INNER SPRINGS

There's an autobiographical feel to this book of random ramblings of Rose, wife, mother and grandmother, as the author of Amateur's Holiday and The Pleasure of Your Company writes another anecdotal record in the Mrs. Appleyard and Mrs. Miniver genre. Potpourri portrait of a Bostonian, of her family, of incidents and people . There's a record of a trip to be with her grandchildren while her daughters-in-law had babies; there's her return to her husband; there's a night sortie with a grandson to see peepers; there's the doing over of the house, a recipe for keeping peace in the household, a prayer for a practising housewife, the cottage at Cape Cod, house noises, cooking, silver polishing, and so on and so on. There's much of the charm of the other books -- but little of the incisiveness, the crisp humor.