THE HOUSE IN MY HEAD

...is the house that Dorothy and Dick built as a successor to Rockmeadow...and as a book it's an obvious sequel to My Favorite Things which extends, as did that book, a personalized invitation to gracious living. Mrs. Rodgers wanted a house which would be ""practical, comfortable, easy to maintain, beautiful"" as well as one which works on all these levels and this is how it grew, with the help of architect John Stonehill, from assorted ideas--a driveway with dogwood, a dressing room with good ventilation. Even if she's rather charmingly vague about costs (""a dream coming true is priceless""), she does talk about all kinds of other practical things--lighting, woods, fabrics, Vermont tile for the roof, landscaping, etc. etc. Within a year the house was built, the Jacqueline Picasso hanging over the fireplace, and she was entertaining many of the celebrities whose names drop throughout to give this an additional allure. All of it has a 57th Street finish--it is very tony, very tasteful, and the pictures of the house and the setting, thirteen in full color, will corroborate it. The book will have a big picture-window exposure: Literary Guild selection; color television tapes; House Beautiful and Look magazine excerpts, and its obvious appeal for any housewife who has learned to put the aspirant h in hostess is unquestionable.