a few of my favorites, with descriptions, courtesy of amazon.com
You Can't Win - Jack Black (not that one)
The favorite book of William Burroughs. A journey into the hobo underworld, freight hopping around the still Wild West, becoming a highwayman and member of the yegg (criminal) brotherhood, getting hooked on opium, doing stints in jail or escaping, often with the assistance of crooked cops or judges. Our lost history revived.
Ask the Dust - John Fante
Ask the Dust is a virtuoso performance by an influential master of the twentieth-century American novel. It is the story of Arturo Bandini, a young writer in 1930s Los Angeles who falls hard for the elusive, mocking, unstable Camilla Lopez, a Mexican waitress. Struggling to survive, he perseveres until, at last, his first novel is published. But the bright light of success is extinguished when Camilla has a nervous breakdown and disappears . . . and Bandini forever rejects the writer's life he fought so hard to attain.
How To Write Short Stories: With Samples - Ring Lardner
Ring Lardner (1885-1933) was a well-known humorist and sports writer living in Chicago. In 1924, F. Scott Fitzgerald arranged for How to Write Short Stories to be published and more attention was then paid to Lardner’s work.