THE WAY I SEE IT by...

THE WAY I SEE IT by Patti Davis (Jove: $5.99; 294 pp., illustrated) . Davis unleashed a firestorm of controversy when she published this autobiography that included unflattering portraits of an abusive, tranquilizer-popping mother and a father “whose presence felt like absence.” In many ways, it’s a depressingly typical poor-little-rich girl’s account of a dysfunctional family, laced with drugs, feuds, confrontations and sexual explorations. But Davis’ father was President of the United States for eight years, and readers seeking to decipher the messy legacy of the Reagan Administration will find some clues in Davis’ brave (if somewhat self-serving) book, particularly the descriptions of her father’s eerie ability to deny the existence of anything that displeases him.