Anne Lamott is a doler of sage advice—largely centered on trudging along with humor and grace, despite the absurdity of it all. The central theme of the book is writing, but the advice and hilarity transcends and speaks to so many life aspirations and big tasks. This is the 25th anniversary edition.
“Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, ‘Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.’”