When Heather Byer moved to New York from teh Midwest in the early 1990s she was like thousands of newcomers before her: wholesome overeducated eager to jump head first into the ruthless exciting worlds of publishing and film. In Sweet: An Eight Ball Odyssey Byer recounts her first fumbling attempts to learn a game that beckoned her for years. She describes the hypnotic pull that surrounds billiards: the troubled players who lose themselves in the game; the constant quest for the win on those lush green tables.