Of all the writer self-help books I’ve been reading, this is probably the most personal. Ms. Lamott doesn’t write for fun. For her, writing requires she rip open a vein and expose every jagged nerve ending to get at the “truth” of her writing. Her books, fiction and memoir, are painful and true. She gives practical guidance on how to strip away the non-essential and get to the heart of the matter. The title, Bird by Bird, refers to something her father told her brother […]