So, you want to write a novel. There’s a book (or ten thousand) for that. Some are bland, and dull, and formulaic. The ones on this list are none of those things. Most are memoirs and essay collections that sneak craft advice in through the back door: there’s literary criticism and personal narrative and close reading, and along the way theories of tone and narrative sink in as though by osmosis. But even the theoretically straight craft books here do much more than serve up packaged plot structures; they’re as pleasurable to peruse as they are useful. They use published work as examples—Russian classics, contemporary poetry, slick crime thrillers—to nudge one into better reading and writing. (I have yet to find something more consistently inspiring than reading books so good they make me jealous.) Most are books to which I referred during the long, solitary slog of writing my own first novel, or ones I wish I’d had. There’s also one on the art of creative nonfiction, and one that tackles everything that comes after the actual writing of the manuscript. As one might say but should never write: variety is the spice of life.
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Keziah Weir
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