Woman to Woman - Book Review

This is undoubtedly one of my favorite topics to discuss - good books I've read. I read voraciously. I read when I should be doing other things. I need one of those sweatshirts (or tee shirts, except a sweatshirt would feel so much better right now) that says, "So Many Books, So Little Time!"

Here is a picture of one of my birthday gifts from my husband. He found it in the Wireless Catalog and could not resist it. The first picture is a photo of the catalog picture - the second one is a not-very-good shot of my actual pin. It's called "The Book Lady." I love it!

So - our assignment for this Woman to Woman is to discuss a book we've recently read, mystery or fiction. I am going to do one of each, because I've just discovered two new series. I love series, because when I finish a book I want there to be more. I read so many series it is ridiculous. Some of them improve with age, some become inferior and I eventually give up and quit reading them.

The first series is by Alexander McCall Smith - No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. There are 8 books so far and I have read the first 7. They are delightful books set in Botswana. Since my DIL is from Africa, I have cousins there,and have heard many missionaries speak, I really enjoyed this glimpse of a small part of this huge continent.

Precious Ramotswe is "traditional sized woman" (read overweight) from Botswana who uses the money she got from selling her late father's cattle to set up a ladies' detective agency - the first and only one in Botswana. She doesn't make a lot of money, but she keeps busy enough to be contented. She solves her cases with common sense and intuition.

This excerpt touched me so: "She had never been able to tolerate dishonesty, which she thought threatened the very heart of relationships between people. If you could not count on other people to mean what they said, or to do what they said they would do, then life could become utterly unpredictable. The fact that we could trust one another made it possible to undertake the simple tasks of life. Everything was based on trust, even day-to-day things like crossing the road - which required trust that the drivers of cars would be paying attention - to buying the food from a roadside vendor, whom you trusted not to poison you. It was a lesson that we learned as children, when our parents threw us up into the sky and thrilled us by letting us drop into their waiting arms. We trusted those arms to be there, and they were."

The descriptions of Botswana make one wish to go and visit. Except for the intense heat! I love these books. They are totally different from the Mitford Series, but they give me the same good feeling when I read them.

As you may be able to tell, I highly recommend this series. Begin with this book:

I recently discovered a second delightful series by Ann B. Ross, and am on the 4th book. Miss Julia is a proper southern lady from North Carolina, a recent widow. She found after her husband's death that her frugal lifestyle was totally unnecessary - she was wealthy and didn't know it until her husband died. He left behind more than money - a secret that most everyone in town knew - except Miss Julia. I won't spoil the surprise.

From a review (no name to credit) "Miss Julia is a proper widow - a lady of a certain age with a determined commitment to correct behavior and right living, which she'll tell you about in a minute since she has the sharpest tongue south of the Mason-Dixon Line."

These books are really easy reading and will not do anything to improve your mind. But they are such fun. Give them a try!