Thumbing through

She's been hailed as the "Mrs. Marple of Botswana," but Mme Precious Ramotswe (who made her debut in The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency) is not only a lot younger and somewhat hipper, she's also African. In his third book in the Ladies Detective Agency series, author Alexander McCall Smith has his precious Mme Ramotswe in the throes of getting married. The groom is to be a certain Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni, a man whose greatest virtue may very well be his steady persistence.

As the leading, and only female private detective in Botswana, Mme Ramotswe is not what someone you would consider conservative. But will getting married change our irrepressible heroine? As always, Mme Ramotswe is juggling several assignments, including one where a customer with lots of money to spend requires a quick investigation into the character of four candidates for the title of Botswana's 'Miss Beauty and Integrity.'

Despite all this the detective agency is having a tough time making ends meet; a situation not improved in the least by promotion and accompanying pay rise Mme Ramotswe is compelled to offer the indubitable Mme Makutsi – her pragmatic, capable secretary.

As Mme Ramotswe is struggling to cope with professional concerns, her personal life offers its own share of problems. It quickly becomes apparent that all is not as it should be with her new fiancé. J. L. B. Matekoni seems ill, unusually morose, and quite in need of Mme Ramotswe's undivided attention.

Set against the vivid landscape of the dry but beautiful land of Botswana, Alexander McCall Smith's book is a must read for all fans Mme Ramotswe who – with her unerring moral sense, and pragmatic approach – always wins the day.

The longest continuous footpath in the world, the Appalachian Trail stretches along the East Coast of the United States, from Georgia to Maine, through some of the most arresting and celebrated landscapes in America.

At the age of fourty-four, in the company of his friend Stephen Katz, Bill Bryson set off to hike through the vast, tangled woods which have been frightening sensible people for three hundred years. Ahead lay almost 2,200 miles of remote wilderness filled with bears, moose, bobcats, rattlesnakes, poisonous plants, disease bearing ticks, the occasional chuckling serial killer and – perhaps most alarmingly of all – people whose favourite pastime is discussing the relative merits of the external-frame backpack.

Facing savage weather, merciless insects, unreliable maps and a fickle companion whose profoundest wish was to go to a motel and watch The X-Files, Bryson gamely struggled through the wilderness to achieve a lifetime's ambition – not to die outdoors.

This Pulitzer prize winning novel is about three women: Clarissa Vaughan, who one New York morning goes about planning a party of a beloved friend; Laura Brown, who in a 1950s Los Angeles Suburb slowly begins to feel the constraints of a perfect family and home; and author Virginia Woolf, recuperating with her husband in a London suburb, and beginning to write Mrs. Dalloway. By the end of the novel, the stories have intertwined, and finally come together in an act of subtle and haunting grace, demonstrating Michael Cunningham's deep empathy for his characters as well as the extraordinary resonance of his prose.

Young Tristan Thorn will do anything to win the cold heart of the beautiful Victoria – even bring her the star they watch as it falls from the night sky. But to do so, he must enter the unexplored lands on the other side of the ancient barrier that borders their tiny village. And beyond the safety of The Wall, strange things can happen to a determined lad chasing his heart's desire into a magical world of wonders and perils – where anything that can be imagined can be found. All titles are available at Vijitha Yapa Bookshop on request.