Real Americans by Rachel Khong

Real Americans begins on the precipice of Y2K in New York City, when twenty-two-year-old Lily Chen, an unpaid intern at a slick media company, meets Matthew. Matthew is everything Lily is not: easygoing and effortlessly attractive, a native East Coaster and, most notably, heir to a vast pharmaceutical empire. Lily couldn't be more different: flat-broke, raised in Tampa, the only child of scientists who fled Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Despite all this, Lily and Matthew fall in love.
In 2021, fifteen-year-old Nick Chen has never felt like he belonged on the isolated Washington island where he lives with his single mother, Lily. He can't shake the sense she's hiding something. When Nick sets out to find his biological father, the journey threatens to raise more questions than answers.

In immersive, moving prose, Rachel Khong weaves a profound tale of class and striving, race and visibility, and family and inheritance—a story of trust, forgiveness, and finally coming home.

Exuberant and explosive, Real Americans is a social novel par excellence that asks: Are we destined, or made, and if so, who gets to do the making? Can our genetic past be overcome?



Think Twice by Harlan Coben  

Three years ago, sports agent Myron Bolitar gave a eulogy at the funeral of his client, renowned basketball coach Greg Downing. Myron and Greg had history: initially as deeply personal rivals, and later as unexpected business associates. Myron made peace and moved on – until now, when twofederal agents walked into his office, demanding to know where Greg Downing is.
According to the agents, Greg is still alive—and has been placed at the scene of a double homicide, making him their main suspect. Shocked, Myron needs answers.

Myron and Win, longtime friends and colleagues, set out to find the truth, but the more they discover about Greg, the more dangerous their world becomes. Secrets, lies, and a murderous conspiracy that stretches back into the past churn at the heart of Harlan Coben's blistering new novel.



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Real Americans by Rachel Khong 
Real Americans begins on the precipice of Y2K in New York City, when twenty-two-year-old Lily Chen, an unpaid intern at a slick media company, meets Matthew. Matthew is everything Lily is not: easygoing and effortlessly attractive, a native East Coaster and, most notably, heir to a vast pharmaceutical empire. Lily couldn't be more different: flat-broke, raised in Tampa, the only child of scientists who fled Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Despite all this, Lily and Matthew fall in love.   In 2021, fifteen-year-old Nick Chen has never felt like he belonged on the isolated Washington island where he lives with his single mother, Lily. He can't shake the sense she's hiding something. When Nick sets out to find his biological father, the journey threatens to raise more questions than answers.    In immersive, moving prose, Rachel Khong weaves a profound tale of class and striving, race and visibility, and family and inheritance—a story of trust, forgiveness, and finally coming home.    Exuberant and explosive, Real Americans is a social novel par excellence that asks: Are we destined, or made, and if so, who gets to do the making? Can our genetic past be overcome? 
 
Think Twice by Harlan Coben  
Three years ago, sports agent Myron Bolitar gave a eulogy at the funeral of his client, renowned basketball coach Greg Downing. Myron and Greg had history: initially as deeply personal rivals, and later as unexpected business associates. Myron made peace and moved on – until now, when twofederal agents walked into his office, demanding to know where Greg Downing is.   According to the agents, Greg is still alive—and has been placed at the scene of a double homicide, making him their main suspect. Shocked, Myron needs answers.    Myron and Win, longtime friends and colleagues, set out to find the truth, but the more they discover about Greg, the more dangerous their world becomes. Secrets, lies, and a murderous conspiracy that stretches back into the past churn at the heart of Harlan Coben's blistering new novel. 
 
LISTEN ABOVE

Jack Tame’s crisp perspective, style and enthusiasm makes for refreshing and entertaining Saturday morning radio on Newstalk ZB.

News, sport, books, music, gardens and celebrities – what better way to spend your Saturdays?

Jack Tame’s crisp perspective, style and enthusiasm makes for refreshing and entertaining Saturday morning radio on Newstalk ZB. News, sport, books, music, gardens and celebrities – what better way to spend your Saturdays?

Saturday Morning with Jack Tame

Catherine Raynes: Real Americans and Think Twice

De-icing the freezer. That's it, without doubt, the worst possible domestic chore. 

Because you know, the tricky thing - is once you've successfully taken the plug out of the wall, got rid of the electricity, melted the water. Where does it all go? Where does the water go? I remember my mum running a system with our big chest freezer when I was a kid. She needed buckets. She needed pots and pans, towels and mops, baby baths even and still it took her the whole weekend. 

But now you know what, I'm not totally sure that deicing the freezer is still Top of the Pops in miserable domestic jobs. And that is the kind of sentence only ever uttered by someone who has recently tried to fill a bean bag. Ugh. 

