What type of insulation for un conditioned attic

Since you're going to have the walls open, I would use pre-faced fiberglass batting. The rolls give you more flexibility than the pre-cut batts if you have non-standard height walls and they're usually a little cheaper per square foot, but I see special offers in the big-box stores all the time so shop around.

There's no special trick to installing it, but wear a dust mask that's rated for fiberglass dust. The vapor barrier goes on the warm side. I usually cut pieces to length before installing them in the wall (but I'm an engineer and can't help myself! :), but you can cut it to size while it's in the wall if you're not as OCD as me: put the loose end at the top of the wall, unroll and stuff until you reach the bottom then cut it off. Run a bead of adhesive along the stud, then unfold the flaps at the edge of the insulation on one side of the stud and press into the adhesive. Repeat for the insulation on other side, then staple the two of them into the stud. Tap the staples in with a hammer if they didn't go all the way. Done!

I don't have a book recommendation, but it's easy to learn how to do it.

The vapor barrier for a crawl space belongs above the floor joists and below the sub floor. You pretty much have three alternatives here.

1) Remove all the flooring - including the subfloor - install the vapor barrier - and replace the flooring, except you'll pretty much have to destroy the flooring in the process.

2) From underneath, take 6 mil plastic and set it into each space between the floor joists. You can then either wrap the plastic tightly around each floor joist, stapling it in place and then taping over the staples, or you can cut the plastic so that it doesn't wrap the floor joists, and tape each cut edge.

3) Buy spray foam and use it as both the vapor barrier and insulation. For this application you would want the fire rated open cavity foam like what they sell here: http://www.tigerfoam.com/products.php