HOW TO GET THINGS REALLY FLAT

By Andrew Martin (The Experiment, 221 pages, $14.95)

British author Andrew Martin has put together a delightfully amusing tale about the joys and tribulations of doing housework that also serves as a very good primer on how to actually do housework. His main target audience is men. But women, I think, will also find Martin's observations funny and many of his tips helpful. He has lots of tips, from the common-sense "You can't watch subtitled DVDs while ironing ... " or "In laundry -- and only in laundry -- apartheid is a good thing" to the obscure "Ostrich feather dusters carry an electrostatic charge that enables them to collect up dust" and thus are better dusters than synthetic ones. The book is well- organized and has chapters on the proper ways to wash clothes, iron, dust, vacuum, wash dishes and clean the bathroom and kitchen. There's a chapter on how men should handle themselves in the supermarket and one on "Advanced Housework," which covers getting red wine stains out of carpets and doing windows. And if, after laughing your way through Martin's text, you're still not into doing housework, he has a tip for that, too: Hire a cleaner.

MILFORD REID, sports designer

America's Girl

Tim Dahlberg with Mary Ederle Ward and Brenda Greene (St. Martin's Press, 294 pages, $25.99)

America's first female sports hero -- one you've probably never heard of -- gets her due with this look at her 1926 triumph as the first woman to conquer the English Channel. Gertrude Ederle, the humble daughter of German immigrants, was as quick as a fish in the water, and had the hardheaded determination of a modern-day Tiger Woods. Twenty-year-old Trudy, as she was known, was only driven harder by those who doubted a member of the fairer sex could take on the dangers of the channel. Her accomplishment was even more remarkable given her almost-crippling shyness and significant hearing problem. Two million people turned out for her homecoming in the streets of New York -- the most ever for an athlete, male or female, according to the book. Like the best nonfiction writers, Dahlberg, an Associated Press sports columnist, puts you in the channel with Trudy, fighting the tides for hours, saltwater stinging your eyes. He also weaves in compelling details about female swimmers' struggle to be taken seriously as athletes, the channel competitors of the era and the evolution of bathing suits, among other fascinating tidbits. Trudy's story is a forgotten piece of history that deserves to be remembered.

KATHLEEN CLONTS, COPY EDITOR