In her new book, Wendy writes about each of these quests and mid-life obsessions:

On diets and cooking ("I was born to order up; my favorite breakfast china has always been a paper cup embossed with a picture of the Parthenon")...

On getting into shape and hiring a personal trainer, ("Sue is on hand 24 hours a day to say, 'Stop, in the name of self-love'; she is not just a health sergeant. Sue is a fat-free beacon of light")...

On the truth of Wendy's denominational heritage (a la Madeline Albright and Hillary Rodham Clinton who embraced their own Jewish ancestry) as an Episcopalian! (the name Wasserstein was changed from Waterstone by a distant relative in order to get his child into an Ivy League College and Mt. Sinai Medical School)...

On attending the Golden Globe Awards ("I knew I would emerge a fashion victim or even a suicide if I entered the Evening Wear competition")...

She writes about the joy of taking eight DeWitt Clinton High School students to the theater seven times during the course of a year -- seven matinees, pizza after the show, and talk about the play.... on the traditions of the Holidays: on Christmas, and on Mother's Day and her mother, Lola Wassertein ("Lola encourages sending a homemade greetingcard. A personal citation like, 'I love you Gramma' or 'Mother, I promise you next year to be married with three musically inclined children, a co-op and a degree in Dentistry' is worth a thousand words"). And she writes movingly about her sister's breast cancer, and, the birth, at forty eight, of her own first child, Lucy Jane.