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

Jen Sincero says she can make you a badass – has it worked for her millions of readers?

The self-help guru’s book You Are a Badass is a bestseller in the US and making waves in the UK. But can her brand of straight-talking positive thinking really help you escape your ‘sucky life’?

Michael Pollan: ‘I was a very reluctant psychonaut’

The bestselling author and activist has been exploring the use of psychedelic drugs in medical research for his book How to Change Your Mind. And yes, he had to try them for himself

Dean Burnett: ‘Happiness shouldn’t be the default state in the human brain’

The neuroscientist and author of The Idiot Brain on the difficulty of trying to explain happiness and what he learned from Charlotte Church

Natural Causes by Barbara Ehrenreich review – wise words on real wellness

The author and activist’s sharp critique of what she calls an ‘epidemic of overdiagnosis’ is a joyous celebration of life

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore: ‘It is, strangely, acceptable to mock and demonise teenagers’

The neuroscientist, who has written a book on the teenage brain, on the turmoil of adolescence and whether mindfulness can help

Brainstorm: Detective Stories from the World of Neurology; Unthinkable: The World’s Strangest Brains – review

Books by Suzanne O’Sullivan and Helen Thomson offer fascinating insights into the ‘maverick brain’ and rare mental conditions

What can we learn about our wellbeing from memoirs of ill health?

Simon Gray, Christopher Hitchens, Joan Didion ... some of the most vivid memoirs have been accounts of illness. But what can they teach us about being well?

Female-dominated Wellcome book prize shortlist spans Victorian surgery and modern Nigeria

Titles vying for £30,000 award for books on health and medicine include Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀’s novel Stay With Me and Sigrid Rausing’s memoir Mayhem

In brief: Grief Works; Love After Love; Mothers – review

Bereavement case studies from therapist Julia Samuel, a cautionary tale of infidelity by Alex Hourston, and short stories by Chris Power