Summer reading: the 50 hottest new books for a great escape

From pageturning thrillers and comic novels to an antidote to doomscrolling – our pick of the best new fiction and nonfiction. Plus 10 brilliant paperbacks, and 10 great reads for children and teens

Does anyone ever really feel ‘grown up’? I asked some older people to find out

I’m an adult, with the white goods and paperwork to prove it. So why don’t I feel it? I went on a quest to find out

How Minds Change by David McRaney review

A fascinating exploration of how beliefs are formed ends up asking whether it’s always right to want to win the argument

The big idea: have we been getting sleep all wrong?

Eight hours a day is a myth. Embracing our individual sleeping patterns could be the key to a better night’s rest

Zero by Jeremy Hunt review – this is going to hurt

You can’t fault the former health secretary’s proposals for improving patient care, but his slick prose fails to acknowledge the damage inflicted on the NHS by his party during his tenure as health secretary

Preventable by Devi Sridhar review – a resolutely global view of Covid

One of the best-known public intellectuals of the pandemic gives her account of two years that shook the world

Bittersweet by Susan Cain review – a mawkish manifesto for the happy-sad

The author of Quiet again bangs the drum for the world’s sensitive souls, but her unflagging earnestness is depressingly short of nuance and humour

The Premonitions Bureau by Sam Knight review – astonishing adventures in precognition

How the Aberfan disaster prompted one psychiatrist to launch a nationwide search for ‘seers’ who could predict the future

Desperate Remedies by Andrew Scull review – mind games

The chequered history of psychiatry over the last 200 years is one of much pain and some progress

Skin Deep by Phillipa McGuinness review – a fascinating study of our largest organ

This wonderfully eclectic book covers everything from cancer to cosmetics, racism to skin hunger, with curiosity and intelligence throughout