A big, rewarding novel about art, politics, family, terrorism, courage, and happiness. Promise Whittaker, the diminutive but decisive acting director of the National Museum of Asian Art, is pregnant again--and that's just the beginning of her difficulties. Her mentor, the previous director, suddenly walked away from his job with no explanation, and now is on a dig somewhere in the Taklamakan desert. Her favorite curator has dropped their newest treasure, a bowl once owned by Thomas Jefferson, during the ceremony celebrating its acquisition. Another colleague, desperate for a son, has been embezzling from the museum to pay for her fertility treatments. And her far too handsome, far too elusive ancillary director is clearly up to no good. Confronting challenge after challenge at work and at home, Promise is one of the most offbeat, original, winning characters in recent fiction. The Bowl Is Already Broken is all brains, all soul, and all heart--brimming with ideas, provocative, and deeply satisfying. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Pity poor Promise. The museum of Asian arts where she works devotedly is about to become a food court. Deposed director Joseph, her beloved mentor, aims to prove that he still has some fight in him by heading off to an excavation in a very remote part of Asia. Promise's buddy, Arthur, is so obsessed with ancient porcelain that he can't see how fragile his bond with his lover has become. Oh, yes, and colleague Min has been misappropriating funds for fertility treatments. On the home front, the house is falling apart, the baby sitter is sullen, and Promise's husband, Leo, an international human rights worker, wishes he had more of her time. Then Promise finds that she is pregnant, even as she is appointed interim director of the museum. In this intriguing tale of a museum-as-microcosm, the atmosphere is richly evoked, the art history fascinating, the issues thought-provoking, the characters deftly drawn, and the action, alas, a bit slow, burdened as it is with too much detail. Buy for larger fiction collections and where Zuvravleff's The Frequency of Souls was popular. Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Promise is having a bad summer. She is unexpectedly and uncomfortably pregnant with her third child. Her affable, activist husband smokes too much pot. Her house is falling apart. Her babysitter is trying to indoctrinate her already neurotic children. To top it all off, Promise has just been named acting director of the Museum of Asian Art, a museum the administration is trying to close. When her best friend, and fellow curator, breaks a porcelain bowl once owned by Thomas Jefferson, it may be the end of all of them, or their saving grace. This enjoyable novel touches on subjects from Asian art and philosophy to cancer and infertility. Although there are a few too many subplots involving characters the author doesn't have time to flesh out, Promise Whittaker is so realistically written she makes those around her look good. MartaSegal. From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.