Book Review: 'The Babe in Boyland'

There’s more to the quasi-memoir The Babe in Boyland than the nation’s No. 1 syndicated sports-radio talk-show host The Fabulous Sports Babe (with Neal Karlen) telling various segments of the population to ”bl– me,” although there’s plenty of that, too. This is loudmouth literature, but the Babe, Nanci Donnellan, comes by it honestly — she’s paid her dues in plenty of locker rooms. It’s tough not to be captivated by her humor (she calls her on-air sound effect of a pipe cracking a knee a ”Gillooly” after Tonya Harding’s ex), her spirit (she’s survived myriad firings and she’s a Red Sox fan), and her honesty about things that get her ”underwear in a bunch” (Pete Rose, O.J., the ignorance of her callers). I wish there were more personal moments, like her recollection of hiding out in a Catholic school bathroom so that she could listen to every pitch of the World Series. But even so, the Babe delivers. A-