Right all along

On reading Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson's Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me), David Newnham warns on the dangers of relying on one's memory

Nasty to be nice

Elizabeth Pisani's The Wisdom of Whores, a critique of the UN's policy on Aids, suggests a pragmatic alternative. By Michael Fitzpatrick

Atrocity exhibition

Two new interrogations of torture, Philip Gourevitch and Errol Morris' Standard Operating Procedure and Philippe Sands' Torture Team, will help justice be done, writes Michael Byers

When the only way was down

Stephanie Merritt's The Devil Within is a memoir of a devastating mental illness, says Anushka Asthana

The need to blow up sheds

The Creative Feminine and Her Discontents, by Juliet Miller, packs a powerful and joyful punch and makes provocative reading, says Michèle Roberts

Here’s looking at you

On reading Raymond Tallis' The Kingdom of Infinite Space, Jane O'Grady is reminded of what a glorious thing it is to be human

Quacks on the rack

Rose Shapiro's Suckers and Trick or Treatment by Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst explore the actual worth of alternative medicine and its practitioners, says Olivia Laing

Scrubs up nicely

Lucy Ellmann finds out in Katherine Ashenburg's Clean how we learnt to wash and go

My private hell

She was a young, successful writer with a flourishing career and a new baby. So why did she come within moments of throwing herself from a train? Stephanie Merritt describes the crisis that almost claimed her life