Are bean bags having a moment? I reckon they might be, and I just personally figured that having a versatile option for vegging out in front of the telly might be quite nice when I searched them online there were a couple of different options for beanbags. For most you had to buy the bag and then the beans. Separate. But if you really wanted, you could spend a little bit more money and order a bean bag that was already filled. I thought. What do they take me for? Some kind of sucker? Bean bags, it turns out, actually have two bags. So you fill the inner bag and then you put that inside the outer bag. It's easy in principle, not necessarily in practise. 

I figured that I would tackle the job alone as a nice surprise for when my wife got home. That was my first mistake. I began in the lounge. That was my second mistake. I laid out the bean bag in it and snipped the top corner off the huge bag of beans. 200 litres of them. As the scissor blades glided through the plastic, it was kind of like a can of fizzy drink that had been furiously shaken up. Beans exploded out all over me, all over the floor, all over the couch. Everywhere. And they seem to have some sort of static electricity attraction. So even as I picked them off my chest and tried to sweep them together with my fingers off the carpet, the beans kind of had a mind of their own. 

20 minutes down. For my second attempt, I moved into the kitchen, pinched part of the inner bag in a kitchen drawer so that I could hold the bag open as soon as I started pouring the beans, I inadvertently relaxed the inner bag, closing the mouth of the opening. And pouring roughly 10,000 bean bag beans all over the kitchen floor. 

It turns out when you get on your hands and knees and start trying to pick up pathetically small bits of polystyrene, you get a new appreciation for just how greasy the kitchen floor actually is. It made them less staticky, but alas, it did not make them easier to collect. I cut a pitiful figure when my wife found me scratching around trying to pinch up the last of the beans from under the fridge. Another half an hour I'll never get back. 

If there's one thing my experience has taught me, filling a bean bag is a two-person job. It's also the kind of thing where you should really review the instructional video on YouTube before kicking off. If I'd done that, I would have known the best place to fill the bean bag isn't in the lounge, or in the kitchen. But in an empty bath. That way, if there is any spillage and trust me, there will be spillage at the very least it's contained. 

Third time was a relative charm. It wasn't seamless. We still managed to pour litres of beans onto the floor. I still spent ages on my hands and knees scrambling around in the muck. Every time I thought I'd got them all, I walked out of the room for a moment and then came back in, only to discover a couple of rogue beans hiding underneath some furniture. I feel like they're going to keep popping up for months. 

At least, though there is an upside: if I ever feel like a lazy slob for crashing into my bean bag. and vegging out in front of the television, I can remind myself, earnestly - nah, I had to work for this.

LISTEN ABOVE.

De-icing the freezer. That's it, without doubt, the worst possible domestic chore.  
Because you know, the tricky thing - is once you've successfully taken the plug out of the wall, got rid of the electricity, melted the water. Where does it all go? Where does the water go? I remember my mum running a system with our big chest freezer when I was a kid. She needed buckets. She needed pots and pans, towels and mops, baby baths even and still it took her the whole weekend.  
But now you know what, I'm not totally sure that deicing the freezer is still Top of the Pops in miserable domestic jobs. And that is the kind of sentence only ever uttered by someone who has recently tried to fill a bean bag. Ugh.  
Are bean bags having a moment? I reckon they might be, and I just personally figured that having a versatile option for vegging out in front of the telly might be quite nice when I searched them online there were a couple of different options for beanbags. For most you had to buy the bag and then the beans. Separate. But if you really wanted, you could spend a little bit more money and order a bean bag that was already filled. I thought. What do they take me for? Some kind of sucker? Bean bags, it turns out, actually have two bags. So you fill the inner bag and then you put that inside the outer bag. It's easy in principle, not necessarily in practise.  
I figured that I would tackle the job alone as a nice surprise for when my wife got home. That was my first mistake. I began in the lounge. That was my second mistake. I laid out the bean bag in it and snipped the top corner off the huge bag of beans. 200 litres of them. As the scissor blades glided through the plastic, it was kind of like a can of fizzy drink that had been furiously shaken up. Beans exploded out all over me, all over the floor, all over the couch. Everywhere. And they seem to have some sort of static electricity attraction. So even as I picked them off my chest and tried to sweep them together with my fingers off the carpet, the beans kind of had a mind of their own.  
20 minutes down. For my second attempt, I moved into the kitchen, pinched part of the inner bag in a kitchen drawer so that I could hold the bag open as soon as I started pouring the beans, I inadvertently relaxed the inner bag, closing the mouth of the opening. And pouring roughly 10,000 bean bag beans all over the kitchen floor.  
It turns out when you get on your hands and knees and start trying to pick up pathetically small bits of polystyrene, you get a new appreciation for just how greasy the kitchen floor actually is. It made them less staticky, but alas, it did not make them easier to collect. I cut a pitiful figure when my wife found me scratching around trying to pinch up the last of the beans from under the fridge. Another half an hour I'll never get back.  
If there's one thing my experience has taught me, filling a bean bag is a two-person job. It's also the kind of thing where you should really review the instructional video on YouTube before kicking off. If I'd done that, I would have known the best place to fill the bean bag isn't in the lounge, or in the kitchen. But in an empty bath. That way, if there is any spillage and trust me, there will be spillage at the very least it's contained.  
Third time was a relative charm. It wasn't seamless. We still managed to pour litres of beans onto the floor. I still spent ages on my hands and knees scrambling around in the muck. Every time I thought I'd got them all, I walked out of the room for a moment and then came back in, only to discover a couple of rogue beans hiding underneath some furniture. I feel like they're going to keep popping up for months.  
At least, though there is an upside: if I ever feel like a lazy slob for crashing into my bean bag. and vegging out in front of the television, I can remind myself, earnestly - nah, I had to work for this. 
LISTEN ABOVE.

