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
Alcohol abuse worst in north-west
Manchester, Salford and Liverpool top list for drink-related health problems
Messages on healthy eating and alcohol moderation not getting through
Despite measures to tackle rising obesity, public lack understanding of lifestyle choices, survey finds
Bred in the genes
Review: Blood Matters: A Journey Along the Genetic Frontier by Masha GessenHilary Rose finds hope and caution in a thoughtful survey of DNA-based medicine
From the edge
Review: Aids Sutra: Untold Stories from India, edited by Negar AkhaviAnita Sethi is moved to hear the voices of those afflicted by a modern scourge
‘Plain old untrendy troubles and emotions’
David Foster Wallace, who died last week, was the most brilliant American writer of his generation. In a speech, published here for the first time, he reflects on the difficulties of daily life and 'making it to 30, or maybe 50, without wanting to shoot yourself in the head'
How has The Joy of Sex changed since 1972?
Stuart Jeffries: Psychologist Susan Quilliam has updated the original with 43 new sections and it offers a woman's perspective for the first time
Escape from self-help hell
Review: Self-help books roundupSupposedly enlightened writers are queueing up to tell us how to live our lives and earning a fortune in the process. Reader beware ... says Stephanie Merritt
Battle of the boatmen
Review: The Last Amateurs by Mark de RondDaniel Topolski relives the intense pressure of the varsity race that strives for Olympian levels
The Invisible Cure: Africa, the West and the Fight Against Aids
Review: The Invisible Cure: Africa, the West and the Fight Against Aids by Helen Epstein
Scenes from cancer’s theatre of the absurd
Review: Lopsided: How Having Breast Cancer Can Be Really Distracting by Meredith Norton and My Diary by Mio MatsumotoTwo books provide wry insights into what it is like to live with breast cancer, says Geraldine Bedell, and why humour often seems the only rational response
The survival specialist
After a difficult upbringing, Martha Beck went on to have a child with Down's syndrome, marry a gay man and realise that she, too, was gay. As she tells Emine Saner, who better to write self-help books?
‘I was never about boo hoo hoo’
Dave Pelzer, who single-handedly launched the 'misery lit' genre with his horrific memoir of childhood abuse, is now publishing his fourth self-help book. In it, he insists that happiness is all about 'moving on'. So why does he continue to obsessively trawl through his own past? Decca Aitkenhead meets him
The man who gave help to the helpless
The MSF doctor James Orbinski offers chilling truths from the front line, says Edward Marriott
Love’s alchemy
Rebecca Abrams delights in the psychologist Charles Fernyhough's tender account of his daughter's first three years, The Baby in the Mirror