The shape we’re in
Review: Bodies by Susie OrbachFat is no longer simply a feminist issue - it's a commercial one too, says Hilary Mantel
Tales of ordinary madness
Norah Vincent, John O'Donoghue and Michael Greenberg all have three different views of mental illness that share a redemptive fortitude. By Blake Morrison
Biofuels more harmful to humans than petrol and diesel, warn scientists
Corn-based bioethanol has higher burden on environment and human health by causing more heart disease and respiratory disorders, says US study
Lessons on the body politic
Review: Bodies by Susie OrbachWilliam Leith salutes a timely and powerful polemic by Susie Orbach on the western obsession with achieving physical perfection
Drawing on experience
Mark Drinkwater on Living with a Black Dog, a picture book which offers practical and humorous tips on living with depression
On a mission to see the bright side
Review: The Optimist by Laurence ShorterA one-gag stand-up routine that places the rewards of a quick fix above the pleasures of deeper self-discovery, says Simon Garfield
Mad, Bad and Sad
Review: A History of Women and The Mind Doctors from 1800 to the Present by Lisa Appignanesi
The best novels about madness
Lisa Appignanesi: Novelists respond to the rise and rise of the mind-doctoring professions of the 20th century
Mad, Bad and Sad
Review: Mad, Bad and Sad by Lisa AppignanesiThis ambitious study exhilaratingly covers two centuries of developments, finds John Dugdale
EU to help patients get transplants abroad
New directive will allow Britons who need organs urgently to get them in countries that have a surplus
Bigfoot was here
Jad Adams enjoys three studies of the persistence of belief in the paranormal
Fear of the unknown
Review: Paranoia: The 21st-Century Fear by Daniel Freeman & Jason FreemanParanoia, the authors intone, 'permeates our society, more than we've ever suspected,' writes Steven Poole
Try to Remember
Review: Try to Remember by Paul R McHugh A riveting analysis of the American 'recovered memory' wars of the 1980s and 1990s
35,001 diet books, but do we really need any of them?
Surveys show that two out of five women diet most of the time as half of weight lost is regained in a year