THIS HALF OF THE APPLE IS MINE

This daybook, strictly housebound in its concerns, is all about marriage ""and a tattered little nature's half acre it is too"". Mrs. Lubold's commentary, which proceeds with a casual disarray, in a flurry of children (she has four), pets, broken appliances, bills (she has a very shaky approach to the budget) follows her from the privacy assault of living in a New York housing development through several moves. Then there's the family vacation, Christmas, the sick husband, the PTA, etc. etc. and throughout, in a McGinleyesque fashion (she hasn't quite inherited her apron) she asserts the rewards of domesticity and considers the mystique a ""mistake."" Pick-up, put-down reading.