Bad chemistry

The Vitamin Murders by James Fergusson allows Josh Lacey to examine the shocking and unexpected consequences of a real-life murder.

Their cluck just ran out

Hattie Ellis's compassionate condemnation, Planet Chicken, exposes the atrocious practices of modern poultry farming, says Paul Levy.

How to win the game of life, by Garry Kasparov

Stephen Moss: Gary Kasparov, the former world chess champion is in London promoting his self-help book, How Life Imitates Chess, and has been enticed to the Stowe Centre in Paddington, west London by BBC2's The Culture Show, which is making a programme about inner-city chess.

Question time

Dorothy Rowe on sibling rivalry, having a mother who couldn't love and the difference between unhappiness and depression.

Passion for life

Dina Rabinovitch shows that living with serious illness strips the soul of all pretence in Take Off Your Party Dress: When Life's Too Busy for Breast Cancer, says Meg Rosoff.

Eating through the ages

Boiled cow's udder, anyone? Or a ragout of pig's ear? Norman Miller leafs through chef Anton Mosimann's extraordinary library of antiquarian cookbooks.

All in the mind?

Hilary Mantel enjoys some intriguing speculations on the link between body and mind in Jan Lars Jensen's Nervous System and Why Do People Get Ill? by Darian Leader and David Corfield.

Sick in the head

Why Do People Get Ill? by Darian Leader and David Corfield suggests we radically overhaul the way doctors work.

F is for fantasy

If you've ever dreamed of wild sex with the Queen and Margaret Thatcher, don't worry - you're not alone. In a groundbreaking analysis of what makes Britain tick sexually, Brett Kahr has uncovered the fantasies that fuel our sex lives, and what they tell us about ourselves.