Back, Sack & Crack (& Brain): a graphic memoir with balls
From his back to his stomach to his testicles, Robert Wells had been in pain for decades – but no one in the NHS believed him. So he turned it all into a hilarious graphic novel
Putting off the important things? It’s not for the reasons you think
Never put off till tomorrow what you can do now, especially if you’re holding back in the hope of doing it properly
A moment that changed me: living on my own, and taking control of my life
Moving into a flat alone in my 30s gave me a sense of freedom and a new emotional space in which my creative self could grow
Top 10 books about psychoanalysis
Freud’s work changed fiction and philosophy as well as ideas of psychology and sexuality. From Michel Foucault to Philip Roth, here is some great writing about the talking cure
Ice baths and snow meditation: can cold therapy make you stronger?
When Scott Carney set out to debunk the health benefits of extreme cold, a strange thing happened. He tells Tim Adams about lighting his ‘inner fire’
A matter of life and death: William Boyd on the rise of the surgeon-memoir
As surgery finds its voice in literature, what are the responsibilities, risks and rewards of working in the fraught world of the operating theatre?
Sound by Bella Bathurst review – losing and recovering the miracle of hearing
This fascinating memoir of a dozen years of deafness opens out into an exploration of science, music and silence
Wellcome science book prize goes to story of a heart transplant
Maylis de Kerangal’s Mend the Living, which tracks the journey of a heart from donor to recipient, is only the second novel to take the £30,000 award
The Nordic Guide to Living 10 Years Longer by Dr Bertil Marklund – digested read
John Crace sums up the health-giving Swedish concept of lagom, carefully using not too many words – and not too few
Step away from the parenting books – and start worrying and doubting yourself instead
Chinese tiger mothers get results, French parents teach manners and the Finns espouse self-reliance. British parents? We read books on how we’re going wrong …