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| In the Company of Cheerful Ladies (No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency) | 
 enlarge | Author: Alexander Mccall Smith
Publisher: Anchor
Category: Book
List Price: $12.95
Buy Used: $2.57
You Save: $10.38 (80%)
New (48) Used (70) Collectible (2) from $2.57
Avg. Customer Rating:  82 reviews
Sales Rank: 6683
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.6
ISBN: 140007570X
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9781400075706
ASIN: 140007570X
Publication Date: March 14, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: FEW BENT CORNERS Used - Good Default Text
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| Customer Reviews:
 Excellent Author July 5, 2007
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
Keeps your interest all the way through the book, in fact, throughout the whole series.
Pumpkins, green dancing shoes, and decrepit white vans... May 16, 2007
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Alexander McCall Smith has outdone himself in this book! Even if you haven't read the entire Ladies Detective Agency series, you could dive in with this one and be totally satisfied. Don't be put off by a slow start...the beginning will slow you down to Botswana time, but unexpected things soon begin to happen and by the end of the book, several different plot threads are nicely tied up with bows (except for two, which remain unresolved...perhaps for the next book).
Precious Ramotswe and Grace Makutsi usually solve the problems of others, but in this book Mma Ramotswe has a terrible problem which at first seems insoluble. It threatens her marriage...but ultimately, with help from an unexpected source, it is resolved.
Grace decides to go to dancing school -- to dance, certainly, but also possibly to meet a cultivated man. She does meet someone. If you have ever done likewise, you will love the description of the first dance lesson, Grace's feelings at what transpires, her decision to be kind even though she gets stuck with someone who seems to have no dancing ability whatsoever. McCall Smith is unparalleled at setting up moral dilemmas full of the complexity and the humor of everyday life, and resolving them in ways that warm the heart and delight the brain.
The relationship between Grace and Precious (glimpses of their differences and their mutual judgments of each other, coexisting with their loyalty and devotion) takes on new depth in this book, as does the relationship between Precious and J.L.B. Matekoni, and between J.L.B. and Grace, who make a surprising discovery together (one of the two plot threads left unresolved).
Several lesser subplots twine around these stories like morning glory vines. At the end of the last chapter, Grace says to Precious, "We have never had so much happen all at the same time. It is better for things to happen separately." Precious agrees...but I think the reader may disagree! McCall Smith delights us with his plot juggling and I for one can't wait to see what comes next.
 If this is your first time reading the series -- it's wonderful. Otherwise, repetitive & tedious. April 28, 2007
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series is charming. This is the sixth installment I've read. Unfortunately, 60% of the content of this edition has been covered in the first three books, which I found frustrating.
If you have read other novels in the series, you may skip wholesale passages of this book -- literally turn over pages and just scan them. The plot is not advanced, and the book is cluttered by the repetition. I became frustrated with the lack of plot movement over entire chapters. What was sweet and tender in the first three books has become tepid and stagnant by the sixth.
However -- if this is your first time reading the series, you may become entranced and probably will want to read the rest as fast as possible. Read the first three books next.
Another delightful installment by Smith March 19, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
In this sixth installment of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, Smith delivers another uplifting book. I may have enjoyed this one the best of the series so far. Things happen in this book, but for the most part, it was about character development. And learning more about these wonderful characters is a good thing.
Mma Romatswe finds herself in a pickle when her first husband (Note Mokoti) returns demanding money and inciting fear as he has always done; Mma Mokutsi takes dancing lessons and meets a man, who, though not perfect, is close enough; Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni finally finds his match in passion for machines in Mr. Polopetsi; Charlie the mechanic gets a dose in reality when he quits his apprenticeship to date an older, rich lady who drives a Mercedes Benz. While all of this is going on, Mma Romatswe and Mma Mokutsi are trying to find a Zambian man who ran away with lots of money, but that little mystery is really understated in this book.
I thoroughly enjoyed Cheerful Ladies. To see Mma Romatswe fall and recover herself was a perfect move at this point in the series. She has seemed bigger than life throughout, and to see her humanity was, for me, very refreshing. I love watching Mma Makutsi grow into herself and be proud of who she is. She is simply delightful.
One thing that Smith does in all of his books that he continues to do well in this one is provide a life of integrity and morality for his characters without being preachy or nostalgic. While the characters yearn for a time past when everyone treated each other with respect and tradition, they do so in the expectation that people should still be acting that way, not in sadness that they no longer do. I love these books and am very much looking forward to #7.
a "Precious" read February 7, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
All the books in this series have been delightful (No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency). The lead character, Precious Ramotswe, has been my hero from the very first book (she is traditionally built and proud of it). She is willing to assert her need to know, and though she is quite the independent lady, she is just that, a lady. While involved in her adventures in solving her clients' problems, one is transported with her in her tiny white van into the wonderful discriptions of Botswana and the nearby Kalahari. Each book in the series has been pure delight for me and others I have introduced Precious to. In this book one is introduced to a new character and meets up with one from the past. These books are always a restful, entertaining escape.
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