How to Be Human: The Manual by Ruby Wax review – can mindfulness conquer all?

The comedian and campaigner is an engaging champion of mental health, but self-care may not always be enough

Fragile Lives: A Heart Surgeon’s Stories of Life and Death on the Operating Table by Stephen Westaby – review

A heart-stopping memoir – and a notably down-to-earth example of the genre

Is everything Johann Hari knows about depression wrong?

The Observer has published an excerpt from Johann Hari’s new book challenging what we know about depression. But do his own claims and arguments stack up?

A Monk’s Guide to a Clean House and Mind by Shoukei Matsumoto – digested read

John Crace simplifies Buddhist teaching on lightbulb cleaning, personal hygiene and other domestic essentials

Johann Hari: ‘I was afraid to dismantle the story about depression and anxiety’

The writer and author’s new book, Lost Connections, explores the problems with our understanding of mental health

Is everything you think you know about depression wrong?

In this extract from his new book, Johann Hari, who took antidepressants for 14 years, calls for a new approach

Why Christmas is for everyone

An atheist’s Christmas celebrates hospitality and generosity – just like a Christian’s, says Julian Baggini

The 100 best nonfiction books: No 98 – The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton (1621)

This compelling and occasionally comic study of melancholy became cult reading in the 17th century and has inspired artists from Keats to Cy Twombly

Creation history: brilliant ideas build on the past

Creativity doesn’t come out of the blue, it starts by remodelling the past, say David Eagleman and Anthony Brandt

Your guide to a happy new year… by Dawn, Eddie and other celebrity self-help gurus

Famous faces, including many comedians with tales of recovery from their own traumas, are dispensing life lessons in the latest publishing trend