By Martha Frankel
240 pages; Tarcher/Penguin

She doesn't always play her cards right. But entertainment journalist Martha Frankel, who grew up watching middle-aged men in leisure suits playing poker at her parents' table and scored her first kiss at the racetrack, proves in her intimate, exuberant memoir, Hats & Eyeglasses (Tarcher/Penguin), that even in the face of a gambling addiction, frank self-appraisal and an armload of hugs can sometimes win the day.

— Cathleen Medwick