Ice baths and snow meditation: can cold therapy make you stronger?

When Scott Carney set out to debunk the health benefits of extreme cold, a strange thing happened. He tells Tim Adams about lighting his ‘inner fire’

A matter of life and death: William Boyd on the rise of the surgeon-memoir

As surgery finds its voice in literature, what are the responsibilities, risks and rewards of working in the fraught world of the operating theatre?

Sound by Bella Bathurst review – losing and recovering the miracle of hearing

This fascinating memoir of a dozen years of deafness opens out into an exploration of science, music and silence

The Nordic Guide to Living 10 Years Longer by Dr Bertil Marklund – digested read

John Crace sums up the health-giving Swedish concept of lagom, carefully using not too many words – and not too few

Step away from the parenting books – and start worrying and doubting yourself instead

Chinese tiger mothers get results, French parents teach manners and the Finns espouse self-reliance. British parents? We read books on how we’re going wrong …

Why mothers should expect less of themselves and more of their partner

Tiffany Dufu had motherhood and her return to work all planned out – until her scheme fell apart. But her crisis became her salvation

The Violet Hour by Katie Roiphe review – great writers on their deathbeds

Nicholas Lezard’s paperback of the week: sensitive and faithful, this book charts the last hours of Susan Sontag, Sigmund Freud, John Updike, Dylan Thomas, Maurice Sendak and James Salter

Wellcome prize shortlist announced: books that ‘will change lives’

Six books are in contention for the annual award for excellence in science and health writing, including a trainee neurosurgeon’s posthumous memoir and books about the NHS, HIV/Aids and organ donorship

Grief Works: Stories of Life, Death and Surviving – review

Psychotherapist Julia Samuel’s case studies provide vital and compelling insights into bereavement

Gemma Cairney: ‘I was a naughty teen – I got told not to talk back’

The radio DJ and author on her life lessons for young and old – plus raving in Margate

Joanna Bourke: ‘Speaking about suffering helps cope with it’

The author of The Story of Pain explains how an agonising hospital stay prompted her to explore an experience felt very differently down the ages

Fragile Lives by Stephen Westaby; Emergency Admissions by Kit Wharton – review

Powerful memoirs by a heart surgeon and an ambulance driver tackle the ‘live or let die’ dilemma of modern healthcare

Never Enough by Barney Hoskyns; The Ice Age by Luke Williams; A Really Good Day by Ayelet Waldman – review

Three vivid memoirs reveal the horrific pull – and possible benefits – of illicit substances

Deliciously Ella with Friends by Ella Mills – digested read

John Crace reduces the latest clean and healthy cookbook from the blogging author to a slimmer 700 words

Elizabeth Blackburn on the telomere effect: ‘It’s about keeping healthier for longer’

The Nobel winner says keeping telomeres – the ends of our chromosomes – in prime condition can stave off diseases associated with ageing