The subtitle of Amazons [by Cleo Birdwell] is "an intimate memoir by the first woman ever to play in the National Hockey League." She is Cleo Birdwell, who was reared in Badger, Ohio, where, as a youngster, she spent a good deal of time playing hockey. Our story begins with Cleo signing a contract with the New York Rangers, the ensuing news conference and meeting with the Garden (as in Madison Square) president, James Kinross, a crude-mouthed alcoholic. Throughout the memoir we see glimpses of the hockey world which include Cleo's dressing room, which, though separate and of questionable sanctity, she considers unnecessarily discriminatory. For the most part the book does not deal with hockey but concentrates on Cleo's relationships with Floss, her agent who plays strip monopoly with one of her clients, her hippy brother who is an actor in blue movies, an assortment of men who...