Being a true book nerd means not only having a never-ending "to be read" pile and a bookish tote bag. It also means knowing your favorite author's life story, being able to recite passages at the drop ...

Kids are curious and like learning about strange things. For example, did you know that tarantulas will fling some of their barbed hairs off their back at a potential predator? Or that some germs are ...

TARAWA: THE STORY OF A BATTLE—Robert Sherrod—Duell, Sloan & Pearce ($2). Between the water and the sea wall on Tarawa atoll, there was 20 feet of sand and brown-green coral; those 20 feet (for a ...

Mark Twain’s legendary wit extended far beyond his novels, with a life packed full of bizarre inventions, daring adventures, ...

Over the centuries, humans have gone from merely spotting cryptic celestial bodies to studying the details of deep-space objects and alien planets, and investigating mysterious dark matter and ...

Here are a few of the “100 Amazing Facts About the Negro” that Henry Louis Gates Jr. brings to our attention in his new book: • Nearly 8 million white Americans have hidden African heritage. That ...

Last year, I learned a piece of information so startling that I spent months repeating it to anyone who would listen. It came from my colleague Elizabeth Kolbert’s book “The Sixth Extinction,” and it ...

Explain the facts of life to your kids without embarrassment using these fun and informative sex-education books. Sometimes when children ask those awkward questions about sex, relationships and ...

Like most writers, I can be a stickler about language, but anyone who hangs out with me for long enough will learn that I favor a certain ungrammatical turn of phrase: “true fact.” Technically ...