Books: The Editors Like

Yesterday BY MARIA DERMOÛT

Recollections of her childhood in Java, by the Dutch authoress of that remarkable poetic novel, The Ten Thousand Things. This book, actually her first, is full of shimmering light and color, exotic detail, and eerie but erratic insights into the doings of her elders. A little wonder, SIMON AND SCHUSTER, $3.00.

Segaki BY DAVID STACTON

Set in Japan in the fourteenth century, this story of a Zen Buddhist abbot blends philosophy, mysticism, history, and fantasy and makes a compelling book out of the unlikely mixture. PANTHEON, $3.50.

The Flight of Ikaros BY KEVIN ANDREWS

For four years, Mr. Andrews poked about Greece as an archaeologist, but his book is about the people he met and the ways and feel of their country, and it is written with great love and a superbly effective, flexible style. HOUGHTON MIFFLIN, $3.75.

La Petite BY JOAN SANDERS

Mrs. Sanders’ biography of Louise de la Valliere, the gentle girl who became the mistress of Louis XIV because she loved him, is written with charm, skill, and vitality. HOUGHTON MIFFLIN, $4.00.

Daughter of France BY V. SACKVILLE-WEST

There was more to the life of Louis XIV’s hoydenish cousin, La Grande Mademoiselle, than the matrimonial fiasco commemorated by Madame de Sévigné, and this lively, detailed biography does belated justice to that muddleheaded princess, DOUBLEDAY, $4.95.

Richard Coeur de Lion BY PHILIP HENDERSON

A fast-moving, unsentimental life of a too-muchromanticized king, whose gaudy activities still make good reading, although they seem to have been of small benefit to anyone. NORTON, $5.95.

By Rocking Chair Across America BY ALEX ATKINSON AND RONALD SEARLE

A spoof of life in the United States by Mr. Atkinson, a Punch author who has never seen the place, and Mr. Searle, a cartoonist who has seen it too wel., FUNK & WAGNALLS, $3.95.

Dear Dead Days BY CHARLES ADDAMS

Rooting through Victorian archives, Mr. Addams has turned up a batch of pictures illustrating all the wholesome virtue of the last century. His trove includes a photograph of a rat hunt in Paris, motorcar massacres, and a two-headed baby. PUTNAM, $3.95.

One Man’s Meter BY W. W. WATT

The trials of the citizen, parent, and householder, poor fellow, lamented in impish verses that reduce quiet desperation to unquiet absurdity. RINEHART, $3.00.