Editors' book-shelf;

              17
-NOQt 0OOK-Most
of the more than 20,000 books
published in the United States and
Canada each year are lost in the crowd,
and never come to the attention of
many people who would be glad to
know about them. On this page the
editors of H&S Reports present a few
recent titles among many that they be­lieve
may be of particular interest or
practical use to members of the Haskins
& Sells family at work, at home or on
vacation. No official endorsement is in­tended.
The reader remains his own
judge of a book.
The American Challenge, by J. J. Ser-van-
Schreiber. Atheneum, 1968, 278
pages, $6.95.
This is the highly readable and pro­vocative
book that has electrified Eu­rope
since its publication there last
year. In France, alone, a half million
copies were sold in three months. The
author, a French publisher-editor-poli­tician,
describes what he calls the "state
of collapse" of Europe in terms de­signed
to wake the continent up to the
economic invasion from across the At­lantic.
He sees the challenge less in
terms of sales and investment than in
the dynamism of American society and
especially the art of organization, which
releases energy through investment in
human beings. Now in English transla­tion,
this book is likely to be widely
talked about from coast to coast by
bankers, educators, housewives and
businessmen, including officials of H&S
clients.
The Forging of Our Continent, by
Charlton Ogburn, Jr. American Herit­age
Publishing Co., in association with
the Smithsonian Institution, 1968, 160
pages, $4.95.
The contrasting features of the North
American landscape as viewed from jet
plane or car window cause a traveler to
wonder at the powerful forces of nature
that shaped our continent. Here, in a
beautifully illustrated and scientifically
detailed book, is its geologic history.
Mr. Ogburn writes for the layman, with
the accuracy of a scientist who thor­oughly
understands his subject, and as
a poet in love with the beauty of Amer­ica.
He tells about the geologists whose
observations and reasoning have en­abled
them to read the history of our
land in the markings left by molten
lava, glacier ice, pounding ocean wave
and trickling stream. The author in­cludes
a guide to the principal geologic
features of the national parks and
monuments, as well as a glossary of
geologic terms.
Your Children's Teeth, by Theodore
Berland and Dr. Alfred Seyler, Mere­dith
Press, 1968, 237 pages, $6.95.
A dentist and a professional science
writer collaborate to point out to par­ents
the hows, whys and whens of den­tal
care for their children, from concep­tion
to adulthood. In emphasizing pre­ventive
dentistry, the authors stress
that dental health depends a great deal
on parents' attention to such details as
diet, brushing and regular visits to the
dentist. Especially valuable is the sec­tion
on the expensive question of teeth-straightening,
which helps those who
pay for it learn its importance.
How to Avoid the 10 Biggest Home-
Buying Traps, by A. M. Watkins. Mere­dith
Press, 1968, 138 pages, $3.95.
This book of guidance addressed to
everyone in the market for a house is
written by the same expert who con­tributed
the article "Should This House
Be Our Home?" to the Spring 1968
issue of H&S Reports. Mr. Watkins ex­plains
that the most common mistakes
made by homebuyers fit into a pattern
of traps that the forewarned can avoid.
They include, among others, over-pay­ment
for the house you buy, defects in
construction, poor design, and unsuita-bility
to the buyer's needs. Many of
these traps are hidden from the lay­man's
eyes, but Watkins' practical tips
can help a buyer discover them. So can
the photographs, which show the con­trast
between good, mediocre, and
downright horrible in housing. When
the stake is $20,000 or more, it is worth­while
to read a book like this.
Computers and Automation, by John
A. Brown. Arco Publishing Company,
1968, 245 pages, $5.00.
What are computers? How do they
work? What is computer language?
Programming? Data processing? Auto­mation?
An increasing number of peo­ple
in business, government and the
professions realize they must learn the
answers to such questions, but don't
know how to begin. The families of
H&S accountants must wonder about
the world of the computer that absorbs
their husbands and fathers. Mr. Brown
offers here a step-by-step guide for non­experts
who would like to know some­thing
about computers and their appli­cation,
without going into the details of
their construction. He includes a useful
glossary of computer terms, test ques­tions
after each chapter to keep the
reader on his mental toes, and a short
computer career guide for students.
The Money Managers, by the Invest­ment
Company Institute. McGraw-
Hill, 1967, 147 pages, $4.95. Paper­back
$1.95.
More than four million Americans of
all classes, accountants among them,
now invest in mutual funds. How many
of that number really know much about
how the funds work? In non-technical
language this authoritative, concise, yet
comprehensive introduction to the mu­tual
fund industry explains what mutual
funds are, what services they offer, and
how they differ from one another. Risks
are outlined as plainly as the possible
rewards. The mutual funds, the reader
is told, are run by conscientious, skilled
"money managers," whose expertise the
amateur investor cannot hope to match.
The book includes a chapter on the
federal and state legal safeguards that
protect mutual fund stockholders, and
a detailed bibliography. •