Number 5 in the Precious Ramotswe series, charting the progress of the Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, its personnel and its community.

#5 of the series No.1 Ladies Detective Agency..I love this series!!!! :) ( )

The marriage takes place! ( )

Mma Ramotswe investigates whether the suitors of a wealthy businesswoman are only after her money. Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni regrets allowing himself to be talked into making a charity parachute jump.

This one is notable for a very moving scene between Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni and one of his apprentices. And there is a very happy ending. ( )

A further installment of the No 1 Ladies Detective series. Same formula, same result. Enjoyable light reading. Read March 2009 ( )

Loved it. Heartwarming and easy to read, like all of this series. Beautifully written. Author does tend to get a bit repetetive though, which is why I haven't read one of these books for nearly a year, but after the long break, it was delightful and refreshing to read this series again. ( )

Can't say any more than that this is one of the most hilarious books of the series. McCall Smith's grip on the English language is at its height- the tone is perfect. ( )

nice traditions

I still adore these books, even after reading book 5. They always make me laugh! Alexander McCall Smith is something special. ( )

Another hit from Alexander McCall Smith with the further happenings of his wonderful characters in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. Smith has a keen insight into character that causes us to recognize truth and perhaps see the faults in ourselves that are gently and sometimes not so gently revealed. In this fifth book in the series we see Mma Potokwane of the Orphan's Farm in her best manipulative and managerial form, but always with a good cause in mind. Mr J.L.B. Matekoni is spared a charity parachute jump engineered by Mma Potokwane, but ends up at the altar through her very ingenious arrangements. All's well that ends well in a book that as others in the series can be read again and again with repeated enjoyment. ( )

Precious Ramotswe's case requires her to help a rich woman decide which of her four suitors would be the best choice for marriage. The remaining story line focuses mainly around her engagement to Mr. J. L. Matekoni and includes all the regulars.

This series is averaging out to be "just okay" for me. I know that it is a character driven series, but I enjoy it more when Mme. Ramotswe has a full caseload. I'm hoping she gets more business in the future. (3.5/5)

Originally posted on: "Thoughts of Joy..." ( )

Another good and heart-warming story from the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Maybe not as well put together as some of the others - the different strands of the story didn't mesh very closely - but apart from that it was great. ( )

Mma Romotswe, engaged to Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni had no wedding date. She did an investigation for another to discover a perfect man and decided to find a way to push Mr. Matekoni to make a date. A parachute jump helped pave the way. ( )

Another gentle and deceptively simple read - I love the world that McCall Smith has created whether or not it has anything to do with the real Botswana. ( )

The title says it all. Life is a very "full cupboard" here.: In his fifth novel about the #1 Ladies Detective Agency, run by Mma Precious Ramotswe, author Alexander McCall Smith presents the full cupboard of Botswana life in all its richness. For Mma Ramotswe, people and their relationships are paramount, and she believes that these relationships are facilitated by Botswana's traditional code of behavior, with its customs of greetings, sitting down together, drinking bush tea, and casually talking around a subject, rather than addressing it aggressively. Life is a rich, full, and happy experience for Mma Ramotswe, who can find out everything she wants to know from her broad network of family and friends. Engaged to the good-hearted Mr. J.L.B. Matakone, who has not yet set a date for a wedding, she helps him surreptitiously with his problems and cooks and cares for the two orphans he has taken into his home.In this novel, full of gentle humor and wisdom, Mma Ramotswe and her friends face several "difficult" problems: A woman who has made a fortune establishing hair-braiding salons hires Mma Ramotswe to find out whether her suitors want to marry her for her money. Mr. J.L.B. Matakone finds himself tricked into "volunteering" to do a parachute jump, in order to raise money for the Orphan Farm run by the intrepid Mma Potokwane, who refuses to take no for an answer. He is also disturbed to discover that First Class Motors, a rival garage, has sold improper parts and failed to service a classic old Range Rover correctly, and he has been procrastinating about confronting the garage owner or reporting him to authorities. Mma Makutsi, the assistant at the detective agency, has been so successful running the Kalahari Typing School for Men at night, that her dream of renting her own house has now come true, and Mma Ramotswe is helping her to furnish all two rooms. With an obvious lack of exciting plot lines, the reader focuses completely on the characters-- beautifully drawn, sometimes flawed, and always forgiven their faults. In a leisurely pace, McCall Smith recreates the colorful everyday lives of these ordinary people, who treasure friendships, treat each other with respect, and possess inherent good sense. Honoring the values that contemporary readers sometimes do not take the time to preserve, McCall Smith portrays complex social relationships in very simple and direct prose. Warm, gently humorous, and loving, McCall Smith creates a kind of vicarious nostalgia for this way of life, a nostalgia which readers will continue to indulge and treasure as the series continues. Mary Whipple

