Smarter: The New Science of Building Brain Power by Dan Hurley – review

Dan Hurley's investigation of the intelligence training market is entertaining if inconclusive, writes Ben East

Let them eat cake for breakfast? The latest fad in dieting

Emma Brockes: How we consume is a measure of our wider fears and securities. What does the Marie Antoinette Diet tell us about ourselves?

The Last Asylum by Barbara Taylor – review

Barbara Taylor was a successful author. Then her demons began to overwhelm her. Before long she was necking pills and found herself in Friern hospital ... By Jenny Turner

Stay: A History of Suicide and the Philosophies Against It by Jennifer Michael Hecht – review

The writer's conviction that suicide is wrong skews what might otherwise be a fascinating historical study, writes Lisa Appignanesi

Subliminal: The New Unconscious and What It Teaches Us by Leonard Mlodinow – review

This is fascinating insight into our "inner unknown self" and its role in shaping the world we know, writes PD Smith

Not self-help but Shelf Help

Who needs self-help literature when Shelf Help, a series of specially chosen books, including Jeanette's Winterson's Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? and Stephen Grosz's The Examined Life, can make you feel better, asks Alex Clark

French Women Don’t Get Facelifts by Mireille Guiliano – review

The author of French Women Don't Get Fat is back with an account of how to age with attitude – is it useful, or drivel, asks Zoe Williams

Freedom from Emotional Eating by Paul McKenna – digested read

John Crace reduces the latest tome of dieting advice from Britain's second-favourite hypnotist Paul McKenna to a slimline 600 words

Stranger Than Kindness by Mark A Radcliffe – review

A subtle and carefully paced story about a psychiatric nurse trying to heal himself and others

Scott Stossel: ‘I’m pretty successful at hiding my anxiety’

The author of My Age of Anxiety discusses his condition, his family and Big Pharma. Interview by Lisa O'Kelly