These are some of my favorite books on the art and craft of writing

Bird by Bird, Some Instructions on Writing and Life
Anne Lamott
If you buy only one writing guide, please let it be this one. 

On Writing
Stephen King
A nicely written guide full of practical information, particularly the importance of powering through the disappointment of rejection and the necessity of the hard labor of regular writing.

On Writing Well
William Zinsser
This skinny paperback with big fat helpful advice is indispensable.

The Elements of Style
Strunk and White
Another skinny guide to pared-down, crystalline prose.

The Artist's Way, A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
Julia Cameron
I admit it; I don't do the “morning pages” because I'm all about coffee and The New York Times, but here is excellent advice on how to think of yourself first and foremost as a creative person.

Writing to Heal the Soul, Transforming Grief and Loss Through Writing
Susan Zimmerman
This is a sensitive, soulful guide to processing hardship through writing.

I know you're not supposed to pick your favorite children, but hell, my favorite books to edit are memoirs. I love it when authors capture universal experience through a prism darkly, lightly, foggily, any which way. Here are the memoirs are cherish the most:

Expecting Adam, A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic
Martha Beck
When she learns that she's pregnant with a fetus with Down Syndrome, the author is propelled down a miraculous path that convinces her that her Harvard ivory tower life is the wrong one for her. I’ve reread this book dozens of times and count the author among my dearest friends.

Leaving the Saints, How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith
Martha Beck
A brave spiritual journey that explores how to stay connected to God after you've decided to leave your religion, in this case one that's a trifle over-invested in obedience and baking.

Into the blue, A Father's Flight and a Daughter's Return
Susan Edsall
When her pilot dad is flattened by a stroke, Susan refuses to take the doctors’ poor prognosis to heart and bushwhacks a rehab program that will get him back into the cockpit. Hilarious and inspiring.

Operating Instructions
Anne Lamott
The painfully funny and honest account of a Single mother's first year with her baby. Can this born again Christian and former boozehound and cokehead manage the challenges of raising a baby alone? You bet.

Zippy, Growing Up Small in Moreland, Indiana
Haven Kimmel
A beautifully observed account of a very normal Midwestern life that will make you remember every grass stain, bicycle tumble, and mislaid plan of your own youth. I’ve reread the final chapter so many times, and it still makes me cry and smile.

The Liars Club
Mary Karr
The book that justifiably launched the new “memoir craze,” Karr’s unsparing, un-self-pitying account of her East Texas childhood is funny and steering.

Grace
Mary Cartledgehays
A woman in her late forties, a lover of men and cussing, discovers to her horror and delight that she must attend divinity school and become a Methodist minister—and then leave her face to save it.

Iron and Silk
Mark Salzman
A Yale graduate travels to China in the 80’s to teach English in rural backwater towns. A poignant look into the soul of everyday Chinese people and a beautiful rendering of two cultures meeting, clashing, and reconciling. 

Autobiography of a Face
Lucy Grealy
A poet recounts a harrowing childhood and young adulthood in which a disfiguring bone cancer shattered her face and thus her self-identity.