DOROTHY WEIL -- LIFE, SEX, AND FAST PITCH SOFTBALL

Mercedes Mayfield is 14 years old and nothing is right. Her parents are separated, no one pronounces her name right (MERcedes), grownups pursue their usual mixed-up ways, even ancients like grandparents are hard to fathom, boys are the pits except for one who is almost cute, and fast-pitch baseball is the last thing on her Wish List. To her sports-obsessed father it's an opportunity for vastly better quality time than long hours at the mall every Saturday, where Mercedes buys inappropriate things her mother later has her return. Any reader who has been a player, a coach or a sidelines cheerer for amateur team sports can identify as the group of misfits pulls itself into a team and collateral benefits ensue for parents, grandparents, several other participants and, most importantly, for Mercedes herself. This is a quick read, and a funny one, but Cincinnati writer Dorothy Weil resists temptations to tie things up too neatly. She leaves us wondering what will happen on several fronts, although life has moved along and Mercedes isn't the only one who is more mature. Weil has previously published another comic novel, a literary biography, a book of poetry, a memoir and a thriller, but this is the first time she's taken on the world of team sports. She makes it around the bases with zest and style. (Jane Durrell) Grade: B+

DAVID RABE -- A PRIMITIVE HEART

DAVID RABE -- A PRIMITIVE HEART (GROVE PRESS)

David Rabe is best known as the author of searing dramas including Streamers and the profanity peppered Hurlyburly. A Primitive Heart is a collection of six short stories, many of which can be considered novellas with similar dramatic structures, minimalist dialogue and spiky casts of characters. There's little gore, but the language is not for the faint of heart; neither are the stories. Each is a narrative drama in which characters are pitted against their pasts and their families, and it's hardly surprising that the most wrenching battles are self-inflicted. The odyssey begins with the title story about a couple whose marriage is headed for the rocks but who are hoping that the miracle of a baby will salvage whatever is left. "Madonna" is a savagely funny tale of a young woman who longs to be the diva herself even as the quest takes her into realms of spirituality she never dreamed of. A group of Texas low-lifes who rode the pre-Enron wave in Texas come up with a plot to take revenge on a former associate in the collection's best story, "Some Loose Change. " A lapsed Catholic writer is forced to confront his roots when he visits the priest who served as his mentor. It's Rabe at his acerbic best. (Anne Arenstein) Grade: B+

WILLIAM LEITH -- THE HUNGRY YEARS

WILLIAM LEITH -- THE HUNGRY YEARS (GOTHAM BOOKS)

British journalist William Leith has written a memoir about not only his addiction to food but also drugs, drinking and bad relationships and why sometimes the more we have, the emptier we feel. Leith takes us on a one-year journey struggling with his weight ("I am fat. Therefore everything I do is fat. This morning I take a fat shower, squirming around in the suds like an oversized cherub"), enduring alcohol and drug hangovers ("When I woke up that morning, all those months ago, with my head in a pile of CDs, I felt better than I thought I would. First of all, I was breathing") and countless breakups with girlfriends ("She slid her hand across the table, reaching for mine, my mobile phone rang, and I picked up my mobile instead of her hand") before he gets psychological help. Leith overcomes his inner demons with the therapy sessions detailed toward the back of the book bringing closure to his addictions. The Hungry Years is sometimes rambling and confusing as it skips from one time period to another, but that's also part of its charm, the fevered way Leith tells his story. If you have an addiction, this memoir could be a gentle reminder that you can do something about it. This is Leith's first book, and it's an enjoyable, insightful read. (Larry Gross) Grade: A-

JOYCE CAROL OATES -- MISSING MOM

JOYCE CAROL OATES -- MISSING MOM (ECCO)

Missing Mom is Joyce Carol Oates' 44th novel, and sad as it may be, it shows. Here is the story of 31-year-old Nikki Eaton, a writer, a wanderer, a very average, selfish woman stuffed into thrift-store clothing and purple hair in a vain attempt to seem interesting, who loses her mother to a pointless murder. Her mother, whom Nikki (of course) took for granted, is the irreproachable slaughtered lamb, which makes the story seem facile from the start. Oates' description of what follows -- court cases, testimony, cleaning out the house -- falls flat. Nikki's relationships with her dead mother, her matronly older sister and the blah men in her life are so obvious -- I can't help thinking that Oates has simply regurgitated characters from other, more enthusiastic novels and put them here without a thought. Yet Oates had to have been thinking about something: Missing Mom is dedicated to the memory of her own mother, who died in 2003 at the not-too-shocking age of 87. Oates might be trying to voice her own grief in a way that makes sense. The problem with the book is that it makes too much sense. There is nothing juicy to look forward to, nothing out of the ordinary that happens. The story follows a well-paved path and beats us over the head with a boring concept of grief. (Laura Leffler) Grade: C

Elliott Hester -- Adventures of a Contiental Drifter

ELLIOTT HESTER -- ADVENTURES OF A CONTIENTAL DRIFTER (ST. MARTIN'S PRESS)

In this travel book by syndicated columnist Elliot Hester, crickets sing with "demonic rectitude," chandeliers "hang incongruently" and people laugh "like epileptics at a comedy show." These statements are all meaningless. Elsewhere, trees are "scabrous" and eyes "slither." I became so confused, I typed "scabrous trees" into Google and felt better to see only nine hits, the first of which was a book excerpt written by ... you guessed it: Elliot Hester. Incidentally, demonic rectitude gets zero hits. I know I'm a pedant, but I expect a columnist syndicated by more than 50 newspapers to exhibit a better grasp of the English language than a lowly book reviewer. And if he doesn't, I expect his editor to pick up the slack. This is awful writing. Worse still, I've visited some of the same places Hester did and I don't believe he experienced some of the things he writes about. After spending weeks in Bangkok, I simply don't believe people kept asking him if he wanted a young girl for the night. I find it even harder to believe that, after registering his disgust, he headed out to Patpong, Bangkok's red light district. Finally, I quit on page 194, when Hester was awakened by the "early morning squeal of a car horn," because car horns don't squeal and I'm a pedant. (Chris Kemp) Grade: F