In brief: Motherthing; Night Terrors; Looking for Trouble – review

A gripping, darkly humorous horror novel; the strange world of sleep; and the reissue of a dazzling wartime memoir

I used to be ashamed of being a fangirl. Now I see how joyous and creative it was

Lady Gaga was my idol, but I didn’t dare tell anyone. Now a new wave of books and films shows us why female obsession is such an important part of growing up

Autistic scholar Temple Grandin: ‘The education system is screening out visual thinkers’

By favouring verbal thinkers, says the author and animal scientist, essential skills are being lost. Her new book aims to demonstrate the power of processing information in different ways

‘I was in a horror film, unsafe. And the person I was in danger from was me’: the truth about severe postpartum anxiety

Days after my baby was born, I was overwhelmed by raw terror. Soon, my son and I were living in a specialist unit. This is what I learned

Strangers to Ourselves by Rachel Aviv review – rewriting the language of mental illness

The New Yorker writer tries to redefine attitudes through a quintet of studies of troubled people from around the world

The big idea: why the maternal instinct is a myth

The ‘parental brain’ is something that develops with experience – and anyone can get one

Oliver Jeffers grew up in Belfast hating violence. Now he wants children to see how futile it is

The children’s author, who lived through the Troubles, believes that kids should be taught to seek peace from an early age. By Donna Ferguson

‘Everyone seemed at ease’: how art is making hospital visits less painful

Some of life’s hardest moments are spent in hospital, but two organisations are working to ease that with ingenious designs. Mina Holland explains how art has been a lifeline

The big idea: do we all experience the world in the same way?

Every human brain is different – it’s time to embrace the diversity of our experiences

‘I felt a responsibility to get it right’: the male standups using jokes to cope with miscarriage

Even though it affects one in five pregnancies, the loss of a baby is rarely talked about, especially among men. But standups Jacob Hawley and Will Duggan are using comedy to break that taboo