Happiness is always a delusion
Our shelves are groaning with books on how to find joy, but psychoanalyst Adam Phillips thinks we are chasing an impossible dream. In fact, sanity involves learning to enjoy conflict, he tells Stuart Jeffries.
Girth of a nation
When Jason Fagone investigates the stomach-churning American love - sorry, the admirable sport - of competitive eating, he shouldn't swallow everything he's told, says Rachel Cooke.
Marinated well, and served with new fonts
Paul Levy enjoys Jake Tilson's radical cookbook, A Tale of 12 Kitchens: Family Cooking in Four Countries.
The thin end of the wedge
William Leith is startled by Candida Crewe's Eating Myself and Grace Bowman's A Shape of My Own, two stories of eating disorders.
Hungry work
Sharman Apt Russell's history of hunger is a fine mix of genres, says Alex McRae.
Cooking the books
From Ireland to India, Caroline Boucher traverses the globe in search of the best new year cookbooks.
Super green me
Alex Jamieson was the woman who helped Morgan Spurlock back to health after he ate nothing but McDonald's. Now she wants to detox the world, finds Hannah Pool.
So which is the right diet for you?
Books are flooding the shops for the post-Christmas slimmers' fever. Amelia Hill offers a guide.
Nothing to worry about!
Prostate Cancer? bubonic plague? scurvy? We've all feared the worst - only to be told we're in the rudest of health. In this extract from his touching and funny book, chronic hypochondriac John O'Connell reveals what it's like to live without a serious illness.
Reflections of my former self
Katharine Wealthall tells how shattering anorexia is - and dispels some myths about the disease.