Dick Clark’s Easygoing Guide to Good Grooming by Dick Clark (Dodd, Mead & Co.: $15.95).

This book tells the reader right up front not to expect much of anything new or different that hasn’t been stated in other books before. As it says in the preface: “Why bother bringing back the old stuff that everybody knows about? Well, for one thing, not everybody does know the basics of good grooming. . . . For those who do know them, there is nothing like a refresher course, and everyone needs one from time to time.”

Dick Clark also says it’s important to get old messages out in “as many voices as possible” and give the subject “another kind of phrasing or thrust or energy that may hit you in the most effective way.”

Clark offers tips for men in a wide range of areas: cutting down on cholesterol, measuring one’s heartbeat after completing aerobic workouts, buying underwear (“the only kind of underwear you don’t want to wear is baggy boxers”), toothpaste selection, simulating tans with bronzers, hair transplants, skin cancer and more. Trouble is, it’s hard to take medical advice from a man whose expertise is hosting TV shows, even if he is quoting or paraphrasing doctors and other experts.

Guide to Artful Knitwear Designs

Stitches in Time by Sue Bradley (Henry Holt & Co.: $24.95).

Sweater freaks are likely to fall in love with this book. And those among them who don’t knit may well be calling around attempting to lure the best knitters to stitch up several of the designs in this collection for them. As Sue Bradley, a knitwear designer, describes in the introduction: “Yarns can be used like paint, with different colours and textures mixed together to create rich and exciting fabrics.”

The delightful, one-of-a-kind garments she has included are adapted from historical designs dating from ancient Egypt to the 1940s. But don’t think for a moment that you’ll save much money by investing in the book and knitting and purling your way to these glorious creations. She uses the best yarns, sometimes adds such things as silver coin, beads and rhinestones.

Several of the styles from the book are offered in kit form, ranging in price from $46 for a puffed-sleeved Victorian sweater in wool and cotton to $100 for a multicolored Renaissance sweater in wool and mohair with rhinestones. And those prices don’t include the considerable labor required to produce the garments.

A Mixed Bag of Magical Remedies

Adrien Arpel’s 851 Fast Beauty Fixes and Facts, The First Collection of Beauty Shortcuts, Tips and Tricks You Can Do in as Little as Three Minutes, by Adrien Arpel with Ronnie Sue Ebenstein (Dell: $8.95).

Adrien Arpel and her co-author, Ronnie Sue Ebenstein, have taken hundreds of age-old beauty tricks, mixed them with a goodly number of new ones, and presented them in a light breezy format that makes for effortless reading.

Want full hair instead of thin? The authors recommend not using mousse (they say it will weigh thin hair down and make it look thinner and greasy) but using a combination of hair spray and a touch of mousse instead to get soft control without sacrificing body. The authors include “fast fixes” for virtually every beauty area: skin, hair, eyes, lips, teeth, nails, hair, feet. If you got it, they got a way to make it more beautiful.

And there are whole sections on fragrance, the sun, cellulite, bathing and shaving. Yes, even shaving (it’s suggested that women who want smoother, silkier skin forgo shaving creams and try almond, sesame, sunflower or peanut oil as lubricants instead).