Country Days

Sweet-natured and filled with amusement at life's twists and turns, Taylor (To School Through the Fields) should please fans and win herself new admirers with this collection of autobiographical anecdotes interspersed with homely poems celebrating everyday life. Starting with ``Anna's Corset,'' the author recalls a month of roaming the Irish countryside with a visiting American youth, both youngsters on the last rung of childhood, reluctant to take the first step into the unknown world of adolescence. ``A Friend'' gracefully creates a bridge from the past to the present, in which the rest of the collection is set. ``The Wedding Garment'' is a wry account of the trials, tribulations and ultimate rewards of two clothes-shopping expeditions, the first involving a headstrong teenager and the second an equally opinionated older gentleman. ``Aunty Mary's Handbag'' tenderly recalls the cantankerous relative who ``constantly assured me that my children were badly reared and my husband badly trained.'' These charming, chatty anecdotes are as affecting as a long talk with an astute friend. (Mar.)