Blue Shoes and Happiness (2006) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit

Write a ridiculously simplified synopsis.

Characters edit see section history

• Mma Ramotswe: Very clever "traditionally built woman" who solves cases through observation and insight
• Mma Makutsi: A loyal friend, who imagines herself a detective.
• Mr Polopetsi: Wrongly convicted of a crime, he was given a job by Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni when he was released from prison. Mma Ramotswe would like to see if he has what it takes to be an assistant detective's assistant. Can he help her with one of her cases?
• Mr J.l.b. Matekoni: Add a description of this character.
• Mma Ramotswe
• Emang
• Mma Potokwane
• Charlie
• Mma Tsau
• Mma Grace Makutsi
• Boitelo
• Phuti Radiphuti
• Neil
• Dr Lubega
• Dr Moffat
• Obed Ramotswe
• Seretse Khama
• Mina Tsau
• Mr I.l.b. Matekoni
• David

Quotes edit see section history

• “There was something about nurses that she could always pick up - a neatness, a clinical carefulness. She could always tell.”

• “Whatever was troubling this young woman, the making and drinking of tea would help to take her mind off her fears. Tea was like that. It just worked.”

• “You can take your time. Nobody is in a hurry in this place. You can take as long as you like to tell me what this trouble is.”

• “Tea was just a temporary solution to the cares of the world, although it certainly helped”

• “One should never seek to score a point at the expense of a client.”

• “It is easier to listen if one has something to do with one's hands.”

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• To use strong language, she thought, was a sign of bad temper and lack of concern for others. Such people were not clever or bold simply because they used such language; each time they opened their mouths they proclaimed I am a person who is poor in words.

  Highlighted by 17 Kindle customers

• Happiness was an elusive thing. It had something to do with having beautiful shoes, sometimes; but it was about so much else. About a country. About a people. About having friends like this.

  Highlighted by 16 Kindle customers

• Such people—men like Note—went through life spreading unhappiness about them like weedkiller, killing the flowers, the things that grew in the lives of others, wilting them with their scorn and spite.

  Highlighted by 14 Kindle customers

• And of course it was always difficult for Mma Ramotswe not to feel sympathy for another, however objectionable his conduct might be, however flawed his character, simply because she understood, at the most intuitive, profound level what it was to be a human being, which is not easy.

  Highlighted by 14 Kindle customers

• Snakes and men. These were the things sent to try women, and the outcome was not always what we might want it to be.

  Highlighted by 13 Kindle customers

• One should not hold a grudge against another, it said, because to harbour grudges was to disturb the social peace, the bond between people.

  Highlighted by 13 Kindle customers

• Shouting at a young person was like shouting at a wild animal—both would run away in their confusion.

  Highlighted by 12 Kindle customers

• but the unhappy past has a way of asserting itself and sometimes it is best just to let such thoughts run their course. They will pass, she told herself; they will pass.

  Highlighted by 12 Kindle customers

• Take one country, with all that the country means, with its kind people, and their smiles, and their habit of helping one another; ignore all this; shake about; add modern ideas; bake until ruined.

  Highlighted by 9 Kindle customers

• One day she would join him, she knew, whatever people said about how we came to an end when we took our last breath. Some people mocked you if you said that you joined others when your time came. Well, they could laugh, those clever people, but we surely had to hope, and a life without hope of any sort was no life: it was a sky without stars, a landscape of sorrow and emptiness.

  Highlighted by 7 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Botswana Secretarial College
• Rra
• Mokolodi
• Zebra Drive
• Africa
• Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors
• Mochudi
• Lobatse

First Sentence edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Preceded by In the Company of Cheerful Ladies, and followed by The Good Husband of Zebra Drive.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Alexander McCall Smith (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PR6063.C326 B58 2006
• Dewey: 823.914

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Mystery & Thrillers › Mystery › Women Sleuths