is one of her capers, like Anne of Green Gables.
I read the Poisonwood Bible last year, and it made me want to read another book set in Africa, so this one was great. I know I'm being like a stupid American and that Africa is HUGE, and that Congo and Botswana are different countries. But I liked reading a book set in Africa that wasn't sad. This isn't. They talk about some social problems of their country, but they also talk a lot about loving Africa, and Mama Ramotswe actually says at one part . . . actually, I'll just re-type it, because it was so good.
"Mma Ramotswe did not want Africa to change. She did not want her people to become like everybody else, soulless, selfish, forgetful of what it means to be an African, or, worse still, ashamed of Africa. She would not be anything but an African, never, even if somebody came up to her and said 'Here is a pill, the very latest thing. Take it and it will make you into an American.' She would say no. Never. No thank you."
It's filled with little nuggets like that, about the land and loving Africa, and I really loved that part of it.
Not to mention how much I love Mma Ramotswe. She's kind of feminist, and gets offended when people laugh at her for being a lady detective. And she's fat. They say all the time that she's a fat lady, and I love it. There are too many books where the main character is "awkward and stick straight," and they try to act like it's so dumb to be really skinny. So it was nice to read a book where people greet her by saying, "/hey! Fat lady!" She's just a really great character, and I really liked the book a lot.
I felt like I had heard of this book a lot, and in Googling it to find the picture above, I realized that's probably because there are 11 books in this series! I had no idea it even WAS a series! This is the first one. There was also an HBO show, but it only has 8 episodes. Which is too bad, I think I would have liked watching it. And they filmed in Botswana, which I thought was cool.
Anyway, it was a great book. I wouldn't say you must drop everything you're reading to get this, but I really enjoyed it and thought it was very charming.
