In brief: The Hummingbird; 34 Patients; Kant’s Little Prussian Head and Other Reasons Why I Write
A deliciously playful Italian family saga; a doctor’s telling insights into his work; and Claire Messud’s masterly story of her life
The Devil You Know by Dr Gwen Adshead and Eileen Horne review – hard to unsee
A forensic psychotherapist looks beyond the lurid headlines to give a clear-eyed and compassionate insight into patients’ stories
The supersense secret: Steve Biddulph on how to become healthier, happier and more fully human
The psychologist Steve Biddulph believes we are tapping into only a small corner of our potential. In his latest book, he explains how to harness all our senses and gut instincts
In brief: Leave the World Behind; The Breakup Monologues; Diving for Pearls – reviews
Hidden pasts in Dubai, locked-down disaster and a frank, enjoyable relationships guide
A half-shaven head? A handbag of snails at a cocktail party? I just adore a true eccentric
There is probably something in the idea that quirkiness or slightly odd behaviour might have a link with mental illness, neurodiversity or creative skill
Top 10 books about depression
From Robert Burton’s 17th-century Anatomy of Melancholy to new insights from Ed Bullmore, these are welcome guides to one of the loneliest experiences
Everybody by Olivia Laing review – a book about freedom
A moving and clear-eyed history of bodily freedoms that takes as its central character Wilhelm Reich, inventor of the orgone accumulator
A User’s Guide to Melancholy by Mary Ann Lund review – senses of humour
A learned and readable picture of Renaissance medicine with less comic eccentricity than Robert Burton’s 1621 magnum opus
Lean Fall Stand by Jon McGregor review – beyond words
Disaster in the Antarctic necessitates heroism at home, in this beautifully restrained interrogation of language, care and loss
Michael Lewis: ‘We were incentivised to have a bad pandemic response’
In his new book, the author of The Big Short has turned his attention to Covid and the people who could have prevented it sweeping the US – had they been allowed to