I have often wondered how other women handle the baseball life. I have moved three times in the past year and a half. I looked up as I was driving yesterday and couldn't remember which town I was in. Reading this book has calmed me. I gained energy just hearing the struggles the Hargroves have had to endure. Sharon is correct when she says you have to have a since of humor about it all. You have your good, your bad, and your hope. If you are a baseball wife or fan this book will open your eyes to the other side of the game.

This book should be read by every baseball fan and by anyone else that wants a successful marriage. Plus, this is the only book written with me in it!

I suppose that, with this book, Costa was getting around to summarizing and recounting what he regarded as significant in his career. Unfortunately, and I mean this with no animus, one wonders just how significant it has been. The encounter with Maugham is unenlightening,banal and centerpieced by a full page photograph of a note from Maugham to Costa stating "For Richard Costa in recollection of a pleasant chat." (Signed of course.)-Gee, I feel I know Maugham so much better now.-The Maugham part is only the first 32 pages though. The rest of the book is a concoction gleaned from the author's life of unrelated literary notions and meetings:H.G. Wells, Ms. Hemingway, Edmund Wilson etc. -The only of these encounters I found truly amusing and interesting was with the hysterical late wife of the writer Malcolm Lowry. She is already smashed by the time Costa meets her in mid-afternoon and, after a lunch of escargots, for which she has Costa pay, takes him back to her hotel room, where she continues to drink and leaves Costa fascinated by the welts on her back (Were they intended? Does she have violent lovers?)-Costa leaves her hotel room drunkenly as her late husband was famous for being (being bit by a poodle on the way out), thinking he has managed a sort of coup in getting her to admit that Malcolm had intended suicide.-It's, of course, really not such a surprise after all for anyone who knows anything about Malcolm....So, in summation, an interesting enough read. Mr. Costa has made some interesting acquaintances along the way....Still, for me, the whole book is worth the picture of Malc and Marge outside their cabin in Canada with drinks in their hands-Malc grinning like the cat that swallowed the canary!

Edmund Wilson is, of course, one of the most critically acclaimed American authors. His book, "Upstate", is, to my knowledge, his only autobiographical work. This book was recommended to me by a brilliant, eccentric co-worker who knows I love great books and remembers that I was reared in the Empire State.

One of the initial chapters of "Upstate" contains the most eye-opening descriptive history of "American" religions I have encountered. I ensure that any reader will gather wonderful fodder for future cocktail parties simply by reading Wilson's chapter on Upstate religions.

The balance of this book will appeal mainly to true Wilson scholars and bibliophiles who appreciate great writing. While Wilson's hand is superb, the content consists mainly of a detailed recitation of the history of Wilson's, rather average, familial line.

Nevertheless, the mere fact that this is the only book review I have written since attending Colgate University twenty-years ago will demonstrate that I loved the book and would highly recommend it to any true reader.

-Thomas Moran, Houston, Texas