Morality for Beautiful Girls
Written by Alexander McCall Smith
Narrated by Lisette Lecat
4/5
()
About this audiobook
Alexander McCall Smith
Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the award-winning series The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency, and he now devotes his time to the writing of fiction, including the 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie series. He is the author of over eighty books on a wide array of subjects, and his work has been translated into forty-six languages. Before becoming a full-time writer he was for many years Professor of Medical Law at Edinburgh.
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Blue Shoes and Happiness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tears of the Giraffe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Morality for Beautiful Girls Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Miracle at Speedy Motors Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Full Cupboard of Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Double Comfort Safari Club Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Kalahari Typing School for Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In the Company of Cheerful Ladies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Good Husband of Zebra Drive Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tea Time for the Traditionally Built Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Joy and Light Bus Company Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Handsome Man's De Luxe Cafe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House of Unexpected Sisters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Precious and Grace Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To the Land of Long Lost Friends Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Colors of All the Cattle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Raise an Elephant Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5From a Far and Lovely Country Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Song of Comfortable Chairs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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Reviews for Morality for Beautiful Girls
1,464 ratings60 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Another beautiful book about the best of African culture and life.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is book 3 in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. I am still hooked on the characters and looking forward to the next book. I am really enjoying this light detective series and the day to day life adventures of the characters in Africa.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My love affair with this series continues ...
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Not my favorite of the series. Mma. Ramotswe's problem-solving techniques seem to rely not on her usual intuition, but on bald assumptions based on little to no information. This is especially true in the solution to Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni's mysterious condition.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This third book in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series finds Precious Ramotswe, Botswana's only female private investigator, with a lot on her plate, including a change in business arrangements, an unwell fiancé, a possible poisoning, and the discovery of a feral child in the bush. Despite all of that, as in the first two books, the actual plot in this one is low-key almost to the point of being incidental, while the real focus is on the characters and their gentle ruminations on life, love, tradition, and morality in modern Botswana. I have ten more books in this series still sitting unread on my shelves, and I can imagine getting tired of this before I reach the end of them. But I haven't yet, and I still found this one charming and, in the end, satisfying. And I am delighted by the development that Mma Makutsi, Mma Ramotswe's secretary/assistant gets in this one. She's shaping up to be just as formidable a character as her employer, and I hope to see lots more of her in future volumes.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Third in a series. I particularly like this series because the setting is Africa, and the protagonist is an unusual African woman who solves mostly small mysteries or crimes in her small community.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I really enjoyed books 1 and 2, but book 3 lagged. Too little about "detection," too much about the trials of everyday life.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This one read a little more slowly than the first two. Something about this series, where I enjoy reading about Mma Ramotswe's adventures, but the stories are just not riveting. Very low key. I enjoy the author's voice, and the personality given to the characters, though.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mma Ramotswe is an inspiring and yet relatable character as she maintains a busy and successful life and wrestles with the kinds of thorny moral questions that follow us all.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Asked to decide the winner, based on character, of a local beauty contest, Precious Ramotswe sets out to interview all of the contestants. More things happen along the way. There's never much of a mystery but these books are delightful all the same. I love to ride along through the old Botswana with Mme Ramotswe who investigates at her measured pace. Her assistant, Grace Makutsi, plays a larger role in this, the third of the series.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi are back solving more cases in Gaborone. This book was a fitting companion to the previous two titles in the series, continuing with the characters and their lives as they go about their work. Another satisfying read in the early part of the series before it started getting to be 'same old, same old.'
