Keeping in Touch

Humor, intelligence, and not a little common sense inform the dozens of pieces in this third collection from a Pulitzer Prizewinning columnist. Syndicated in some 400 newspapers, Goodman, in these columns of the past four years, writes about people, issues and popular inanities with a skill that makes her a master of the 750-word form. Her recent remarriage and ""encounter'' with middle age make her observations on love, gender and midlife especially telling. With Goodman, however, half the delight lies in anticipating where her inquisitive mind will take her next. She brings us from Liz Taylor's need for ``privacy,'' to aerial burials, to the Nancy Drew books, to thoughtful examinations of AIDS and other topics of controversy and concern. This is vintage Goodman and certain to please her growing following. October 18