Jack Tame: Filling bean bags - the worst domestic task of all

On the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame Full Show Podcast for Saturday 15 June 2024, star of this year's Armageddon Expo John Barrowman joins Jack to discuss his sci-fi legacy and what it is about shows like Doctor Who that fans connect to so enduringly.

Jack's DIY endeavours continued with this week's task: the beanbag.

Kevin Milne was mightily impressed by podcasting this week, reaffirming that we are very much still in the days of quality long-form interviews. While, Dr Bryan Betty talks misconceptions of ADHD after it's recent media spotlight following the diagnosis of public figures.

Get the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame Full Show Podcast every Saturday on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.

LISTEN ABOVE.

On the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame Full Show Podcast for Saturday 15 June 2024, <a href="https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/saturday-morning-with-jack-tame/audio/john-barrowman-former-doctor-who-star-on-the-shows-legacy/">star of this year's Armageddon Expo John Barrowman joins Jack to discuss his sci-fi legacy and what it is about shows like Doctor Who that fans connect to so enduringly.</a><a href="https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/saturday-morning-with-jack-tame/audio/john-barrowman-former-doctor-who-star-on-the-shows-legacy/"> </a>
<a href="https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/saturday-morning-with-jack-tame/opinion/jack-tame-filling-bean-bags-the-worst-domestic-task-of-all/">Jack's DIY endeavours continued with this week's task: the beanbag. </a>
<a href="https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/saturday-morning-with-jack-tame/audio/kevin-milne-former-fair-go-presenter-on-quality-longform-interviews/">Kevin Milne</a> was mightily impressed by podcasting this week, reaffirming that we are very much still in the days of quality long-form interviews. <a href="https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/saturday-morning-with-jack-tame/audio/dr-bryan-betty-gp-on-adhd-diagnoses/">While, Dr Bryan Betty talks misconceptions of ADHD</a> after it's recent media spotlight following the diagnosis of public figures. 
Get the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame Full Show Podcast every Saturday on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. 
LISTEN ABOVE.

Full Show Podcast: 15 June 2024

Estelle Clifford reviews Born in the Wild by Tems.

Tems self-produced much of the LP alongside GuityBeatz, the Ghanaian Afropop DJ behind her 2021 EP If Orange Was a Place.

It’s been praised by Pitchfork for its “Polyrhythmic soundscape, adorned with the earthy tones of conga drums, wind chimes, and shekere rattles, provides a counterweight to the homogenized sound of contemporary Afropop.”

Music reviewer Estelle Clifford told Jack Tame “This is her growth on something that’s a universal attraction with afrobeats.”

Clifford says “She’s worked behind the scenes, but now her wn stuff is taking the forefront.”

LISTEN ABOVE.

Estelle Clifford reviews Born in the Wild by Tems. 
Tems self-produced much of the LP alongside GuityBeatz, the Ghanaian Afropop DJ behind her 2021 EP If Orange Was a Place.  
It’s been praised by Pitchfork for its “Polyrhythmic soundscape, adorned with the earthy tones of conga drums, wind chimes, and shekere rattles, provides a counterweight to the homogenized sound of contemporary Afropop.” 
Music reviewer Estelle Clifford told Jack Tame “This is her growth on something that’s a universal attraction with afrobeats.” 
Clifford says “She’s worked behind the scenes, but now her wn stuff is taking the forefront.” 
LISTEN ABOVE.

Catherine Raynes: Real Americans and Think Twice

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