Fat Chance: The Bitter Truth About Sugar by Robert Lustig – review

Steven Poole learns why he cannot be blamed for eating the wrong food

What does your lunch hour look like?

Open thread: A health minister has said the trend for eating at one's desk is disgusting. Tell us what your lunchtime routine looks like

Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan – review

Aida Edemariam on a case of suspected bedbugs that became a medical drama with worrying implications

Far from the Tree by Andrew Solomon – review

Emma Brockes on a moving and thorough examination of parental love and acceptance

Call Off the Search by Anna and Andrew Wallas – digested read

John Crace reduces a profound spiritual journey of love and healing to a more manageable 700 words

The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves – review

By recounting real-life stories that have stayed with him, Grosz offers an intriguing insight into contemporary psychoanalysis, writes Susanna Rustin

Consumed: How Shopping Fed the Class System by Harry Wallop – review

In his breezy romp through the intricacies of our social structure, Wallop declares that Guardian readers are Wood-Burning Stovers and Prescotts are Blackpool Posh, writes Sam Leith

Susannah Cahalan: ‘What I remember most vividly are the fear and anger’

The New Yorker was 24 when she fell seriously ill with a mystery condition. Here she tells Carole Cadwalladr how she pieced together her terrifying ordeal to write a remarkable memoir

Five self-help books that want to change your life

It's January, so the shops are full of new diet, exercise and self-help books. We sample five of them, from a polemic against sugar to a harrowing account of gastric bypass surgery

Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes by Maria Konnikova – review

Emulating Conan-Doyle's fictional sleuth requires more than a deerstalker and a predilection for the violin – attention to detail and a questioning, methodical approach are vital, writes Sam Leith