Difficult Mothers by Terri Apter – review
A discussion of good and bad mothers is not good enough for Rachel Cusk
A life in writing: Tim Parks
'I couldn't really see a painting or a film or a game of football until I had thought about it in words, or preferably talked about it, or better still written about it'
Albion Dreaming by Andy Roberts – review
Phil Baker takes an eye-opening trip through Britain's relationship with acid
Embracing the Ordinary by Michael Foley – review
Stuart Jeffries on an author who finds magic in the everyday
Our Kind of People by Uzodinma Iweala – review
David Smith is disappointed by the much-feted novelist Uzodinma Iweala's non-fiction account of Aids in Africa
The Spark of Life by Frances Ashcroft – review
David Wootton on a study of humans as electrical machines
Ninety Days by Bill Clegg; Memoirs of an Addicted Brain by Marc Lewis; The Fix by Damian Thompson – review
Three books on modern cravings embrace drug memoir, neuroscience and society's moral slide, writes Nicholas Lezard
Critical eye: book reviews roundup
Missing Out: In Praise of the Unlived Life by Adam Phillips, Ancient Light by John Banville and How Much Is Enough? by Robert and Edward Skidelsky
Experiment Eleven: Deceit and Betrayal in the Discovery of the Cure for Tuberculosis by Peter Pringle – review
The scandalous treatment of a medical pioneer is still shocks Peter Forbes
The Antidote by Oliver Burkeman – review
Oliver Burkeman renounces 'positive thinking' in his droll search for happiness, writes Alexander Larman