Writing coach Daphne Gray-Grant, who contributed this week's "Word Count" feature, suggests these terrific books on grammar and writing. Daphne tells us about her picks:

The Transitive Vampire by Karen Gordon. "This book is not only funny, it's also short and substantive -- a bit of a hat-trick when it comes to grammar. The design conceit is that it is illustrated with line drawings of dragons, gargoyles and, yes, vampires. The drawings are quite serious and the captions are silly. And the juxtaposition of the two always makes a grammatical point."

Sin and Syntax by Constance Hale. "I like this book because it covers more than grammar -- and because it's funny and flexible. Hale is not the kind of gal who's going to get her knickers in a knot over rules. In fact, she's all for breaking them (the catch is that you need to know you're breaking them.) I like the way the book is divided into three main parts with a set of chapters devoted to various parts of speech -- nouns, pronouns, verbs, etc. -- a set to sentences, and a set labeled "Music" covering voice, lyricism, melody, and rhythm."

In anticipation of the annual Neiman Conference, a gathering of narrative journalists that took place this past weekend at Harvard University, the newspaper reporter's blog Gangrey ran a month of entries they called "Days to Neiman." In these posts, the authors highlighted writers and books that exemplified the narrative craft. Here are a few of the books:

American Stories by Calvin Trillin

The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup by Susan Orleans (see introduction)

The New New Journalism by Robert Boynton

Off Ramp by Hank Steuver (see preface)

Sports Guy by Charlie Pierce (see preface)

The Gay Talese Reader by Gay Talese (see "Origins of a Nonfiction Writer")

Leslie Savan, the author of Slam Dunks and No-Brainers we interviewed about "pop language," recommends these books on how we communicate:

The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language by Steven Pinker

Spoken Soul: The Story of Black English by John Russell Rickford and Russell John Rickford

Need to brush up on your copywriting? Check out these books to master advertising's written words:

The Adweek Copywriting Handbook by Joseph Sugarman

The Copywriter's Handbook by Robert W. Bly

How to Write Great Copy by Dominic Gettins