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Index Interviews: William Dietrich Spam and the Children's Author The Times, They Are A-Changin' Return to This Issue's Index Return to Homepage Subscribe
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Romance Book ReviewsPage One of TwoThe Dim Sum of All Things by Kim Wong KeltnerAvon, January, 2004Trade Paperback, 344 pages ISBN 0060560754 Subgenre: Contemporary Ordering information: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk 
25 year-old Lindsey Owyang is a third generation
ABC (American Born Chinese) woman living in
San Francisco. While working at Vegan Warrior
magazine, Lindsey battles to keep a dark secret that
could get her fired: she is a meat eater. She also has a terrible
crush on a co-worker who doesn't seem to know she
exists. An underpaid receptionist, Lindsey lives
with her grandmother Pau Pau, who spends all her
time gambling at the mah jongg dens, applying noxious
smelling Chinese ointments and setting up
Lindsey with one nightmarish date after another.
When Lindsey's not avoiding her embarrassing family or
various Hoarders of All Things Asian
(men who are obsessed with Asian women for all
the wrong reasons), she spends her time wondering about
her family's past and her own, murky future. When Lindsey
gets to travel to China with Pau Pau, she gains insight into
Pau Pau's early life, as well as that of her family, giving
her a greater appreciation of her ancestry and her formidable
grandmother.
First time author Kim Wong Keltner writes with ferocity and humor in this very funny story which puts a different spin on the typical "single girl in the city" storyline. Through Lindsey, Ms. Keltner explores what it's like to grow up in America, looking Chinese, living in a Chinese area, yet not speaking much Chinese or even knowing much Chinese history. Caught between the demands of the traditional, elder generation and her parents, who fully embraced American pop culture, raising Lindsey on The Brady Bunch, Spaghetti-Ohs, Velveeta and Wonder Bread, Lindsey does the best she can while trying to forge an identity for herself. San Francisco comes alive with Ms. Keltner's vivid descriptions, and Lindsey herself is a heroine that readers will root for, as she searches for love and her destiny in the big city. Divided in Death by J.D. RobbPutnam, January, 2004Hardcover, 357 pages ISBN: 0399151540 Subgenre: Futuristic Ordering information: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk 
Former Secret Service agent Reva Ewing was decorated for
bravery for saving the president's life in an assassination attempt.
She left the service to become a security specialist for Roarke
Enterprises, owned by billionaire Roarke. When Reva is found
standing over the dead bodies of her artist husband Blair Bissel and his
mistress, she certainly looks guilty. But Roarke and his wife,
Lieutenant Eve Dallas, are not so sure. For one thing, the computers
in the home and in the artist's studio are wiped clean by
a virus created by a terrorist group known as the Doomsday Group.
To Eve, the murder scene looks like the perfect frame. Because Roarke's
company is working on a defense to a serious computer virus
which terrorists can use to shut down banks and government institutions,
Roarke and Eve must enter the world of clandestine agencies
and spies to find out what's going
on and stop the deadly virus from being unleashed.
Nora Roberts, writing as J.D. Robbs, takes on an all too timely topic with her latest heart-pounding, futuristic thriller. Roarke and Eve take on an American MI5-like organization which was founded to fight terrorism in the 21st century but because of corruption has now turned into a Gestapo-like group which ignores Americans' rights and has a total disregard for the law. Given the nature of the current proposals for an American style MI5 to combat domestic terrorism, Robb's book provides an interesting background to this gritty and compelling detective story set in 2059 New York City. Romance Reviews Page One | Page Two Return to Book Reviews Index ** To visit the archives of romance novels reviewed in The IWJ, please click here. |