The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon

Author: Alexander McCall Smith
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0307908143
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 243

Book Description
Modern ideas get tangled up with traditional ones in the latest intriguing installment in the beloved, best-selling No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series. Precious Ramotswe has taken on two puzzling cases. First she is approached by the lawyer Mma Sheba, who is the executor of a deceased farmer’s estate. Mma Sheba has a feeling that the young man who has stepped forward may be falsely impersonating the farmer’s nephew in order to claim his inheritance. Mma Ramotswe agrees to visit the farm and find out what she can about the self-professed nephew. Then the proprietor of the Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon comes to Mma Ramotswe for advice. The opening of her new salon has been shadowed by misfortune. Not only has she received a bad omen in the mail, but rumors are swirling that the salon is using dangerous products that burn people’s skin. Could someone be trying to put the salon out of business? Meanwhile, at the office, Mma Ramotswe has noticed something different about Grace Makutsi lately. Though Mma Makutsi has mentioned nothing, it has become clear that she is pregnant . . . But in Botswana—a land where family has always been held above all else—this may be cause for controversy as well as celebration. With genuine warmth, sympathy, and wit, Alexander McCall Smith explores some tough questions about married life, parenthood, grief, and the importance of the traditions that shape and guide our lives. This is the fourteenth installment in the series. This ebook edition includes a Reading Group Guide.

The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon

Author: Alexander McCall Smith
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 1405520590
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 249

Book Description
THE FOURTEENTH BOOK IN THE BELOVED NO. 1 LADIES' DETECTIVE AGENCY SERIES The one with the one hundred per cent new addition . . . There are joyful tidings at the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency with the arrival of Mma Makutsi's baby. However, while her assistant is busy with motherhood, Mma Ramotswe must tackle tea-making and detective work alone. Well-known troublemaker Violet Sephotho may or may not be behind a smear campaign against the Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon, and a dispute over the will of a local dignitary points to a shocking family secret. But the agency is resilient, adaptable and open to useful lessons - in particular, that our enemies and allies are not always obvious.

The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection

Author: Alexander McCall Smith
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0307907155
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 251

Book Description
THE NO. 1 LADIES’ DETECTIVE AGENCY - Book 13 Fans around the world adore the best-selling No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series and its proprietor, Precious Ramotswe, Botswana’s premier lady detective. In this charming series, Mma Ramotswe—with help from her loyal associate, Grace Makutsi—navigates her cases and her personal life with wisdom, good humor, and the occasional cup of tea. Precious Ramotswe is haunted by a repeated dream: a vision of a tall, strange man who waits for her beneath an acacia tree. Odd as this is, she’s far too busy to worry about it. The best apprentice at Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors is in trouble with the law and stuck with the worst lawyer in Gaborone. Grace Makutsi and Phuti Radiphuti are building the house of their dreams, but their builder is not completely on the up and up. And, most shockingly, Mma Potokwane, defender of Botswana’s weak and downtrodden, has been dismissed from her post as matron at the orphan farm. Can the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency help restore the beloved matron to her rightful position? As wealthy and powerful influences at the orphan farm become allied against their friend, help arrives from an unexpected visitor: the tall stranger from Mma Ramotswe’s dreams, who turns out to be none other than the estimable Clovis Andersen, author of the No. 1 Ladies’ prized manual, The Principles of Private Detection. Together, Mma Ramotswe, Mma Makutsi, and their teacher-turned-colleague help right this injustice and in the process discover something new about being a good detective. BONUS MATERIAL: This ebook edition includes an excerpt from Alexander McCall Smith's The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon.

The Pavilion in the Clouds

Author: Alexander McCall Smith
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0593469097
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 220

Book Description
“This is one of the most enjoyable of his many enjoyable novels” –The Scotsman It is 1938 and the final days of the British Empire. In a bungalow high up in the green hills above the plains of Ceylon, under a vast blue sky, live the Ferguson family: Bella, a precocious eight-year-old; her father, Henry, owner of a tea plantation; and her mother, Virginia, a woman out of step in her community. The story centers around their home, affectionately called “The Pavilion in the Clouds,” set in the idyllic grounds carved out of the wilderness. But all is not as serene as it seems. Bella is suspicious of the intentions of her governess, Miss White. Her suspicion ignites her mother’s imagination, causing an unfortunate series of eventsthat reverberate throughout the years.

