In the tradition of the #1 best-seller  SeinLanguage, Bantam Books proudly presents the first book  by Paul Reiser, television's sharpest, funniest  observer of love, marriage and other mysteries of  life. A veteran comic performer, Reiser is best-known  as the co-creator and star of the highly-rated NBC  comedy, "Mad About You", which  Time Magazine called "The season's  best new sitcom"in its 1992 debut. Every  Thursday night more than twenty million viewers watch  as Paul Reiser reveals the most intimate and  hilarious scenes of a marriage. Now for the first time,  Reiser brings his trademark wit to the page in a  book that will delight his eagerly-awaiting  audience, and anyone else who has ever fallen in love--or  tried not to. In Couplehood, a New York Times  bestseller for more than 40 weeks, Reiser reflects on  what it means to be half of a couple -- everything  from the science of hand holding, to the technique  of tag-team storytelling, to the politics of food  and why it always seems to come down to chicken or  fish.

Babyhood begins on an airplane, with Paul and wife blissfully unencumbered by children. They are seated across from the young parents (graying before his eyes) of a terrorizing 2-year-old and a screeching infant. This sobering reality manages magically to pale in a transcendent moment of the baby's bliss, uncomplicated by drool or colic, and the two decide: Now. Well, more or less now.

First they try to get pregnant, making expeditions to the bookstore to case out the shelves of baby books; then there are the bouncy reflections on who is, after all, cut out to parent (I don't know if, for example, Mozart actually had kids, but certainly there is no record of him ever leaving the office early to coach Peewee Soccer League). Later comes the account of sibling rivalry between the newborn and the family dog, and why women make better moms than men.

Babyhood is a thought-provoking exploration of the important questions of when and why to have children, many of which are answered in the book's endearing and often hilarious details. Reiser shares insights into a host of subjects that one doesn't necessarily consider when approaching parenthood.