Books listed in this column are not...

Books listed in this column are not necessarily recommended by The Times.

Making Mortgages Work for You by Robert Irwin (McGraw-Hill, 185 pages, $12.95) is a thorough revision of the 1982 book “The New Mortgage Game.” A lot of mortgage checks have been dropped in mailboxes since then, so an updating was necessary. Thankfully, Irwin has retained the readability of the earlier book. This is the kind of book a person can read through from start to finish, rather than using it as a reference work. The trade paperback has an index, so it can serve that purpose as well. Irwin covers the advantages and disadvantages of 15-year mortgages, the good, the bad and the ugly of adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs), creative financing, the ins and outs of FHA and VA mortgages and many other topics. An excellent guide to an important subject.

Gaston’s La Jolla by Gaston Lokvig (Carol Mendel Publications, P.O. Box 6022, San Diego 92106; 96 pages, $19.95 plus $2.05 postage) contains more than 100 illustrations of the seaside city by Lokvig, a long-time Southland resident whose drawings have appeared in the “Cityscape” series in the real estate section of The Times. Some of the illustrations date back to the early 1960s and--sadly--depict buildings and scenes that no longer exist. The author/artist could have included more historical data about his subjects, but it’s a shortcoming that’s compensated by the book’s simple beauty.