STRANGERS IN THE SENATE

A personal but choppy overview of Boxer's 1992 fight for the US Senate—and of the races of other women who preceded or joined her there. Probably better subtitled ``So You Want to be a Woman Senator,'' Boxer's short account (written with her daughter's help) hip-hops around from her entrance into politics to brief but admiring profiles of other female senators. These legislators range from Rebecca Felton of Georgia, appointed in 1922 to serve one day of a man's unfinished term, to Maryland's Barbara Mikulski, reelected to a second term in 1992 with the new wave of women senators that included Dianne Feinstein, Carol Moseley-Braun, Patty Murray, and Boxer herself. Reviewing how the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas confrontation galvanized women's support for women candidates, Boxer describes the march of seven women, including herself, from the House of Representatives to the Senate to ask members of the all-male Judiciary Committee to back off and investigate Hills's charges further. They were refused admittance: ``We don't allow strangers here'' was the explanation. There's a brief look at Boxer's debut in California politics by way of a run for country supervisor; at her Senate campaign (when she considered dropping out, her children convinced her to stay the course by reading her Dr. Seuss); and at issues and goals that she believes women senators should address—from abortion rights and gun control to aid to children from conception (via prenatal care) through adolescence (via school reform and mentoring programs). Some amusing anecdotes and much generous praise for her colleagues—but unfocused and meandering. (Includes a succinct, inspirational foreword by Hillary Rodham Clinton) (Thirty-two pages of b&w photographs—not seen)