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The Dim Sum of All Things by Kim Wong Keltner
Avon, January, 2004
Trade Paperback, 344 pages
ISBN 0060560754
Subgenre: Contemporary
Ordering information:
Amazon.com

The Dim Sum of All Things
by Kim Wong Keltner

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. Robb
Putnam, January, 2004
Hardcover, 357 pages
ISBN: 0399151540
Subgenre: Futuristic
Ordering information:
Amazon.com

Divided in Death
by J.D. Robb

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.

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The Dim Sum of All Things by Kim Wong Keltner

Divided in Death by J.D. Robb