The No. 1 Ladies´ Detective Agency  by Alexander McCall Smith

Joan Manel Minguell Mir. Fourth English Level

The main character in the story is Precious Ramotswe, who lives in Botswana. Mma Ramotswe ( That how she is known throughout the story) had no mother and was brought up by her father and her father’s cousin. She grew up to be a sensible, intelligent and quite well educated woman. She married for the first time to a musician, Note Mokoti, but they divorced when she got tired of being hit by him. At the end of the story, she will accept to marry to owner of mechanical workshop J.L.B Matekoni.

After his father died, she used the money from his farm to buy a small building and start his own detective agency. She called “The No. 1 Ladies’s Detective Agency”. She set up the agency with a shortage of means: a small white van, few furniture and an old typewriter.  But Mma Ramotswe has two main abilities: the intuition and intelligence necessary to solve the cases.

Mma Ramotswe encounters lots of different cases. Most of them which she has to solve are related to issues of everyday life: deception, betrayal or ambition. One of the distinctive features of the character of Mma Ramotswe is that she makes deeply observations about human behavior and reflects how these behaviors have been developed.

Being a book of adventures, in general, I could understand the plot, although with some difficulties, since there were many words that I did not know the meaning.

The Sense of an Ending is a short novel ( around 150 pages) by Julian Barnes published in 2012 and awarded with the Man Booker Prize 2011. The book is divided in two parts. In addition, it is narrated in first person by its main character, named Tom Webster.

The first part, which it is shorter than the second one, deals about Tom’s classmates lifestyle, boys who are deeply interested in literature and also philosopy. This part end by the suicide of one’s Tom peer called Finn, who had also been Veronica’s boyfriend.

The second part of the book, is currently located and it shows us the daily life of the main character,  who seems to be a lonely, guilty and nostalgic person. Morover, he has been unlucky with love although he gets on well with his former wife (Margaret) as they have one daughter (Sussy).

A few years before, Tom and Veronica meet again, and he asked her why his classmate committed suicide, so he tries to find out through his classmate’s girlfriend.

In my opinion, the book shows us a sadly point of view about elderly people and how they have been spending  their time. As the main character tells us his wonderful and exciting life when he was younger against his lonely and bored life nowadays.

In spite of having some problems to understand the  author’s main vision, I highly recommend it.

Ester Rocaginé

1. The story

When I finished this book I could differentiate at least two parts. In my point of view, the protagonist wrote about your past in the first part and about your present in the second part.

In the one hand, in the first part of the book, Tony Webster, the protagonist, explains about your memories. Tony is a man who is retired and he has a granddaughter of her only daughter. He is divorced but he has got a good relationship with your ex-wife. In this part he writes about your youth. He writes some anecdotes of his years in high school and in the university. In fact, he writes quite about your friends (Adrian) and your girlfriend (Veronica). I can remember that Adrian also had a relationship with Veronica but he committed suicide when Tony was abroad.

In the second part of the book, the protagonist backs to the present and he writes about Margaret, your ex-wife. Moreover, I can read that the mother of Veronica, your ex-girlfriend, found the Adrian’s diary. Tony could read a letter for him.

2. Characters

I want to stand out Adrian Finn. He is the Tony’s friend and all your friends admire your behaviour. Adrian is an intelligent boy and he studied in Cambridge. The relationship between Tony and Veronica broke and after Adrian wrote a letter where pretend to ask for permission to start a relationship with Veronica. Tony could read the letter when he returned of his trip but in this moment Adrian has already died.

3. My own reactions

In my view, what I liked the most was how Tony tries to recreate his past. On the other hand, I didn’t like that the characters were very complex as they changed a lot during the book.

I wouldn’t recommend this book because I think that it’s a boring book and difficult to read.

Written by Jordi Calderó (4t EOI Tàrrega)

The No. 1 Ladie’s Detective Agency is a novel by Alexander McCall Smith. It’s about a woman named Precious Ramotswe (Mma. Ramotswe) ho lived in Botswana. After her mother’s death, she lives with her father and a cousin, both took care of her. As a young girl she met Note Makote, a trumpeter,and married him. The marriage lasted little due to the minstreatement  that Mma Ramotswe from her Husband. He had a daughter who died few days after birth. After that she decided go home. A few years later her father dies and with the inheritance she decided to buy a small Building in Gabarone to start her own detective agency, the only detective agency run by women in Botswana. From here, each chapter tells a case that Ms. Ramotswe must solve.

Characters:

Precious Ramotswe:
It is the novel’s central character. She is not a traditional woman, she is quite independent, and want to amke her own way. The writer explains many details of his personality and way of thinking.

Obed Ramotswe:

Precious’s father. He is a hard-working man, who loves and tries to take care of his daughter as best he can. He owns a cattle and for a few years he works in a mine, but the vapos and work conditions made him sick.

The cousin:

Her husband abandoned her because she was sterile, from this moment, she was the person who took care of Precious and taught her values.

Mma Grace Makutsi:

A recently graduated from secretarial college, who work as her assistant and recepcionist.

Note Makoti:

A mediocre trompetist and abusive Husband,  who married to Precious when she was very young.

Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni:

A old friend who helps Precious in some of their cases, and finally he becomes someone very special to Precious.

Reactions:
I think it’s a book aimed at young people,  even though, I really enjoyed this book,  it’s an entertaining book, with some pretty funny chapters and others that deal with more serious topics. The author describes the landscapes and the psychology of the characters very well, but with an easy and quite understandable language.  I think it is appropriate for the course we are doing.

Mar Escoté
4rt

August is ten years old and he does the normal things that other ten-year olds do. He likes ice cream and riding his bike but despite 27 operations, he will never look normal. He was born with deformities of the face and looks very different from other kids. Things are tough for August and his family. When August begins the school is very nervous as he had studied at home until he was 10 years old. Some kids use hateful language, and some people suggest that August is mentally deficient. Because of his face, nobody wants to sit next to him and he notices other kids looking and talking about him behind their hands. Fortunately, he makes friends with Jack, a boy in his class, and Flower, a girl he chats with at lunch. At the graduation ceremony, August wins an award for being an exemplary student, not just academically but personally as well. Everyone cheers for him, and August finally feels like an ordinary kid, even though he knows no one else sees him that way.
The characters are: August, who is the main character, Olivia, who is August’s sister and is vey protective and his friends Jack, Summer, Miranda and Justin.
In my opinion, it is one of those books that everybody should read, from young readers to the oldest. I especially liked the fact that the author presents the story through the different actors, so we have different perspectives and points of view. I really liked this book.

Mariona Serra

“Charlie and the chocolate factory” is a short novel by Roald Dahl, a children novelist, published in 1964 and adapted to the cinema. It is about the adventure of Charlie Bucket in the Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.

Willy Wonka, the owner of the factory, after a long time, decided to open the factory to only five children in order to do a guided tour. To select the children, he hid five golden tickets in his chocolates. Charlie, who was a chocolate lover and the visit would be a dream for him, lived in a poor family and he hadn’t have any money to search the golden ticket. However, he achieved to go into the factory. He found a dollar in the middle of the street and quickly decided to buy two chocolates. To his surprise, the golden ticket was there. The following day, Charlie and the other winners entered at the factory. During the visit, all of them except Charlie missed due to their avarice for eat some candies of the factory. Finally, Charlie was the only one that got to go out the factory safe and sound. At the end, because of his love for the chocolate and his respect for the factory, Willy Wonka, gave to him his factory. The Charlie’s life never was the same.

Charlie Bucket is the main character of the book. He is a poor child who lives with his parents and his grandparents. He is a heedful boy and admires his old grandfather Joe. Both have a very close relationship. For the writer, Charlie is a fabulous character. He is modest and curious, and his courage, let him get his goals. The other main character that appears in the book is the owner of the chocolate factory, Willy Wonka. He is an eccentric man who lives alone and who, finally, give his factory to Charlie. He is a charming character but with a lot of mysterious secrets to discover.