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5There are many troubles in Gabarone, Botswana, home of the #1 Ladies Detective Agency and Mma Ramotswe, its proprietor. A very strange boy has walked out of the woods but is unable to speak, a government official believes his sister-in-law is poisoning his brother, the sponsors of a local beauty pageant may pull their support and most importantly, Mma Ramotswe's fiance, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni is ill. Thank goodness she has her secretary to help run the detective agency and car repair shop in Ramotswe's and Matekoni's absence.The mysteries are solved by the cleverness of Ramotswe and Secretary, Mma Makutsi. The reader just needs to sit back, enjoy the ride and let their imagination run wild.With the third book in the series, although the characters are still enjoyable, one fears that the next book in the series will be much of the same
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Number 3 of The No.1 ladies detective agency. Another nice little book. I'm really getting into this series! They are sweet and easy to read. Love the simplicity of life that they portray.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mma Ramotswe is such a sensible woman. Faced with moving her office, trying to get her fiance, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, help with his depression and solving a case for a big government man she sits down and makes a list. Then she takes care of the things on the list and soon everything is under control. And her assistant, Mma Makutsi, newly appointed to Assistant Manager of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, has learned a great deal from her mentor. She soon has the garage in shape and the lazy apprentices working long hours (and loving having a woman boss). While Mma Ramotswe is away taking care of the case for the big government man, Mma Makutsi even helps the organizer of the Miss Glamourous Botswana competition find a winner who embodies the Beauty and Integrity theme.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Written in a very formal, gentle style.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Precious Ramotswe continues to solve cases in her usual way always trying to make peoples lives better when she is finished. In this version of the series she faces the fact that she is not making enough money to stay solvent. Her fiancee, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, says she must lay off Mma Makutsi who she had just promoted from secretary to Assistant Detective. Shortly she becomes aware that he has been skipping work at his garage. On top of finding solutions to these personal problems, Precious takes a case which means she has to find out who is poisoning the brother of an important "Government Man". Her assistant takes on the added duty of managing Mr. Matekoni's garage as well as finding which of the five young women competing for Miss Beauty and Integrity Contest is the best girl in the group. This is a very busy few weeks in the life of these wonderful people and I haven't mentioned the mystery of the six year old boy who is found in bush naked and acting like an animal.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The third installment in The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series is like slipping into an afternoon visit with Precious Ramotswe, her fiance J.L.B. Matekoni and her assistant detective Mma Makutsi. In this installment, the focus is more on Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi. I enjoyed reading more about Mma Makutsi and loved how she handles takes on a case on her own while managing the apprentices at Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors and implementing some sound business changes in Matekoni's absence. As with the previous books in the series, it reads more like a collection of stories and the mysteries brought to Mma Ramotswe have more of a moral vein to them, which I enjoy as we get to see Mma Ramotswe assessing how to best solve the moral problems in a manner that is best for all parties, compared to more straightforward decisions of right and wrong from a strictly legal perspective. That being said, some of the sub-plots, like the mystery of the wild child found in the wilderness, seemed to be just unresolved filler. Overall, another enjoyable visit to Mma Ramotswe's Botswana.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/53.5 Stars, A good light read. Preferred books 1 and 2. Not much interaction between Precious Ramotswe and Mr. J L B Matekoni, and I felt this was a big miss. I would also have liked more about cases she was identified. The ones in the book were quite light. Having said that it was another good read, and I was pleased to see the development of Mma Makutsi. i wil leagerly await the reading of the fourth one, and want to try the other series by Alexander McCall Smith.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5After reading the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency a couple of years ago, I accumulated a few of these, and went through 6 in less than a month. They're very quick reads - I read 2 and part-of-a-third in one day.
They're very entertaining, charming, and compulsively readable. Although marketed as mysteries; they're not, really. Rather they follow Mma Ramotswe and those around her through their daily lives - it's almost besides-the-point that the business she runs is a detective agency. The stories are suffused with McCall-Smith's obvious sincere love of Africa (where he grew up), and the reader feels that a genuine window has opened up into the lives and mindsets of ordinary Africans. I don't agree with many aspects of Precious Ramotswe's view on the world, and I probably wouldn't get along with her in real life - but these books made me feel like I might understand people like her more than before.
However... there's also a weird aspect to the books. They're so relentlessly cozy. It's not that McCall-Smith ignores the poverty, the devastation of AIDS, the lack of education, etc... these things are acknowledged, but then almost swept to the side. On the one hand, it's a celebration of the spirit of the people of Botswana and their love of their homeland... but on the other hand, it sometimes feels like a minimization of these things. It's not just larger social issues: there's domestic abuse, adultery, etc... all the normal foibles of humanity (although all reference to sex of any kind are totally non-existent)- but all the unpleasant things somehow get almost drowned out in the cozy, feel-good atmosphere of the books. Maybe it's just that I usually read darker, grittier material [especially in mysteries {McCall-Smith is no Stieg Larsson!}] but it felt a bit strange to me. I can't decide if it's a detriment or a positive asset to the books.
In 'Morality for Beautiful Girls,' Mma Ramotswe moves the offices of her detective agency into the premises of her fiance's business, Tlowkwong Road Speedy Motors. It's a bit odd to have a private detective's office in the midst of cars being fixed, but the ove makes financial sense. In addition to being Assistant Detective, Mma Makutsi also becomes Assistant Manager of the garage, using the skills she learned at the Botswana Secretarial College to get the bookkeeping in order. Meanwhile, Mma Ramotswe investigates a case of suspected poisoning, considers the mystery of a child possibly raised by lions, and investigates the good (or not-so-stellar) character of girls competing in a beauty pageant. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Another fun romp through Botswana, Africa ... solving mysteries and getting on with the lives of characters we met in the first book of this delightful series.
I was a little confused by the title of this one, since the "beautiful girls" issue was very late in the book. While it is a fun and catchy title, it doesn't do the story justice in the least. However, if that's the only thing that put me off, I'd say McCall Smith has another winner!
