The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith

The fourth No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency is even less focused on the mystery than previous books, but that’s hardly a bad thing. Mma Ramotswe is still happily engaged, running her business, and taking care of her adopted children, but starting to wonder if her fiancé will ever set a wedding date. Meanwhile, she has a sexist-and glamorous-new rival, and her assistant Mma Makutsi, while deftly managing both the detective agency and Rra Maketoni’s garage, is feeling the money crunch and, realizing that only women go to typing schools, and so men aren’t taught to properly type, opens a typing school for men.

I find it interesting that both the third and fourth books in the series are titled after Mma Makutsi’s subplots instead of Mma Ramotswe’s main plots, but I can’t find any particular deeper meaning to it. As I mentioned, the mystery here, which involves a man with a misspent youth who wants to make amends, is very minor. There are more mysteries because the main character happens to be a detective than actual mystery novels. I continue to love the easy, deft characterization of Mma Ramotswe and then people in her life, as well as the “down home,” everyday life approach to Botswana and the people who live there, and so these books remain excellent comfort reads.

manga: Clover: Omnibus (vol 1-4, complete series)

This is the Clamp series that seems to be liked even by people who don’t like Clamp. Rather understandable, as I don’t think I’ve read another manga quite like it. I suppose Nabi: The Prototype comes closest, at least in feel.

Set in a cyberpunk world, the government recently had a psychics program that has sense disbanded. The psychics were called “clovers,” and their psychic strength was ranked by clover leaves. When the program fell apart, the low-rank one-and-two-ranked clovers were released into the population, and the others were kept in isolation and cared for by robots.

Kazuhiko, a young, but retired, officer with a mechanical hand is asked by his former commander to escort Sue, the only four-leaf clover, to a place she desires to visit. There’s apparent unrest with neighboring countries, and some skeletons in characters’ closets, but most of the focus is on the characters and their motivations and pasts. The story is told in three parts with a reversed chronology, telling how the various characters came to be where they are, wanting what they want. The most common thread that links them is the feeling of loneliness, and bonding to combat the loneliness, and the most moving relationship is between two characters who are never able to actually meet. (Oh manga, you will never run out of new ways for Important Not Touching, will you?)

Artistically, the linework lies somewhere between Clamp’s early days of giant shoulders, long faces, and big hair, and their more recent, symbolism laden artwork where characters seem to lack bones. The designs, unsurprisingly, are stunning (even if you don’t like Clamp’s actual linework, I don’t think it can be denied that they have some amazing designs) and there’s a heavy emphasis on visually portraying characters as pretty birds trapped in a cage. (And the battle ready robots that guard the clovers are cute anthromorphic animals in old-fashioned clothes.) There’s also a heavy use of white-and sometimes black-space that manages to serve to control the reader’s pace and emphasize certain events, rather than simply coming across as minimalistic art.

There seems to be some disagreement among readers as to whether the series is complete or discontinued. Having read it, I would say that there are various plotlines that could be followed up on, but doing so isn’t necessary, as what there is can be read completely alone, and the emphasis is on how the plot affects the characters, not the plot itself. In fact, each of the three stories could stand independent of the others, despite forming a cohesive whole.