The Graceful Lie actively involves writers in a process that is at once personally relevant and grounded in scholarship. Through explanations, exercises and readings, it articulates the innovative ideas and practices of today's fiction writing while exposing readers to fictional subgenres that other texts mention sporadically, but don't explore in a systematic way.
This is one of the best books of its type I have read. The first half of the book covers all the basic craft issues. The second half gets into details about what you need to know for various genres - from mysteries to science fiction. Wonderful.