None are really that good with tow exceptions:
Mary Hall's "Getting Funded" from the Portland Unviersity Press
for education, liberal arts, and community service and
Liane Rief-Lehrer's "How to" book for NIH and to some extent NSF.
Both need updating, but are still good.  There is an OK little
book fromt he Foundation Center (who I think is a rip-off outfit)
and it has been recently rewritten.  A couple of years ago
I wrote a directroy of this sort of stuff for SRA.  It's still
pretty much up-to-date.  Give their office in Chicaogo a call
and splurge the $15.  I don't get any royalties anyway.
Good luck
Spanky
> I would like to know what books people like to have on hand for helping
> people who are trying to write their first grant.  I find that people like
> the books that have examples of successful proposals.
>
> The books we have on proposal writing are all at least 20 years old and we
> are thinking about purchasing some new ones.  What books do you recommend?
>  Any to steer clear of?