Bird by Bird was recommended by a number of writers I admire. By and large, it is a book of advice for fiction writers, though writers of creative non-fiction may also find some of the tips are useful.

This is another book that leaves me with mixed feelings. When I began it, I found it to be quite warm and engaging. It is liberally sprinkled with interesting stories from the author’s life and the advice is in no way sugar coated. She freely admits that writing is a struggle, that December is a terrible month for writing and that you should never begin writing a large project on a Monday. It’s almost a relief to hear someone else admit these things.

However, the more I read the more vitriolic she seemed to get. She clearly has strong beliefs on certain subjects—largely unrelated to writing—and I felt they got in the way of what was otherwise quite an interesting book. It tainted the experience for me and left me quite disappointed.

Nevertheless, there was some valuable (if not particularly original) advice and on the whole made for a nice pep talk.