Through the Looking Glasses by Travis Elborough review – the spectacular life of spectacles
From Henry VIII on his charger to the sex symbol Michael Caine, this close-up history of glasses illuminates their special kind of cool
Spike by Jeremy Farrar and Anjana Ahuja; and Vaxxers by Sarah Gilbert and Catherine Green – review
Two urgent and fascinating accounts from the frontlines show how scientists succeeded, and failed, at saving us from Covid-19
This Is Your Mind on Plants by Michael Pollan review – the trip of a lifetime
This fascinating insight into our relationship with mind-altering plants weaves personal experimentation with cultural history
Hello, Stranger by Will Buckingham review – how we find connection in a disconnected world
An elegant and moving exploration of what it means to connect with strangers turns into an elegy for a much-missed way of life
Head First by Alastair Santhouse review – a medical memoir with elegance and integrity
In a passionate blend of anecdote and evidence, a consultant psychiatrist shows how the mind and the body are irrevocably connected, despite medicine’s desire to separate and specialise
Neuroscientist Karl Deisseroth: ‘Coronavirus has changed us all’
The neuroscientist and psychiatrist explains Zoom fatigue - and why the conditions of the pandemic can induce an ‘altered state’
The Devil You Know by Dr Gwen Adshead and Eileen Horne review – hard to unsee
A forensic psychotherapist looks beyond the lurid headlines to give a clear-eyed and compassionate insight into patients’ stories
In brief: Leave the World Behind; The Breakup Monologues; Diving for Pearls – reviews
Hidden pasts in Dubai, locked-down disaster and a frank, enjoyable relationships guide
Top 10 books about depression
From Robert Burton’s 17th-century Anatomy of Melancholy to new insights from Ed Bullmore, these are welcome guides to one of the loneliest experiences
Everybody by Olivia Laing review – a book about freedom
A moving and clear-eyed history of bodily freedoms that takes as its central character Wilhelm Reich, inventor of the orgone accumulator