Bonding by Mariel Franklin review – smart satire of tech elites
This debut about love, sex and wellness in the digital age is harsh and fun
You’re Embarrassing Yourself by Desiree Akhavan review
The film-maker’s memoir is a smart, funny, painfully honest account of a ‘loser’ finding success
It Ends with Us review – Blake Lively anchors glossy romance adaptation
Colleen Hoover’s smash hit novel gets a winning and emotionally effective transfer to the big screen
Ugly Sisters review – deft duo riff on Germaine Greer’s encounter with a trans woman
Charli Cowgill and Laurie Ward revisit an article by the author of The Female Eunuch in this thought-provoking hour
The Anthropologists by Ayşegül Savaş review – everyday grace
This elegant portrait of an expat couple’s day-to-day existence delves into the complexities of love, home and social expectations
Caligula: The Ultimate Cut review – 1970s Roman empire sex shocker returns to the source
Without the extra sex that made writer Gore Vidal want his credit removed, Tinto Brass’s epic of imperial eroticism showcases a powerhouse Malcolm McDowell
There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak review – story of a raindrop
This ambitious, multi-perspective novel about the politics and preciousness of water ranges from ancient Mesopotamia to contemporary London
On the Edge by Nate Silver review – the art of risk-taking
From card sharps to crypto traders, a statistician asks what we can learn from the people prepared to gamble everything
The Voyage Home by Pat Barker review – a brilliant finale to the Trojan war trilogy
This third volume brings a characteristic blend of brusque wisdom and piercing compassion to the stories of Cassandra and Clytemnestra
Crime and thrillers of the month – review
In a month full of big hitters, Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie makes a welcome return, Mick Herron’s reissued debut doesn’t disappoint – and Janice Hallett is as ingenious as ever
Goodbye to Russia by Sarah Rainsford review – falling foul of Putin
This compelling chronicle of post-Soviet Russia by the BBC’s former Moscow correspondent captures vividly the tyranny and dark comedy of the president’s rule
Ex-Wife by Ursula Parrott review – Bridget Jones in the jazz age
Reissued after a century, this lively, funny and harrowing debut follows a divorcee torn between sexual liberation and the compromised ‘safety’ of marriage in the 1920s
The Weak and the Wicked/No Trees in the Street review – tough, old school British drama
★★★★☆ / ★★★☆☆Two of J Lee Thompson’s early films – a gritty women’s prison drama and a postwar crime thriller – serve as a reminder that the director deserves more kudos as an artist
There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak review – water, water everywhere
The links between a 19th-century Londoner who escapes poverty and a Yazidi girl born 200 years later are gradually revealed in an absorbing novel that reflects on global inequality
Earth to Moon by Moon Unit Zappa review – waspish, funny account of life as Frank Zappa’s daughter
This memoir about being fathered by the 70s rock oddball and ‘pagan absurdist’ is an extraordinary tale of survival