Shoes Books

This is a great book to help initiate good dialogue with teenagers. I'm using it in conjunction with Crucial Conversations and Crucial Confrontations to help my granddaughter get through her teenage years successfully. She's read right along with me and, I think, benefits from the opportunity to see, firsthand, the importance of one's perspective when dealing with issues.

I was satisfied reading this book. Being a Trinidadian, I was glad that someone else shared the same pride for the beautiful nation. I would recommend this book to anyone! A must have for any Trini!

see charliecallahan.blogspot.com where Charlie wrote, and I quote:

"There are very few books that fascinate me from beginning to end (and I've read a buncha them, let me tell you), books that stimulate my mind, the bottom of my left foot (now on DVD), and my funny-looking bone simultaneously. This is one of those very few books. As a matter of fact, I got in big trouble because I was so fascinated: "Geeze, Charlie, PUT that funny-looking bone AWAY!" my wife yelled at me in disgust. "We've got COMPANY," she said, referring to the exterminator guy out back who was trying to coax the bees out of our eaves.


But I digress. P.D. Boone, IV, writing under the pseudonym P.D. Boone, IV, is a man of great vision, a man of Renaissancian proportions. While he presents a plethora of viable career choices-from politician to comic book author-it was obvious to this reader that his implementations thereof frequently turned to ca-ca. Actually, now that I think about it, all of them did. Mr. Boone, IV, I am afraid, is a visionary with regressive outcomes.


Nevertheless, there is a whole buncha stuff to like about this book. P.D.B., IV demonstrates great courage and humility by his frequent admissions that he is a F-up. His recipe for Independence Sloppy Slop is scrumptious; I had some for breakfast this morning along with my Count Chocula and have only vomited twice. His writing literally oozes pathos and bathos-especially the latter, since I dropped the book by mistake in my dirty bathos water.


P.D. has the unique ability to make me cry-an event that heretofor only occurs when I stub my big toe while searching blindly for the can during the middle of the night when it is really dark both outside and inside. I cried like a newborn baby searching for a fat juicy nipple when I read this from the heart-wrenching Nightly Newsrapper:


"Da stock market slidin' up a slippery slip, til da hoe raise da interest rates another blip. Now dey cleaning up asstrays on a sinking ship; earlie in da moanin'.

"Da ship is sinking, investments stinking, yo ass keeps growing while my assets shrinking."

Po'try, man, pure po'try.

Naturally, this book is not perfect; only Nora Roberts, who presently holds all fifty-three top spots on the bestseller list, is capable of literary perfection. Firstly, it is much too long (the book, not the bestseller list); at a whopping fifty-eight pages, I believe volumes 1a through 1g would have been more manageable. Secondly, I found the frequent footnotes both distracting and party-pooping. I realize that James Graham, editor, is protecting the author from hurting himself, but his lawyerly footnotes reminded me of the Internal Revenue Code. In a word, zzzzzzz.


But despite a few hundred flaws and F-ups, I declare What Color is My Pair of Shoes? Vol I immensely readable, informative, and downright fun. That is, if you skip the big poop's footnotes.

Reviewed by Charles Michael Patrick Callaghan, author of the forthcoming My Grocery List



Sneak preview from Chapter 47:



Leech, (packed in blood, not oil), 1 can

Eye of the Hurricane, gallon jar, properly duct taped

Green Stuff, 1 bowl (for P.D. Boone's Christmas Sorpresa recipe)

. . .

My son loved this book from the time he we first read it at 18 months and still loves it at 3 1/2 years. Vibrant pictures and fun intelligent rhymes teach kids colors and animals. The text has a very nice rhythm to it that makes it enjoyable for adults to read over and over.

A great book for kids just learning to read because the word are small and easy to read. Also,the book is set around a great story. Not to mention it is a SWEET PICKLES book.

"Shakespeare and Joyce" will open your eyes! Did you know that "riverrun" is the first Shakespeare reference in "Finnegans Wake"? You'll know this and hundreds of other choyce titbits after reading this excellent, fun, and well-written book on the author who most impressed Joyce (Dante was second to the Englishman).

Few writers can hold my attention like Mangham. His dialog is so real, just having the characters talk is spellbinding for pages./ This book, though set in the 50's, is as crisp and fresh as if it took place today./ I have a job that requires much of my time. Not many authors can keep my mind from my work and hold my attention the way Mangham does.

We found this book at the library, and my two girls (ages 5 and 6) liked it so much I now want to buy it for a Christmas gift. They asked me to read it over and over.

In a small mid-western town in the 1960's a fresh young girl had a fleeting passion to see the world. Looking past the Iowa corn fields she yearned to see grand oceans, legendary statues and exotic palaces. In 1964 the dreamer found the perfect cup to house her desires. Despite fear, competition and doubt, she was accepted into a life of excitement, culture, and friends as a first class flight attendant for TWA. Wing Tip Shoes - Memoirs of a Flight Attendant is the autobiographical story of the charming, timeless encounters of Mary Elizabeth Spreitzer. The original stories and unique interactions are brought to life by the author's down to earth style and personal photographs. If you need to get away without ever leaving your house Wing Tip Shoes is just the ticket.

