The Path by Michael Puett & Christine Gross-Loh – how to turn your life around

Forget navel-gazing – the authors of this bestselling self-help book claim that ancient Chinese wisdom offers an easy way to the good life. But does it say anything new?

The Voices Within: The History and Science of How We Talk to Ourselves by Charles Fernyhough – review

Hearing voices can be as much a sign of creativity as madness, according to an intriguing new psychological study

The Sleep Revolution by Arianna Huffington – digested read

John Crace stays awake long enough to reduce the Huffington Post founder’s advice on how to nod off to 850 words

Book an appointment: doctors to prescribe novels in new scheme

The Reading Well for Young People campaign lists books to help young people deal with mental-health issues and will be available at surgeries and libraries

Forget mindfulness, stop trying to find yourself and start faking it

Why is the history of Chinese philosophy now the most popular course at Harvard? Top tips on how to become a better person according to Confucius and co

Adventures in Human Being by Gavin Francis review – a tour round our bodies

A beautifully written guide to our wonders and weaknesses

Reading from Behind: A Cultural Analysis of the Anus review – getting to the bottom of ‘anal theory’

It might be shortlisted for the oddest title of the year award, but Jonathan Allen’s book is a serious work of theory, exploring the backside as a site of humiliation and disgust

States of Mind edited by Anna Faherty review – ‘a compelling collection’

Mark Haddon introduces this fascinating book, which looks at the nature of consciousness through literature, science, art and case studies

The Life Project by Helen Pearson review – scientific marvel of the everyman

A spellbinding account of Britain’s pioneering cohort studies underlines their importance to all our lives

Mental illness is always a problem, so we will always need books about it

The current prominence of mental illness on bookshelves is good for all of us – so it’s important that reading about it is not a passing fad, writes Joanna Cannon