This is the book to read if you need a change from a tense thriller, a stressful family drama, a sad memoir or even if you are just looking for a sweet little low-key mystery. But more than a mystery, this novel and all those in the currently 24-book series of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency stories is entertaining, wise, humorous, and charming.

Against the odds, this series based in Gaborone, Botswana speaks authentically with the voice and tone of an experienced African middle-aged woman, even though it is written by a white man who lives in Scotland. Don’t question it, just read and enjoy it.

I highly recommend! ( )

Another lovely instalment of this series. I once heard these books described as ‘like a long, cool glass of water on a hot day’. So nice to revisit these characters, a few warm laughs and all the goodness of Precious Ramotswe and Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni. ( )

I feel like the last few books in this series were very light on plot, and AMS was really filling up the pages with Mma Ramotswe's musings about the nature of humanity and the world. Which is fine, except that's sort of why I stopped reading the Isabel Dalhousie series -- I was pretty tired of that. I enjoy plot with my fiction, and there wasn't much of it going on in these books. But, I've got a lot invested in this series, and I have faith in AMS to bring it around, and I'm happy to say my patience was rewarded with this volume. Mma Ramotswe does do a fair amount of philosophizing, but it is in between (and because of) not one, not two, but three separate situations which she must address. First, her husband, Mr J. L. B. Matekoni, has a bit of a mid-life crisis, attends a seminar, and gets a bee in his bonnet about making himself a more successful man. This is alarming to Precious, who thinks he is a very successful man, in every way, and his pursuit of greatness may just lead to ruin. Next, she is hired by a man who thinks his father was coerced into leaving his estate to the nurse who has cared for him for many years, and the son wants to stop it. This plotline involves a number of elements (death, memory loss) which are relevant to me personally at this point in my life, so I was quite taken by it. And then, off to the side, is Precious' determination to get involved in the story of a young person who finds herself at Mma Potokwani's orphan farm, after suffering exploitation and abuse at the hands of some rich people. This is how this series started -- Mma Ramotswe applying her fair and incisive mind to problems large and small, personal and societal. I'm glad to see it return to its roots a bit, and I hope it carries on like this, as long as AMS chooses to keep it going. ( )

I sometimes feel a little guilty for enjoying these books? But I bonded with these characters during a feverish bout of pneumonia several years ago and I enjoy revisiting them. ( )

The Joy and Light Bus Company - McCall-Smith
Audio performance by Bianca Amato
3 stars

Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni takes serious and possibly disastrous steps toward a new venture; an investment in a startup bus company. Mma Ramotswe anticipates a financial disaster. The agency investigates some possible elder abuse. Charlie is taking family leave following the birth of his son and Violet Sepoto is predictably vile in a cameo appearance. Life moves at its slow, pleasant pace in Gaborone.

Bianca Amato isn’t as good as Lissette Lecat, but she was easy to follow. Her character voices stayed true to the original recordings. ( )