The Second Declaration
Every Day A Miracle Happens
The Secret Meaning of Names
Lighter Than Air
The Devil's Disciple
Les Miserables, Volume I & II
THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO Vol II
PUBLISH IT NOW
Book Marketing Basics - The New Model For Promoting Your Book
Illumination: A Gnostic Handbook for the Post Modern World

A reader, who is unfamiliar with the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, to his own detriment, may pick up one of these books and dismiss it based on its marketing or cover. After all, it is natural to judge books by their covers. It is sold as a mystery book but I am not sure if that is the best categorization for these delightful books. Blue Shoes and Happiness, like the rest of the books in the series, will not disappoint readers. It is simple, yet filled with wisdom and author's wit and humor.

Blue Shoes deals with many issues from black mail to dieting and shopping. I am amazed how much is packed in this fairly short book that can be read in one day. Blue Shoes, like the rest, is delightful. If you are new to this series, you could certainly start with any of these books since the author fills the readers with important events that happened to the main characters. However, I recommend starting in the beginning. What is amazing is that despite the setting of the book in Botswana, a country that few in the US are familiar with, the issues are incredibly familiar and are universal.

Whether you are interested in philosophy, psychology, traveling or are merely looking for an entertaining read, you will not be disappointed with Blue Shoes or any of the other books in this series (I have not read the "Husband" one yet). Having raved about this book, I must admit that the series is getting repetitive and perhaps it is time for Smith to move on. I understand he needs to refresh readers' memories by repeating what happened in the past but as the books keep getting added on (he has written 8 so far), this gets more and more tedious. Smith is such an outstanding author that he appears to do this effortlessly but still I wish he would get done with the series.

The seventh book in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series.

The main mystery is a potentially dangerous blackmail plot, but the real meat of the book, once again, is the ebb and flow of life in Botswana and the relationships of Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi. Grace Makutsi's weakness for faashionable (and impractical, uncomfortable) shoes is something I can so relate to!

A wonderful addition to the series.

This entire set of books was a delight to read. They showed that people are the same, regardless of ethnicity or culture. During the course of reading these books, I learned a great deal about Botswana and its culture, history and people. The books were well written, interesting, and easy reading. Once I got started, I read the entire set in a few days. I can hardly wait for the movie to be released. I would certainly recommend the entire set to anyone wanting to learn about people in general, Botswana in particular, and African culture.

Title notwithstanding, this series from Alexander McCall Smith doesn't make its living in the detective genre. Precious Ramotswe does indeed run the only ladies' detective agency in Botswana, but her investigations are incidental to the easy-going interactions of her daily life.

We find Mma Ramotswe musing over letters to a newspaper agony aunt and considering how wrongdoings affect those around us. Oh yes, she does investigate, armed with common sense and a copy of Clive Anderson's "Principles of Private Detection" and assisted by Grace Makutsi, star graduate of the Botswana Secretarial College. The ladies investigate blackmail, medical fraud, and a vague "something wrong" at a game preserve. The resolution of these cases further highlights the human foibles of greed and superstition.

The real charm of these books is in the gentle good nature they display. Grace is afraid of scaring her fiance away with feminist opinions; Precious worries about being "traditionally built" and considers the utility of dieting; new employee Mr. Polopetsi deals with prejudice due to his prison record; and Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni craves comfort and buys an expensive chair without mentioning it to his wife, Precious. These everyday concerns invite the reader into the story.

Mma Makutsi's impractical "blue shoes," along with Mma Ramotswe's poorly considered diet, do not in the end contribute to the enjoyment of life and so they are hastily retired. Friendship, bush tea and fruit cake, kindness, family and tradition, the lush countryside after a refreshing rain -- these are the currency of Blue Shoes and Happiness (No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, Book 7). If you like thoughtful books and don't require a lot of action, this one's for you.

This review is based on the unabridged CD presentation, beautifully read by native South African Lisette Lecat.

Linda Bulger, 2008

i absolutely love the "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" series, up to this dreadful book. launch yourself without pause or hesitation into the series with The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency 5-Book Boxed Set which contains in order:
"The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency"
"Tears of the Giraffe"
"Morality for Beautiful Girls"
"The Kalahari Typing School for Men"
"The Full Cupboard of Life"

as to "Blue Shoes and Happiness": don't start here, don't end here, don't pause here. the other books were leisurely in a good way, this one is just lame. it spends a lot of time contemplating the heroine's relationship with her figure. it got so i was thinking, if the author writes "traditional figure" or even just "traditional" one more time, i will scream. i was perpetually looking forward to the latest installment in this series & this one now has me worried that the author is all out of ideas for our detective.