The writer’s style is concise. It is a fantastic novel with an easy vocabulary and easy constructions. I think that it is a good novel for young people. For me, this is why I understood almost everything and I haven’t had problems to follow the story. I would recommend reading the book to all people who like the fantastic novels and want to begin with a simple reading. Despite of the infantil content, Roald Dahl is masterpiece that keep aware the young lector and give an important message: With patience, the dreams come true.

Anna Reig

It tells the life story of a man, Ace, who had everything during some years and finally he will die alone and sad. He married three times but was only happy in his second marriage; he had three children: two with his first wife, and a daughter in the third: the only one of his children who loved him. With a fragile health, hospitalized on many occasions and a man who envied his brother Howie, not only for his iron health, but also for his professional and family successes. However, he had had a happy childhood working in his father’s jewelry: always surrounded by pretty girls and doing errands that entertained him. In addition, the summers spent happily on the coast of New Jersey with the rest of his family.
He tells us about his first marriage that ends up, after being accused of adultery. Later he will meet Phoebe, his second wife, with she spends the happiest moments of his life and has his daughter Nancy, who he adores. He worked in an advertising agency and was unfaithful with several women until Phoebe discovers everything and ends up abandoning him and hating him. Third marriage with a Scandinavian model, which turns out to be a disaster and her marriage fails again.
Loneliness is increasing. Also, by that time he has already been ill several times; for arterial, appendix, heart, etc. problems His health is fragile, quite the opposite of his brother Howie, with who he stops communicating by sheer envy.
Finally, he retires to a residence on the coast of New Jersey, recalling his childhood, seeking peace, and also taking advantage to be away from the Islamic terrorism that has just terrorized the entire American nation. There he dedicates himself to his great hobby: painting, which he will also teach to others residents, almost all suffering from health problems. He also starts losing close friends and start thinking about death, loneliness … He tries to get out of this situation having a new relationship with a young girl who ignores him. He doesn’t ask for help from his daughter and even calling his brother Howie, but he is in Tibet…
Ace is completely alone. He has more than 70 years, without illusions, plunged into absolute solitude, until finally, a day in which paradoxically he feels euphoric remembering the family protection he had had as a child, he ends up dying of heart attack.

For me, this book has been very difficult at first because it described many characters and is quite confusing. Vocabulary is not easy and you need a dictionary nearby, however, there are many words that you can understand by context.
The topics of the book are death and loneliness, and I think they are a common themes in books and movies, there is nothing new, nothing surprises you during the reading.

Silvia Vilasaló Cavero

The sense of an ending is a short novel by Julian Barnes, published in 2011 and awarded the Man Booker Prize on October of the same year. This novel is about friendship, love, death, sex, loneliness and above all, memory: the perception of the facts and the volatility of memories. Did it really happen like I remember that or is it how I want to remember it? This thought is reflected in the main character, Tony, who is moved between present and his past.

Tony, a middle-aged man, lives in a calm place after his divorce. Suddenly, he receives a letter of his lawyer: Sarah, the mother of Veronica, his first girlfriend in university, left him five hundred pounds and a manuscript. The manuscript was the Adrian’s diary, a Tony’s friend in university, but it wasn’t in the letter, because Veronica took it and she didn’t want to give it him.
Consequently, this fact moves Tony and he starts to remember his life when he went to the university. The novel explains that Tony and his friends met Adrian in the high school and then they went to the university together. They liked philosophy, literature and girls too. Adrian was the most intelligent and serious, but all of them promised to be friends for ever. However, Adrian died and they got away from each other for forgetting this incident. These memories and the mysterious letter take Tony to achieve this manuscript, that makes him reconsider his life and his place in the world.

In my opinion, I didn’t have a lot of problems to understand the storyline and the book is quite short. However, it isn’t light due to its flashbacks. At the beginning, it’s difficult to know the difference into the present and the past. Despite the fact that I would recommend reading the book because of its great plot.

Jordina Solsona