Atrocity exhibition
Two new interrogations of torture, Philip Gourevitch and Errol Morris' Standard Operating Procedure and Philippe Sands' Torture Team, will help justice be done, writes Michael Byers
Secrets from inside the world of Aids
Elizabeth Pisani's The Wisdom of Whores reports from the streets on the deadly perils of the sex trade, says Stephanie Merritt
When the only way was down
Stephanie Merritt's The Devil Within is a memoir of a devastating mental illness, says Anushka Asthana
The need to blow up sheds
The Creative Feminine and Her Discontents, by Juliet Miller, packs a powerful and joyful punch and makes provocative reading, says Michèle Roberts
Here’s looking at you
On reading Raymond Tallis' The Kingdom of Infinite Space, Jane O'Grady is reminded of what a glorious thing it is to be human
Quacks on the rack
Rose Shapiro's Suckers and Trick or Treatment by Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst explore the actual worth of alternative medicine and its practitioners, says Olivia Laing
Scrubs up nicely
Lucy Ellmann finds out in Katherine Ashenburg's Clean how we learnt to wash and go
My private hell
She was a young, successful writer with a flourishing career and a new baby. So why did she come within moments of throwing herself from a train? Stephanie Merritt describes the crisis that almost claimed her life
The getting of wisdom
At 35, Lorna Martin had come to a crisis in her life. Turning to therapy for some answers, she recorded her progress in a weekly column that is now being published as a book. But, wonders Zoe Williams, is she really any the wiser?
Second-hand spooks
Do we need another look at Victorian spiritualism, asks Kathryn Hughes, after reading Servants of the Supernatural by Antonio Melechi