How We Break: Navigating the Wear and Tear of Living by Vincent Deary review – the ways in which we’re undone
The psychologist and researcher’s persuasive inquiry into how life’s struggles take their toll is full of hard-won wisdom
Blood: The Science, Medicine and Mythology of Menstruation by Dr Jen Gunter – why periods are ‘a muddled burden’
The outspoken Canadian gynaecologist’s compelling scientific study cuts through misinformation, myth and worse with clarity and wit in this study of the menstrual cycle
The big idea: is being ‘good enough’ better than perfection?
Before making another new year resolution it’s worth asking if change is what you need
Best ideas books of 2023
From psychology to AI, pandemics to popular culture, we survey the bigger picture
The big idea: why we should spend more time talking to strangers
We focus on friendships, but encounters with those we hardly know are vital too
The big idea: are memories fact or fiction?
Truth and illusion are woven together as we tell ourselves into being
Breaking Through Depression; The Balanced Brain – reviews
Last year, research cast doubt on the dominant ‘chemical imbalance’ theory of depression. Now two persuasive books by scientists Philip Gold and Camilla Nord offer very different causes of the illness – though both are optimistic about our future treatment of the ‘cancer of the self’
Four Ways of Thinking by David Sumpter review – safety in numbers?
A mathematician tries to make sense of the world through different lenses in this surprisingly original book
Alone by Daniel Schreiber review – me, myself and I
A moving insight into the joys and anguish of solitude – and the value of friendship
Marlena Spieler obituary
Writer of more than 70 cookbooks, whose love of the cuisines of Mexico and Italy kept her on a perpetual hunt for delicious meals