Quan, who put her career as an elite Manhattan prostitute on hold to become a writer, is the author of a popular salon.com column chronicling the adventures of fictional call girl Nancy Chan. Those biweekly installments grew into this reality-based novel. Nancy's central dilemma, hashed out in her diary and with her shrink, Dr. Wendy, is whether to give up hooking when she becomes engaged to her sweet Wall Street-whiz boyfriend, Matt. Her two best friends (and colleagues), Allison and Jasmine, offer little support on this front. Jasmine is firmly against marriage, and Allison, who is 30 going on 19, is too obsessed with her own problems (including her foray into the sex workers' activist movement) to be of any help. The descriptions of Nancy's "dates" read like soft porn, but Quan does pose some interesting questions about gender and sexuality and a certain brand of "sex-positive" feminism (represented by writers like Camille Paglia and Susie Bright). But the main point here is to be erotic and playful. Quan manages both in a book that makes perfect beach reading. --Beth Warrell

In timely step with stories glorifying characters created for video games, Quan's semi-autobiographical novel takes readers by the hand (and various other appendages) at the tail end of call girl Nancy Chan's career. Chan (whom Quan created for her Salon online column) is a "successful" (read: expensive) prostitute who spends more time listing her favorite clothes, restaurants and cosmetic tips than even Bret Easton Ellis did in American Psycho. In between $400-per-hour quickies at exclusive hotels, Nancy and her happy hooker pals Jasmine and Allison attend sex-industry activist meetings and debate the sinister reappearance of Jack, a former john who now appears to be obsessed with Allison. Nancy whines about this and her deepening relationship with her commitment-minded boyfriend to her shrink, also revealing how she plunged into prostitution as a teen. The novel has neither a substantial plot (Nancy dithering over whether to marry her dream boyfriend and get out of the life) nor sex appeal: Nancy's descriptions of her sensual encounters, be they professional or personal, are about as erotic as a stereo instruction manual ("always do a few extra Kegels afterwards"). Fans of Quan's online column may enjoy the continuation of Nancy's X-rated soap opera, but first-time readers may be put off by her snobbishness. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved