Cathy Day’s gutsy memoir is the stuff of a great Lucille Ball episode. Comeback Season is funny, sad; wise, idiotic; realistic, hopelessly romanticized. It’s a book to read all the way through — no flipping and skimming. Savor the writing style and the clever way events unfold within a zigzag of memory smacking into the moment.

Cathy Day starts her story in 2005, when she is 37 and single; is in the midst of her dream job and single; savors being within an easy day’s drive from her family and single. Uh-huh, the operative word is single, but the desired outcome is married. Day’s story is a standout because of her sharp insights connecting the Indianapolis Colts’ “comeback season” with her own seemingly “doomed love life.”

Day, a Peru, Ind., native, set her sights on being a writer and a university teacher of writing. The assumption is marriage will simply follow. When it doesn’t, Day panics, then goads herself into taking action. She’s coach Dungy and the whole team barreling down the field to win the gold ring. How her season plays out is the stuff of good living presented as artfully as did the Queen of Comedy, who taught us misadventures have a place in prime time.

Day will have booksignings for Comeback Season: How I Learned to Play the Game of Love (Free Press, 2008, $24; www.CathyDay.com) Jan. 29, 7 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, 14709 U.S. Hwy. 31 N., Carmel, and Jan. 30, 6 p.m. at Blue Crew Sports Grill, 7035 E. 96th St. (book sales by Big Hat Books).