Takes A Village

UNFORTUNATELY for Hillary Rodham Clinton, it is as difficult to balance the roles of first lady and provocative author as it is to be the president's wife and take a leading part in setting public policy.Her new book, ''It Takes a Village and Other Lessons Children Teach Us,'' is full of reminiscences, common-sense observations, statistics and references to research. It is also comprehensive, with chapters devoted to everything from nutrition and television habits to school reform and health care.

WHAT BEGAN as an idea for a birthday present for her daughter has turned into a series of books and a mission for Harper's Choice resident Jean Aziz. Two years ago, Aziz's daughter, Astrid Nielsen, who lives in New York City, passed a milestone as she turned 30. "It's kind of a turning-point birthday. For somebody who is 30 and has everything, you want to give them something special. So I wrote her a letter that said, `These are all the things I've learned since I turned 30,'" Aziz said.

Help available for caregivers of the agedThe challenging and sometimes overwhelming circumstances of caring for aging relatives were illustrated in Dan Rodricks' column, "Care of ill mother too much for woman" (Nov. 14). A daughter tried to manage her ill mother's affairs herself with discouraging results. Caring for an older person does not have to be a singular responsibility, as seemed to be the case in this situation.The Maryland Office on Aging and 19 local agencies on aging offer a variety of programs and services to assist older individuals and caregivers.

Faith Ringgold invented an art form in 1983, piecing African-American traditions together to create painted story quilts.Two years ago, she won the Coretta Scott King Award for illustration for "Tar Beach," a Caldecott Honor Book based on her story quilt of the same name. Her flat, folk-art style of painting transferred beautifully to the picture book.Now she has written and illustrated "Dinner at Aunt Connie's House" (Hyperion, $14.95, 32 pages, ages 5-9), which was inspired by her 1986 story quilt, "The Dinner Quilt."

CHARIOT PARADE History meets the present at Baltimore's sixth annual Hare Krishna Rathayatra Chariot Parade, India's ancient festival of chariots. A 30-foot-high hand-pulled chariot will travel on Light Street while performers play music, dance and sing. The Festival of India commences after the parade reaches McKeldin Square. ....................... The parade begins at noon Saturday behind the Maryland Science Center, 601 Light St. McKeldin Square is at the Inner Harbor, Light and Pratt streets.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton is the author of a new book outlining where he thinks the country ought to be heading.The president's contract calls for him to receive neither an advance nor royalties for "Between Hope and History: Meeting America's Challenges for the 21st Century."The book is coming out at the same time in the presidential election cycle as a book he and Vice President Al Gore wrote four years ago.That book, a paperback called "Putting People First," was a compendium of 1992 campaign promises.

Hillary Rodham Clinton told a crowd of more than 800 people last night at a Democratic fund-raiser in Baltimore that Americans, particularly women, must come together to build strong communities to tackle the problems of society as it moves into the next century.Clinton appeared at a fund-raiser at the Hyatt Regency Hotel sponsored by the Women's Leadership Forum, an affiliate of the Democratic National Committee that is working to boost voter turnout among women.'No stranger' to cityThe event, which was attended by almost every major Democratic elected official in Maryland, including Gov. Parris N. Glendening, Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke and Sens.

Erica Jong, the writer who schooled a generation about women's desires and the pleasures of commitment-free sex, has some new bits of knowledge to impart as she pours her passions into grandmotherhood. The secrets to staying young, she told a full ballroom at the Sheraton Columbia Hotel on Tuesday, are laughter, cardio, yoga and teaching the next generation. The other recipe -- aside from sex -- is grandchildren, she said. "Generativity" is the stage of life where one invests more in the next generation than in oneself, she said, adding, "I want to point out that very few people get to that."

THE REPUBLICANS achieved this much: They put a little drama into the Democrats' conclave next week in Chicago.Will Dems turn the other cheek? If so, they would be runningagainst the grain of inside political wisdom: Nice guys usually fall in the polls.New thinking, however, suggests that slinging dirt also hurts. So what will it be, high road or low?High, insists the president.But it would be so un-Democratic to shackle speakers the way the other guys did. And the temptations will be great.

Stacks of books came out after the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan flap, after the O.J. Simpson trial and after Princess Diana crashed in the Parisian tunnel. Each time a major news story reaches closure, someone always tries to make cents of it all."Monica's Story" will be only the first big book to appear in the aftermath of President Clinton's impeachment trial.George Stephanopoulos' "All Too Human," a memoir of his years as one of Clinton's closest advisers, will be excerpted in the issue of Newsweek available March 8 before going on sale three days later.