The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party

Author: Alexander McCall Smith
Publisher: Knopf Canada
ISBN: 0307366847
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 225

Book Description
The twelfth installment in the beloved, bestselling series is once again a beautiful blend of wit and wisdom, and a profoundly touching tale of the human heart. Precious Ramotswe is haunted by a dream in which she is driving her dear old white van. Grace Makutsi dreams that her 97 percent on the Botswana Secretarial College exam was a mistake. When Mma Ramotswe discovers that her van is actually still in use (and, of course, sets out to retrieve it), Mma Makutsi wonders whether her dream will turn out to be prophetic as well. They can only wait and see, but, in the meantime, one of Phuti Radiphuti's apprentices has gotten a girl pregnant and, under pressure to marry her, has run away. Naturally, it is up to Precious and Grace to help the couple work things out. In other developments, Mma Ramotswe investigates a case of rural jealousy in which cattle are being poisoned. Add to the mix Violet Sephotho's newly begun, already unstoppable run for the Botswana Parliament and the possibility that wedding bells may finally ring for Phuti Radiphuti and Grace Makutsi — whose love for each other is as great as their love for Botswana — and we have a charming and delightful tale from the inimitable Alexander McCall Smith.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

Author: Alexander McCall Smith
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 1400077656
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Fans around the world adore the bestselling No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series and its proprietor, Precious Ramotswe, Botswana’s premier lady detective. In this charming series, Mma Ramotswe—with help from her loyal associate, Grace Makutsi—navigates her cases and her personal life with wisdom, good humor, and the occasional cup of tea. This first novel in Alexander McCall Smith’s widely acclaimed The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series tells the story of the delightfully cunning and enormously engaging Precious Ramotswe, who is drawn to her profession to “help people with problems in their lives.” Immediately upon setting up shop in a small storefront in Gaborone, she is hired to track down a missing husband, uncover a con man, and follow a wayward daughter. But the case that tugs at her heart, and lands her in danger, is a missing eleven-year-old boy, who may have been snatched by witchdoctors. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency received two Booker Judges’ Special Recommendations and was voted one of the International Books of the Year and the Millennium by the Times Literary Supplement.

The Handsome Man's De Luxe Café

Author: Alexander McCall Smith
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 1405520604
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 248

Book Description
THE FIFTEENTH BOOK IN THE BELOVED NO. 1 LADIES' DETECTIVE AGENCY SERIES The one with Mma Makutsi's ambitious plan . . . Change is afoot at the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency when Mma Makutsi arrives with a business plan for its proprietress, as well as an outline of her new venture: the Handsome Man's De Luxe Cafe. In the course of one turbulent day, the agency gains a dubiously qualified Assistant Detective and takes on the challenge of identifying a lady with no name and no memory. But when Mma Makutsi's entrepreneurial future comes under threat, Charlie is led astray and Violet Sephotho turns restaurant critic, only Mma Ramotswe's infallible instincts can transform disruption into a force for good.

Precious and Grace

Author: Alexander McCall Smith
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 1101871369
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 244

Book Description
Fans around the world adore the bestselling No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series and its proprietor, Precious Ramotswe, Botswana’s premier lady detective. In this charming series, Mma Ramotswe—with help from her loyal associate, Grace Makutsi—navigates her cases and her personal life with wisdom, good humor, and the occasional cup of tea. Mma Makutsi, who has recently been promoted to co-director, has been encouraging Mma Ramotswe to update to more modern office practices. An unusual case, however, will require both of them to turn their attention firmly to the past. A young Canadian woman who spent her early childhood in Botswana requests the agency’s help in recalling her life there. Precious and Grace set out to locate the house that the woman lived in and the caretaker who looked after her many years ago. But when the journey takes an unexpected turn, they are forced to consider whether some things are better left in the past. Mma Ramotswe dispenses help and sympathy with the graciousness and warmth for which she is so well known, and everyone involved is led to surprising insights into the healing power of compassion, forgiveness, and new beginnings.

The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine

Author: Alexander McCall Smith
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0307911578
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 231

Book Description
Fans around the world adore the bestselling No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series and its proprietor, Precious Ramotswe, Botswana’s premier lady detective. In this charming series, Mma Ramotswe—with help from her loyal associate, Grace Makutsi—navigates her cases and her personal life with wisdom, good humor, and the occasional cup of tea. Precious Ramotswe, the esteemed proprietor of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, now faces her greatest challenge yet: a vacation! Business is slow at the agency—so slow in fact that, for the first time in her distinguished career, Mma Ramotswe has reluctantly agreed to take a holiday. The week of uninterrupted peace is cut short, however, when she meets Samuel, a wayward young boy with a troubled past. Moreover, Mma Ramotswe can’t help but wonder how the agency is faring in her absence. Her worries grow when she discovers that Mma Makutsi is handling a rather delicate case. Ultimately, the situation will require Mma Ramotswe to draw upon her kindness, generosity, and good sense, and will serve to remind them all that ordinary human failings should be treated with a large helping of charity and compassion.

The Good Husband of Zebra Drive

Author: Alexander McCall Smith
Publisher: Vintage Canada
ISBN: 0307370437
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 242

Book Description
The eighth installment in the universally beloved, internationally bestselling series. In the life of Mma Ramotswe – a woman duly proud of her fine traditional build – there is rarely a dull moment, and in her newest round of adventures, challenges and intrigues, the same certainly holds true. But one thing above all else is keeping her occupied – her estimable husband, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni. He has been hinting for some time now that he intends to do something special for their adopted daughter, Motholeli, and it seems that the time for this good deed has come. Of course, good deed or not, his plan is bound to hit some snags. And that’s when he will undoubtedly consider himself doubly – perhaps even triply – lucky to be married to the ever-resourceful, ever-understanding Precious Ramotswe.