Out of my mind: Sarah Perry on writing under the influence of drugs

When a medical condition left her in agony, The Essex Serpent author was prescribed powerful opiates. They gave her terrifying visions - and a new insight into literary drug culture

Everyday Madness by Lisa Appignanesi review – an unsteady journey from grief to love

What happens to your sense of self when your partner dies? An engaging memoir of loss

Help Me! by Marianne Power review – can self-help books really change your life?

Power’s expanded blog on living each month according to a different manual floats over Bridget Jones and Fleabag territory

Best ‘brainy’ books of this decade

Writers and experts select their favourite book on physics, feminism, medicine, health, economics, psychology and more

Asperger’s Children by Edith Sheffer review – the origins of autism in Nazi Vienna

In popular legend, Asperger was an Oskar Schindler figure who shielded his charges from euthanasia. The truth is more uncomfortable

Like trees in a forest, humans share a root system

The poet and philosopher Mark Nepo says that however divided we seem right now, we’re far more connected than we think. To be the best we can be, we have to meet the outer world with our inner world

In Brief: Notes on a Nervous Planet; We Begin Our Ascent; The Bedlam Stacks – reviews

Matt Haig extends his hard-won mental health wisdom to an anxious world, Joe Mungo Reed crafts a convincing cycling novel, and Natasha Pulley pulls of a fine steampunk adventure

Best summer books 2018, as picked by writers – part one

Surrealist artists, dogged detectives, modern lovers and spies behaving badly ... leading authors pick their best books to enjoy these holidays

The Incurable Romantic by Frank Tallis review – stuck in the crazy stage of love

A psychologist tells numerous and eye-opening stories of love sickness, rampant sex and obsessions with inappropriate partners

Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig – how to survive the 21st century

This follow-up to Reasons to Stay Alive is not a smug self-help book, but an honest and human guide to coping with the modern worldo