In Brief: Notes on a Nervous Planet; We Begin Our Ascent; The Bedlam Stacks – reviews

Matt Haig extends his hard-won mental health wisdom to an anxious world, Joe Mungo Reed crafts a convincing cycling novel, and Natasha Pulley pulls of a fine steampunk adventure

Best summer books 2018, as picked by writers – part one

Surrealist artists, dogged detectives, modern lovers and spies behaving badly ... leading authors pick their best books to enjoy these holidays

The Incurable Romantic by Frank Tallis review – stuck in the crazy stage of love

A psychologist tells numerous and eye-opening stories of love sickness, rampant sex and obsessions with inappropriate partners

Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig – how to survive the 21st century

This follow-up to Reasons to Stay Alive is not a smug self-help book, but an honest and human guide to coping with the modern worldo

Forty years since Fat Is A Feminist Issue

Susie Orbach never imagined her classic book would still be so relevant decades later

70 years of the NHS: a revolution that is reborn every day

The creation of the health service changed Britain. Yet while this vision is under severe threat, it has also never been more keenly cherished

How Aristotle is the perfect happiness guru

Happiness is not a state as far as Aristotle is concerned, it’s an activity, says Professor Edith Hall, and you just have to decide to become happier

Germaine, your shock-jock musings just alienate today’s young feminists

With her views on rape, Germaine Greer has torpedoed the chance for women of all generations to find common cause

From pregnancy to eating disorders: Gavin Francis picks five books on human transformation

The doctor and author recommends some of his favourite books that provide personal and profound insights into pregnancy, the menopause and gender

Word of the week: obesogen

If it ends with -ogen, it means something is being produced – in this case something that will make us dangerously overweight