Saxton Reads! & Reviews

*****bas bleu  - Tea Time for the Traditionally Built

Precious is still precious....

This tenth book in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series is less plot-driven than its predecessors and more of a showcase for Mma Precious Ramotswe's gentle wisdom and innate kindness. The plot revolves around the demise of Mma Ramotswe's beloved tiny white van, Mma Makutsi's crisis involving her fiance, and the agency's new client, the owner of a local football (soccer) team, the Kalahari Swoopers. Don't you just love their name? I always caution myself against devouring these little gems of novels. Yet I am helpless against their pull and invariably read them in one sitting, with a cup of tea at my side for authenticity. Now that I think about it, perhaps that cup of tea represents my subconscious desire to insert myself into the world that Alexander McCall Smith has created for the readers of his heartwarming and uplifting novels. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built is filled with little pieces of wisdom. Some of my favorites include: - "Until you hear the whole story...you know only a tiny part of the goodness of the human heart." - "We are all at the mercy of chance, and when we dismiss or deny the hopes of others, we forget that they, like us, have only one chance in this life." - And my favorite: "There is plenty of work for love to do." I always feel like I am a better person for having read one of the books in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Series. Perhaps you will too.