THE JOY OF BEING SINGLE by...

THE JOY OF BEING SINGLE by Allia Zobel, illustrated by Roz Chast (Workman: $5.95). A friend reportedly dared Zobel to think of 20 good reasons for remaining single, and the text of this small book consists of a fairly standard collection of one-liners about the supposed pleasures of living alone. New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast redeems the threadbare material by carrying it to absurd extremes in her off-the-wall drawings. Zobel asserts “You never have to fight about turning down the electric blanket”; Chast’s prim bachelorette fries eggs on hers. Only Chast would crumple a fender on the rim of a flying saucer to illustrate the old line, “You don’t have to make up excuses if you dent the car.”