The Church Ladies' Divine Desserts  (G. P. Putnam Sons, 2001, ISBN:0-399-14780-2)      This engaging and irresistible collection of dessert recipes and reminiscences celebrate the lives and cooking skills of the women affectionately known as "church ladies".      While others may content themselves with fruit or cheese, church ladies understand that desserts that take some doing-such as banana pudding topped with golden meringue, cheesecake covered with blueberry compote, or pound cake with a crumb as fine as powder-will satisfy any sweet tooth. And so they kept the dessert table covered with their homemade treats, even if some of them may be only simple concoctions.      Among their many attributes, church ladies are unfailingly frugal with the church's resources. It was probably a church lady who first announced, "Save your fork!" Her intention may have been to collect all the plastic forks, to wash them for use at another meal. Or it may have been to remind everyone that the best was yet to come and dessert was on its way      Whatever the case, this book is a tribute to church ladies for their unflagging devotion to their church, their family, their community-and for their divine desserts.