Looking forward to the next book in this series, and what happens with these men and women in whom I am becoming very invested!
Recommended. - Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I felt the narrative was very disjointed and had little to do with the summary on the back of the book. I also did not like that Makutsi only interviewed half of the contestants. She found one girl of integrity and stopped looking. We are led to believe that the two she did not interview were similar to the first girl we saw--but would a true detective take hearsay and report it as truth to her client?
I like the women taking leadership roles and being successful and that they tried to find a woman of integrity to win a contest. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Once again Mma. Ramotswe goes on with common sense and much kindness to solve the problems presented to her. An easy, quick and fun read.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The third installment of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, Morality for Beautiful Girls delves into the thorny issue of mental illness, the vagaries of family relationships, and the fact that even people who pride themselves on being intelligent can still harbor quite foolish ideas. The story also casts some doubt on the morality of "traditional Botswanan morality", at least insofar as it is applied by Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi.The main plot element of this book is neither of the two mysteries that inhabit its pages. Rather, the primary plot involves the relationship between Mma Ramotswe and Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, and how it is affected by Matekoni's struggle with depression. Despite this story line centering almost entirely upon him, Matekoni almost doesn't appear in it, showing up in only a few scenes, and some of those he is merely the voice on the other end of a telephone conversation. But as he is afflicted with depression, this seems entirely fitting, as this is a disease that effectively erases people from their own lives. And Mma Ramotswe responds to this behavior by Matekoni with affection and understanding, even though it is clearly outside of her experience. She visits a doctor to find out what could be wrong, gets a book to try to understand this new and disconcerting disease in her life, and works to try to get Matekoni treatment even though he resists. The book could be criticized for making the treatment of depression seem too easy, but that seems like an unfair criticism given that the author took the issue on in such a respectful way to begin with.The illness of Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni does allow for some substantial character development for Mma Makutsi. Already promoted to assistant detective in Tears of the Giraffe, Makutsi is thrust into the position of assistant manager of the Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors in conjunction with the move of the detective agency to the garage's offices. Despite her lack of knowledge about automobiles and inability to drive, Mma Makutsi puts the administrative and organizational skills that earned her the oft-mentioned score of 97% at the Botswana Secretarial College to good use, identifying and paying required bills, arranging to get parts delivered from suppliers, and getting the apprentices at the garage to actually work. And soon it becomes clear that Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni's frequently noted kindness may be more of a liability than one would think, as it seems to be the root cause of the laziness of his two apprentices and the various other problems that seem to have afflicted the garage such as the lack of parts delivery and the petrol supplier's lackadaisical attitude towards keeping the Tlokweng Road's fuel pumps supplied. Under Mma Makutsi's direction, the garage seems to turn all of these problems around, revealing that while it is clear that Matekoni is a superlative mechanic, he has some serious shortcomings as a businessman.But alongside the everyday stories of the ordinary lives of the characters there are the mysteries. After all, this is a mystery novel, so one would expect that these story lines would be in the book. The primary mystery is handled by Precious Ramotswe, and involves a highly placed government official who is also connected the leadership of the parallel tribal hierarchy that exists in Botswana. This almost dual government that exists in many African nations has been lurking on the outskirts of previous books, but in Morality for Beautiful Girls it comes to the fore in the form of the "government man" (who is never more specifically identified in the book). He has a much younger brother that he says he loves very much, but who has married a woman he believes is trying to poison her husband. After first protesting that such a serious matter should be reported to the police, Mma Ramotswe agrees to go to the large and prosperous farm where the government man's family lives and investigate to find out if his suspicions about his sister-in-law are true. Once there, Mma Ramostwe uncovers the truth using her usual method of paying close attention to the people around her, and treating the staff and servants with respect and getting them to divulge the things they have seen to her. And as usual, the truth isn't quite what anyone thought it would be.While Mma Ramotswe is away solving her case, Mma Makutsi is required to deal with a case of her own involving the selection of a winner for the Miss Beauty and Integrity contest. After being approached by the organizer of the contest, Mma Makutsi undertakes to make a moral evaluation of the four finalists to ensure that none of them have skeletons in their closet or propensities to behavior that would embarrass the contest should they win, with an implication that Mma Makutsi should pick the "correct" winner and the organizer will make sure she emerges victorious. Though Mma Makutsi seems to stumble to the "correct" answer, her handling of the case reveals that being practical and hard working is no defense against prejudice and pseudoscience, and "Botswanan morality" may not be as benign as the reader had been told in the previous two books. After settling on the possibility the phrenology would help her determine which contestants are "good" girls, Mma Makutsi is foiled by the fact that she can't see the exact shape of their heads due to their hair and has to fall back on her alternative of having them fill out a questionnaire using the ruse