BOOK REVIEWS

Symmetry Through the Eyes of a Chemist.2nd ed. By Istva´nHargittai and Magdolna Hargittai. Plenum Press: New York.1995. 469+ xii pp. No price included. ISBN 0-306-44851-3hdbk, 0-306-44852-1 pbk.

Instead of a highly technical treatment of the topic, the authorsdiscuss symmetry from a combination of both aesthetic and scientificviewpoints, spiced with a sprinkling of historical vignettes. Byintegrating the concept of symmetry into culture and science in general,they have created an elegant perspective. Their material has beenupdated to include references as recent as 1995, and they have continuedthe visual attractiveness of the first edition.They begin with an essay about the importance of symmetry and

briefly survey its functions in crystallography, fullerenes, periodic tables,etc. In the next chapter, they define simple and combined symmetries;to illustrate their points, they use examples as varied as the rose windowof Notre Dame Cathedral, snowflakes, and music by Bach. Chapter 3shifts the focus to molecular geometry and shapes before a digressioninto the mathematical tools intended to assist the reader in understandingthe sections on molecular vibration, electronic structures, and chemicalreactions. The book concludes with chapters on space-group and crystalsymmetries.Although some topics are presented at an elementary level, the book

requires a knowledge of chemistry for full appreciation of most of thematerial. The book should be appealing to any chemist interested ina captivating look at the applications of symmetry; it is a goodintroduction for the student or an entertaining review for the experiencedscientist.

Jan WilliamsMonsanto Company

CI960422L

S0095-2338(96)00422-2

The Art of Abstracting, 2nd ed. By Edward T. Cremmins.Information Resources Press: 1110 North Glebe Road, Suite550, Arlington, VA 22201. xvii+ 230 pp. 1996. ISBN0-87815-066-8 (paper).

Within the scientific and technical literature, particularly that oflibrary and information science, education, and technical writing, thedefinition of an “abstract” is very varied. The American NationalStandard Institute defines it tersely as the following: “An abstract isan abbreviated, accurate representation of the contents of a document,preferably prepared by its author(s) for publication with it”.The first edition of this book was published in 1982 and received

the Best Information Science Book Award from the American Societyfor Information Science (ASIS). The new edition significantly updatesand improves the earlier work. The literature on abstracting has beenthoroughly reviewed, extracted, or cited where appropriate. Thesuggested three-stage reading model for abstracting, that was introducedin the first edition, is revised and expanded; the three stages are thefollowing: Exploratory- to-Retrieval Reading, Responsive-to-InventiveReading, and Connective (Value-to-Meaning) Reading.The six Parts are divided into 21 Chapters, with seven Appendixes.

New references are added with a well-written Glossary and an excellentIndex. The book will be of great use to abstractors in training, as itprovides systematic, step-by-step instructions, with examples, both ofinitial writing of the abstract and, perhaps even more importantly,refinement into a document which conveys the maximum of usefulinformation in the minimum of words. The book will be useful alsofor experienced abstractors.

Venkat K. RamanChemical Abstracts SerVice

CI9604302

S0095-2338(96)00430-1

Reviews in Computational Chemistry. Edited by Kenny B.Lipkowitz and Donald B. Boyd. VCH Publishers, Inc.: 220East 23rd Street, New York, NY 10010. Vol. 6. 1995. xix+ 480 pp. List Price $ 110.00. ISBN 1-56081-667-8 (hardcopy), ISSN-10693599.This series brings together respected experts in the field of computer-

aided molecular research. Computational chemistry is increasingly usedin conjunction with organic, inorganic, medicinal, biological, physical,and analytical chemistry. This volume examines quantum chemistryof solvated molecules, molecular mechanics of inorganics and orga-nometallics, modeling of polymers, technology of massively parallelcomputing, and productivity of modeling software. It also includes aguide to force-field parameters and a new software compendium.The volume has tutorial-reviews on topics of interest to workers

within the domains of both science and technology. Each tutorial isfollowed by a review of the current state of the topic. The volume hasfive Chapters: (1) continuum solvation models: classical and quantummechanical implementations, (2) molecular mechanics force fields formodeling inorganic and organometallic compounds, (3) computationalmethods for modeling polymers, (4) high-performance computing incomputational chemistry, and (5) molecular modeling software in use.The tabulation in Appendix 1 will help users of molecular mechanics

and molecular dynamics programs track down supplemental parametersrequired for their calculation. Appendix 2 provides addresses, telephonenumbers, and email addresses of suppliers of software. The volumecan be highly recommended for everyone who wants to learn aboutthe present state of development in computational chemistry.

Venkat K. RamanChemical Abstracts SerVice

CI960431U

S0095-2338(96)00431-3

C Programming. A Modern Approach. By K. N. King. W.W. Norton & Company: New York. 1996. 661 pp. $39.95.ISBN 0-393-96945-2.Changing one’s programming language is a little like changing one’s

religious convictionssnot something to be done on a whim. A fewyears ago, I decided to switch from Fortran (which I had used for over20 years) to C. I purchased about a dozen different books purportingto explain how to use the C language. Most were densely unreadable,few had a usable index, and some were riddled with errors. Thelearning curve was unnecessarily steep.Now comes the book I really wanted, by Prof. Kim King of Georgia

State University. It is apparent that this book was written by someonewho has spent time teaching the subject. The writing style isentertaining and clear. There are many good examples throughout thebook. Each chapter includes a “Q & A” section which addressesfrequently asked questions as well as tangential issues which woulddetract from the flow of the text. There are frequent cross-referencesto related material in other parts of the book. Source code for the book’sprograms as well as errata are available on the author’s World-WideWeb page. And each chapter has a variety of exercises, enabling thereader to evaluate the learning process. Best of all, the index takesyou right to the part of the book you needsit is not too sparse, and itis not cluttered with irrelevant references.The first time I picked up this book I quickly found the solution to

a file-reading bug which had perplexed me for months. I am placingthis book at the top of my heap of programming texts, and I amrecommending it to all of my programming colleagues.

D. Eric WaltersFinch UniVersity of Health Sciences/The Chicago

Medical School

CI960432M

S0095-2338(96)00432-5

1050 J. Chem. Inf. Comput. Sci., Vol. 36, No. 5, 1996 BOOK REVIEWS