The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency question

I have read all the books in the series and I think the HBO series did a good job of capturing the feeling. I love the way he respects the characters and even when they do something comical, he doesn't make a mockery of their motivations. I tried to get into his other series but wasn't successful. It just wasn't my cup of bush tea :)

For those tea lovers out there, I just saw how the Republic of Tea has come out with a line of teas inspired by the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books..

http://www.republicoftea.com/Category...

I love all the books and TV series. Makes you want to take a trip to Botswana. I would live to have a cup of tea with Mma Ramotswe. Everytime a read a new one in the series it is like getting together with an old friend I have not seen in a while.

I absolutely love this series, and the way he depicts the characters. Just love it !!!

He actually had a career writing books for young children before he started writing the Ladies Detective series.

I enjoyed reading this series very much. I have not tried reading his other series.

I loved both the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency and the "Isabel Dalhousie" series, although I find Mma Ramotswe to be both more likable and more clever than Ms Dalhousie, who I also find to be a bit more provincial.

I truly enjoy these books. It does make me want to go to Botswana. As for the film series, I loved it.

This book--and the entire series--are wonderful. Very warm, human, funny, sardonic at times, but they infused with love and humanity.

I never felt as if the characters overall were stereotyped or stupid or backwards. Just wonderful slices of life.

The last few lined of #1 Ladies Detective Agency get me every time.

I love this series and I am gald to see so many other fans. I have recommend it other people in the past and they did not like it, I wasm shocked. I agree that his other series are not as good.

The series are awesome!

I love the fact that McCall Smith captures Botswana so accurately - the little nuances make for a rich (and riotous!) read.

I am a huge fan of this series! Has anyone read his other series? I have the first book but haven't read it yet. Is it as good?

I have read the entire series and if you love the first one, you'll love them all. You can tell how much McCall loves Botswana. I love his prose, so simple, yet evocative and over the series, you grow to love all the characters but of course, with her big, big heart, Mma Ramotswe is at the centre of it all. Like some one else has said, I don't get on with his other stuff that well. As well as the film and short series, Radio 4 did a serial play a few years ago if you can track it down. This was also excellent.

Precious Ramotswe is another friend of mine. Sometimes a character in a book or series comes so alive that you can imagine them as if they are real and they begin to form part of your life. Meaning that you sometimes think about them and long to meet time etcetra etcetra.

The cast in the videos did not look at all as I had imagined them from the books. However, the acting and directing were excellent. Not to mention the wonderful scenery and cinematography. I highly recommend it!

I read the #1 Ladies' Detective Agency more or less by accident, but I loved it! Then I rented the show. It was fabulous. One of these days I will read some of his other series. I only hear good things about them.

This was a fun and exciting book. Well written. The readers will enjoy the plot with pure fascination.

I loved the series too. She made an excellent Precious. I actually loved the series so much that I read the book after. I had the book on my shelf for years and didn't read it until I watched the series. Funny hum? Awesome book!

I have enjoyed reading this series and how the author makes you feel like you are drinking bush tea and sitting on the front porch of Precious Ramotswe's home enjoying the nature and beauty of the Botswana including the leisurely pace of live in her small town.

I love this series, especially when I could listen to it on tape. It was wonderful! I have read another one of his and didn't care for it at all--too many charactors (cordorouy mansion).

To paraphrase an old adage, the first impression lingers on. I hated this book for its colonial undertones (not against the Africans as much against the Indians)and I still do. But, yet I find it a delightful and engrossing book to read. More so, as the world sketched in this book was totally alien to me.
Precious Ramotswe is a sharp-minded detective, kind-hearted and eager to help, yet at times a tough-nut, always warming up to the topic of women's rights. The cases that she solves doesn't require too long-winded deductions, they are simple enough, yet it could only have been solved by a patient and strong willed woman that Mma Ramotswe is, who is also gifted with a lot of common sense (and is a thorough professional as we see in Chapter 14!). Alexander McCall Smith's writing is simple and lucid, the cases described are pretty straightforward yet they are redolent of life in Botswana.
What I gauged of Mr. Smith from the book is that - he is a person deeply in love with Africa and its people, yet is a bit colonial in his outlook, he is also a purist not wanting the people to change and want them to live as they always have (Much similar to Ruskin Bond in India). Of course, he thinks that the Patels are colonizing Africa now-a-days with their rustic, restrictive and strangulating Indian customs. Fucking, stupid narrow-minded Indians, with their penny-pinching habit and a stupid tendency to huddle together!Fucking Nouveau riche, couldn't possibly stop from brandishing their wealth!
He has long basked in the limelight for having a kind, non-racial approach and has been hailed by the Western Media. The praise sounds self-congratulatory. Praising a book that is non-discriminating is praising oneself for being non-discriminatory! But that's the irony. This book isn't what it seems. But that is my opinion, you are free to make yours.