Life, a Warning

A contributor to People and other magazines, Brush ( Men: An Owner's Manual now presents this humorous compendium of the perils of modern life. In her tongue-in-cheek ""Short History of Paralyzing Fears,'' she describes such debilitating annoyances as people who have had too much assertiveness training and insipid songs that keep running through your head. It may be true that ``modern fears are not that big a deal,''as she claims, but here they are, all the same: the fear of waking up and not waking up; of amnesia and remembering; of pimentos and lime Jello; of jokey dads and ugly house plants. In Brush's hands, a lot of this is funny. (March)