of being a newspaper reporter. Though the case reveals Mma Makutsi's ingrained prejudice against the kinds of women she decries as "bad" girls, and her investigation is almost farcical at times, she has the good fortune to find a candidate who we are meant to see as clearly being deserving of victory in the contest, and she is able to make a recommendation to her client.The core theme of Morality for Beautiful Girls is the intersection of Botswanan culture and morality with the modern world, and how that intersection can find them serving complimentary roles, or find them coming into conflict. Despite the repeated praises bestowed by Mma Ramotswe on traditional Botswanan morality (which seems to encompass Botswanan culture as well), when Mma Makutsi finds herself investigating on her own, the somewhat darker and off-handedly judgmental side of Botswanan morality is revealed. The book also contains an interesting subplot involving a feral child found in the wilderness and transported to Mma Potokwane's orphan farm, but this seems to lead nowhere, left as a mystery to be solved in the future, if ever. The novel shines the most when it brings the African landscape into the story as an often foreboding but sometimes loving character, setting the doings of the book's human characters against its starkly beautiful vista. In the end, this novel, like the others in the series, is a gentle stroll through the ordinary lives of ordinary Africans trying to make their way in a dry and often uncompromising land.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is the third of Smith's books I have read. Precious Ramotswe is a detective in Botswana and a most appealing and sensible woman. In this book she has an assistant, who turns out to be equally able and they solve an issue involving who should win a beauty contest, and who is poisoning a man's brother. The book is fun to read because there is assurance that all will come out well and the common sense the ladies display works. One gets the idea that the book accuarately reflects how things go in Botswana--at least I hope that is how things go. An effortless and pleasant book to read.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I enjoy these books very much. They're not great mysteries, but they're wonderful pictures of a culture that is very foreign to me.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5One of the better books in this series. Mystery is good and there are all round developments. Only there is lot of repition, guess that is expected in a series. Tho in this series, there is a wee bit more. In this book though you learn a bit more about Botswana - That Tropic of Cancer passes it, 8 main tribes, Bushman or Maswara and so on. Pleasant book to read.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Let's recap the last two books: In The Number #1 Ladies Detective Agency Mma Ramotswe has become Botswana's only detective agency. She not only builds the reputation of her shop but her relationship with Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni. Continuing in Tears of the Giraffe Mma Ramotswe takes on more complicated cases and becomes a mother. Now, in Morality for Beautiful Girls Mma Ramotswe becomes more involved with Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni's mechanic shop business and the two children she has adopted with Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni. She takes on one major case involving a government man who is convinced his brother is being poisoned by someone in the family. Meanwhile, Mma Ramotswe's assistant, Mma Makutsi, is climbing the business ladder. Not only does she become acting manager of Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni's repair shop while he is ill she also becomes an assistant detective and handles a huge case on her own. It's this case that is the title of the book. Mma Makutsi is hired to find out which contestants of a beauty contest are beautiful on the inside AND out. In this particular installment of the series Smith focuses more on morality on all levels. The initial focus is on beauty queens but he questions all of Africa as well.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book is very entertaining and quick to read. It is written in a style similar to that of folk tales with minimal descriptions and adjectives. I found it an interesting glimpse into life and culture in Africa and Botswana in particular, even though it is fiction. The main characters are two women who work at a detective agency and the plot involves the cases they solve. It is book 3 in the series "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency". Although the book can stand alone as an excellent read, you might want to start with the first book and read the whole series!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This is the first one of the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency books I've read. I saw one or two episodes of the tv series and i liked it. This is the third of the series of books but I don't think it really matters all that much that I didn't read the first one because i did see the first episode of the tv thing so i knew the characters. These aren't high crime, serial killer, violent types of books, at least this one wasn't. They are gentle. The women are smart and resourceful and independent. I love that the main character describes herself as a "traditionally built woman" so she doesn't worry about what she eats.The detective cases are cases of logic, investigation, and reason. The main case in this story describes a government official who thinks his sister-in-law is trying to kill his brother to get the farm. The sub plot concerns the fiance who is dealing with depression with the agency assistant taking over management of the fiance's garage and whipping the young apprentices into shape. It's an easy read, not a long book and i will probably read more of them. Makes a nice break from something heavier and more involved. I also liked the descriptions of African culture and life
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Third in the "No.1 Ladies Detective Agency" series. Mma Ramotswe makes the decision to share offices with her fiance Mr J.B.L. Matekoni at Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors. This is for prudent financial reasons to do with the Agency's low income, but turns out to be a useful thing for Speedy Motors as well, when Mr Matekoni is unwell and Mma Makutsi takes over the management of the garage. Another enjoyable tale of life in Botswana.