The Bowl Is Already Broken A Novel [Paperback]

Promise Whittaker, the diminutive but decisive acting director of the Museum of Asian Art, is pregnant again--and that's just the beginning of her problems. Her mentor, the previous director, has suddenly quit, and is on a dig in China's Taklamakan Desert. Her favorite curator has dropped a priceless porcelain bowl, once owned by Thomas Jefferson, down the museum's steps. Another colleague has been embezzling from the museum to pay for her fertility treatments. And her far too handsome ancillary director is clearly up to no good. Promise's offbeat efforts to hold everything together make her a character who, in the words of the NewarkStar-Ledger, you'll be falling in love with before you've turned the first page.

Discussion Questions
1. How did you feel about Promise, her passions as well as her many predicaments? Did her work or domestic life seem exaggerated? Ultimately, are she and Leo good parents?
2. Did Joseph abandon the museum, or did he understand that it was time for him to move on? How does Joseph's perception of himself change when he receives the memo from the Castle and when he arrives in the desert? How did your opinion of him change throughout the novel?
3. Leo can be self-righteous about his Amnesty International efforts and critical of Promise's workboth her zeal for art commissioned by ruthless tyrants as well as the notion of an American museum owning so many of Asia's treasures. Why does he join her cause? Did you feel differently about him as the book progressed?
4. Why does the book begin with the bowl breaking? How does your knowledge of its demise affect the story of how it came to be so valuable?
5. Discuss the role that humor plays in this book.
6. Arthur is passionate about the Chinese ceramics in the museum's collection, and he believes his passion should be rewarded. Compare his attitude toward the museum and its visitors with Min's, Promise's, and Talbot's.
7. Joseph preached, NeverlS"