JUST recently, reading Janna Malamud Smith’s memoir of her father, novelist Bernard Malamud, I was struck by the way this Brooklyn-born child of poor immigrants who were scarcely able to speak English ...

There are several recent books about how to read books, including “How Novels Work,” “How Fiction Works” and “How to Read Novels Like a Professor.”These books are not for anyone who starts out by ...

IDG Books, 358 pages, $19.99. When the first of the “for Dummies” books was published in 1991, the idea was to minimize the anxiety and frustration people feel about computers by poking fun at ...

I was recently rummaging through a huge pile of non-fiction books at a post-holiday sale, hoping to find some new winter reading material, when I discovered a copy of "Cats for Dummies" (IDG Books ...