THE MOST POPULAR wine books are beginner’s guides, a publisher once told me. Whether directed at “dummies” or filled with factoids designed to appeal to millennials, these introductory works can give a tyro wine lover a terrific head start and hopefully inspire a lifelong love of wine.

Some of the beginners’ books I’ve selected below are updates of old favorites, while others are newcomers that bear a little resemblance (or a lot) to their literary forebears. Any one of them might please the wine novices in your life.

How to Fake Your Way Through a Wine List

Katherine Cole (Sterling Epicure), $18

This book is appealing and nicely designed, but you might not want to take it along to a steakhouse or bistro as a furtive under-the-table read. It’s a bit too general and much too large (7.8 inches by 5.5 inches) for that. Nervous restaurant-goers would be better off reading it at home and jotting down notes from the color-coded tables of wine pairings. Sample: Ms. Cole recommends Penedès Cava, Tavel Rosé and Zweigelt to accompany smoked fish. For broccoli and green beans she has even more suggestions—18 to be exact, which is pretty impressive, if a tad hard to believe.

Ms. Cole also includes profiles of a number of specific, if sometimes oddly chosen, wines. I understand writing about white Burgundy but why Margaret River Cabernet or Western Cape Pinotage? Are these wines she thinks readers want to or should know more about because they are comparatively obscure, or is she using them to fill out pages?

Even so, readers will find the tone chatty and familiar. It’s like a snappier version of an earlier—and more comprehensive—book, “What to Drink with What You Eat,” by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page (2006, Bulfinch Press).

Wine For Dummies

Ed McCarthy and Mary Ewing-Mulligan ( John Wiley & Sons ), $23

With its cheap paper stock and absence of illustrations, this book may lack the visual appeal of other beginners’ guides, but “Wine for Dummies” has plenty of useful information, all written in the no-nonsense tone of an educational work. Which makes sense: Ms. Ewing-Mulligan is the head of the International Wine Center, a New York-based school.

More than 1 million copies have been sold since the book debuted 20 years ago, said Ms. Ewing-Mulligan. And it has inspired a number of related works from the authors, including “Red Wine for Dummies,” “White Wine for Dummies” and “French Wine for Dummies.”

Although this latest edition—the sixth—contains much of the same information as earlier versions, the husband-and-wife team said it includes updated details on vintages and wineries as well as expanded coverage of up-and-coming wine countries such as South Africa, Argentina and Chile.

The Wine Bible

Karen MacNeil (Workman Publishing), $25

There have only been two editions of this impressively proportioned tome, first published in 2001. A revised and updated version was released in October at nearly 1,000 pages. “The Wine Bible” is about the size of the Good Book, and this revision was four years in the making, according to Ms. MacNeil.

Full Bodied // Three for True Wine Buffs In a year chockablock with new wine books looking beyond the basics, these three stood out: Hungry for Wine (Provisions Press), $22 There aren’t many (any?) wine books whose pages reference war, apartheid and poverty, but Cathy Huyghe includes them all, wine glass in hand. It’s personal and political—with tasting notes. Vino Business: The Cloudy World of French Wine (Grove Press), $26 An investigative journalist takes on the French wine industry from Bordeaux to Burgundy, with some sharp critiques and a few shocking revelations. Thirsty Dragon: China’s Lust for Bordeaux and the Threat to the World’s Best Wines (Henry Holt), $32 This page-turner takes on widely criticized Chinese business practices and profit-focused Bordeaux wine producers.

These pages contain a tremendous amount of information and history, and the tone is matter-of-fact. Only the tasting notes fall short, with no specific vintages cited and a tone that is jarringly melodramatic. For example, in the tasting note on Château de la Grille Chinon, Ms. MacNeil writes: “tightly wound at first, it unleashes itself in a whirlwind of moves as though it were, itself, a martial art.” And in her note on the legendary Spanish red Vega Sicilia Unico, Ms. MacNeil reminisces: “A few years ago in a vertical tasting going back to 1948, I was so stunned by the aliveness of the wines that I had the rather strange, out of the body feeling that I was not drinking the wine—it was drinking me.” To which all I can say is “Yikes!”

Wine Folly: The Essential Guide to Wine

Madeline Puckette and Justin Hammack (Avery), $25

This fact-packed, self-described “Wine Bible for the 21st Century” is full of fun graphics and fun—if sometimes seemingly arbitrary—facts. Does it matter to many wine drinkers that there are 456,000 acres of Grenache in the world? Maybe not. On the other hand, it’s a clever idea to graphically represent sparkling wine sweetness levels with teaspoons of sugar.

Following a pattern that is standard for wine books, “Wine Folly” is divided into wine styles (light-bodied, aromatic, etc.), then into specific grapes and wine regions.

Each grape has its own colored flavor wheel, with descriptors such as açai berry, cigar box and tar. Regions, meanwhile, are mostly illustrated by maps and accompanied by interesting, if sometimes confusing and contradictory, notes. For example, I’m not sure lovers of Australian Shiraz will actually like Pinotage, as Ms. Puckette and Mr. Hammack suggest. In fact, I’m not convinced anyone outside of South Africa will like this South African red grape, which smells like nail varnish or worse. In another instance, the duo states: “The Rhône Valley is mostly known for leathery and fruity Southern Rhône blends.” I’ve rarely encountered a wine that’s both leathery and fruity, but maybe that’s just me.

Windows on the World Complete Wine Course

Kevin Zraly (Sterling Epicure), $28

When it comes to beginners’ wine guides, “Windows on the World Complete Wine Course” is one of the perennial best. The World Trade Center restaurant that gave this book its name is sadly gone forever, but the spirit of the place lives on in these pages.

Kevin Zraly, who started at Windows on the World in 1976 as wine director, is a world-class teacher who has mentored some of the best wine educators in the business.

The most recent version of Mr. Zraly’s book, a 30th-anniversary edition published last year, follows the same format as the eight-week course he still teaches, now at New York’s JW Marriott Essex House, with all of the major wine regions outlined.

Each “class” concludes with a quiz, which can be challenging for readers who aren’t paying careful attention. Sample: “What percentage of Port is vintage Port?” or “What is the formula for a great Pinotage?” No answer key is offered (answers can be found throughout the book) and, according to Mr. Zraly, no student has ever requested one.

Lettie has written three books of her own, all accessible for beginners: “Fear of Wine,” with Leslie Brenner; “Educating Peter”; and her latest, “Wine in Words,” a collection of essays. Email Lettie at wine@wsj.com