The Best of Guardian Books

The long read: From her shimmering novels to her ‘living autobiographies’, Deborah Levy’s work inspires a devotion few literary authors ever achieve

She has written books about death and mourning, but nothing could prepare the archaeologist for the shock of finding her partner of 18 years dead. Here she recounts what she has learned

Prof Sarah Hart’s exuberant study of the enduring conversation between mathematics and literature is fascinating

A cognitive philosopher explains how prediction, rather than perception, is the mind’s secret weapon

Recent breakthroughs have been wildly hyped – but there’s still reason to hope

Trust your gut, boost your memory, de-bias your decision making… can we train our brains to perform better?

«A decade ago, the fashion was to be pessimistic about the prospects of improving our thinking, and even about the value of thinking at all.»

From missing lighthouse keepers to the healing power of trees ... 50 new fiction and nonfiction books to enjoy. Plus recent paperbacks to pack and the best children’s stories

Created in New York by Jewish immigrants, the first comic book superheroes were mythic saviours who could combat the Nazi threat. They speak to the dark politics of out times

The mind behind Jimmy Corrigan on casting himself as a ‘jerk’ in his new book Rusty Brown, childhood nostalgia and discovering his distinctive style

Today’s thumbs-up, thumbs-down approach to feminism is boring and reductive. It is time to embrace complexity

Around the world, luridly retro ideas of what it means to be a man have caused a rush of testosterone – from Bollywood bodybuilding to nuclear brinkmanship

Dazzling debut novels, searing polemics, the history of humanity and trailblazing memoirs ... Read our pick of the best books since 2000

A fifth part of The Tale of Genji, which was completed around 1010 by a woman later named Murasaki Shikibu, has been found in a house in Tokyo

The historian offers a hopeful view of human nature in his latest book, Humankind. It couldn’t have come at a better time

In the eye-opening new book Unwell Women, Elinor Cleghorn uses her own misdiagnosis at the hands of male doctors as a jumping point for an alarming history lesson

«“It’s probably the first time in history that women’s subjective experiences and voices are used. That’s an important place to begin because women are not a monolith.”»

Hawkish politicians and reckless bankers never face the consequences of their actions – but they should, according to this arresting but flawed book

From Aristotle to Iris Murdoch: what the greatest minds of the past 2,500 years have to tell us about the good life

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The Meditations, by a Roman emperor who died in a plague named after him, has much to say about how to face fear, pain, anxiety and loss

«it’s easy to see how fear can do us more harm than the things of which we’re afraid because it can impinge on our physical health and quality of life»

A hi-tech medical exam draws its subject back to a more archaic, essential experience

Hailed as one of the most significant archival discoveries of modern times, text seems to show the Paradise Lost poet making careful annotations on his edition of Shakespeare’s plays

A timely guide to the Greek philosopher – and rival to the Stoics – who saw freedom from anxiety as the ultimate goal

«Unnatural and unnecessary desires, such as for wealth, power, fame or eternal life, are considered “corrosive”, to be avoided like the plague.»

It feels great to give at Christmas. But does that pleasure detract from the good deed?

The Oxford psychology professor traces the evolutionary advantages, or otherwise, of faith

«Those who sign up to religions, he points out, “can incur serious costs in terms of self-imposed pain, celibacy and even self-sacrifice”.»

Our lives are finite – but do we keep that in mind and spend our time well? The latest attack on religion by Richard Dawkins and Martin Hägglund’s argument for ‘secular faith’

When a group of schoolboys were marooned on an island in 1965, it turned out very differently to William Golding’s bestseller, writes Rutger Bregman

Could the universe be an elaborate game constructed by bored aliens?

Without us noticing, we are entering the postcapitalist era. At the heart of further change to come is information technology, new ways of working and the sharing economy. The old ways will take a long while to disappear, but it’s time to be utopian

Authors from Carl Jung to Aldous Huxley and Susan Blackmore explore the deep mysteries of what it means to be a person

«9. Beyond Words by Carl SafinaMoving accounts of the reasons to suppose that various non-humans, including orcas, wolves and elephants, have emotions and a type of consciousness akin to ours. If they are conscious, why shouldn’t stones be conscious too?»

Novelists including Johny Pitts, Monica Ali and Nina Stibbe – plus Observer critics – on their essential holiday books