Books listed in this column are not...

Books listed in this column are not necessarily recommended by The Times. All About Escrow by Sandy Gadow (Sandy Gadow, P.O. Box 80824, San Marino, Calif. 91108, $12.95 plus $2 shipping and handling) is the third edition of a large-format paperback that answers most of the questions the average home buyer will have about this mundane but important subject. There are cartoons by Dave Patton and plenty of sample forms. There is even a glossary and an index.

Manufactured Housing Industry Directory of Financing Services and Other Housing Related Organizations (Meetings+Plus, P.O. Box 1981, Palm Springs, Calif. 92263, $30) is the third (1987-88) edition of a publication that includes 18 separate directories of names, addresses and telephone numbers of virtually every source associated with manufactured home financing, government financing and housing agencies, housing trade associates and housing manufacturers.

The Home Inspection Manual by Alfred H. Daniel (Storey Communications Inc., Pownal, Vt. 05261, $9.95) is written in non-technical language and is aimed at prospective home buyers. Even if you hire a professional inspector to check out your house--and you should--this book will aid in understanding what can cause future grief if you decide to buy the house. It will also help decipher the professional inspector’s report.

Design Office Management Handbook edited by Fred A. Stitt (Arts & Architecture Press, 2730 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 300, Santa Monica, Calif. 90403, $35, 420 pages, indexed) is a nuts-and-bolts guide to virtually all the business aspects of operating a design office. Architects and other design professionals need guidance in the areas of public relations, business development, collecting fees, office procedures and the other non-design aspects of a practice. This handbook is edited in such a way that it can be read from front to back and also serve as a ready reference guide.

It’s not going to be made into a movie--not even a made-for-TV one--but it’s required reading for contractors and public officials throughout Southern California. The official title is Standard Specifications for Public Works Construction (Building News Inc., 3055 Overland Ave., Los Angeles 90034, $15.50) but everyone calls it the “Green Book.” Sam Jaffe of Building News noted that this is the 20th anniversary of the first edition of the “Green Book.” The occasion was marked in August by the presentation of citations from the Los Angeles Board of Public Works to representatives of the book’s authors, the Joint Cooperative Committee of the Southern Cahpter of the American Public Works Assn. and the Southern California Districts of the Associated General Contractors of California. The “Green Book” is kept forever green with periodic revisions and--every four years--a new book. The current (1985) edition comes with 1986 and 1987 supplements.