Not the best book in the series but it still maintains the same easy, relaxed pace and the funny, lovable characters that are hallmarks of the whole series. ( )

http://quettandil.blogspot.com/2008/0... ( )

Another cynic could characterize the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency as treacle-sweet and just too perfect, but this cynic finds them a very welcome escape from life’s jarring realities.

The fifth installment The Full Cupboard of Life of the much beloved No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency opens as Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, long-term fiancé of Mma Ramotswe and supporter of the local orphanage, worries about a dangerous undertaking talked into with great skill and fruit cake, and the discovery that another local service garage has perpetrated a terrible act of vehicular vandalism against a great classic automobile. Mma Ramotswe’s famous intuition and detecting services are once again working in overdrive for a new wealthy client whose success in business hasn’t made choosing the right husband any simpler.

The overreaching theme for this book is ‘women are the real decision makers’; for every scrape and situation Mr J.L.B. Matekoni gets into a woman is needed to iron out the mess. Although Mma Ramotswe wisely says, “you cannot push men around. They do not like it. They like to feel that they are making their own decisions.” With this guiding principle, she wisely finds solutions for all the little peccadilloes Mr J.L.B. Maekoni gets unwittingly into and it becomes even more apparent what a wonderful match he and Mma Ramotswe make. Even though Mma Ramotswe is depicted as the great manipulator of situations, it is still comforting that in the end there are some that take on a life of their own and are not guided by her (and of course it makes her more likable, too).

With this book Alexander McCall Smith shows us the basic principle of relationship roles with great charm and wit. Setting it in Africa emphasizes his love for people and land while at the same time reminding those of us living in Western culture that we could benefit from traditional virtues in our daily discourse with others. This is another welcome addition to the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series that I am happy to report only gets better as it continues. ( )

All of the books in this series are absolutely perfect. Can't get enough of Precious Ramotswe and those lazy two mechanic workers of her fiancee. ( )

I can't believe how good this whole series has been. It has to be one of the most consistently charming series ever written. Such a delight! ( )

One of the best parts of Alexander McCall Smith's series is that each book improves in terms of character definition and advancing the plot. Book 5 integrates Precious Ramotswe with the other characters in a more realistic and intriguing way. The author hints at the distinctions we must draw between manipulation and persuasion (in the character of Mma Potokwane), fear and caution (with Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni's never-ending engagement to Mma Ramotswe), and speaking one's mind and biting one's tongue (aptly expressed in the character of Mma Makutsi.)
Fans of the series who may by this time be frustrated with a lack of resolution to certain issues, will be slightly pacified in this book. McCall Smith highlights some of the more minor, yet regular, characters, filing out the world of Mma Ramotswe's Botswana. This book manages to be endearing without the sense of condescension that some complain about with the first book. By Book 3, the author seems to have pulled up his proverbial chair and can now dialogue comfortably with his characters. The Full Cupboard of Life continues this trend and promises to bring the story to an enriching and delightful end in the final two books of the series. ( )

I do enjoy these book and need to get back into the series. ( )

http://hollybooknotes.blogspot.com/20... ( )

http://nhw.livejournal.com/953938.htm...

More laid-back Botswana tales, with lots of incident and little plot - indeed, the only actual bit of detection for the detective agency peters out half-way through, as if the author had lost interest in it. ( )

Boring ( )