Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty review – startling stories from the crematorium

‘Death-positive’ mortician Doughty explores attitudes to mortality in her enthralling memoir. Also reviewed: Brandy Schillace’s Death’s Summer Coat and GP Margaret McCartney’s Living With Dying

Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu collaborate on Book of Joy

The two ‘spiritual brothers’ are to publish a series of dialogues on finding ‘real inner joyfulness’

Lifelogging technologies: quantified truths?

GrrlScientist: Lifelogging uses modern digital technologies to record, track, measure and share everything from heartbeats to heartbreaks. An exhibition at Science Gallery Dublin uses science, art and technology to explore the ethics, consequences and potential future uses of lifelogging

The Wild Oats Project by Robin Rinaldi – digested read

John Crace reduces one woman’s sexual odyssey through San Francisco to an orgasmic 600 words

Cerys Matthews: music for going into labour

The Doctor recommends tunes to ease the many twists, turns, highs and lows of giving birth

How to find time to read

‘The web’s full of listicles offering tips – Give up TV or Carry a book with you at all times – but in my experience, such methods don’t work’

Colouring in can free your mind. Let’s learn how to play again

It’s cheering that a colouring book for adults is topping bestseller lists, because as we get older it’s easy to forget about the joy – and learning potential – of play

The Village Effect by Susan Pinker review – the science of friendship

Being sociable can lengthen your life – but there’s a risk of making it into a self-improvement chore

International Day of Happiness: the songs that lift your spirits

At the start of this week, we asked you what songs made you happy – and to celebrate today’s official day of global joy, we’ve made a playlist of some of your best and most unusual choices

Touch: The Science of Hand, Heart and Mind review – touch is a sense we shouldn’t underestimate

In this engrossing study, neurobiologist David J Linden explains why touch is so vital for the mental and physical health of humans

OurChemist

Our Chemist – Health