Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters by Steven Pinker review

Our powers of reason have undoubtedly made the world a better place. So why are we so in thrall to fake news?

The Mirror and the Light review – Cromwell’s spell is finally broken

The climactic play based on Hilary Mantel’s magisterial trilogy has wit and grace but no great dramatic release

Feminism for Women by Julie Bindel review – equality is not enough

Bindel makes a call to reset the feminist movement and resist the normalisation of sexual violence

The Book of Form & Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki review – a Zen chorus

Every object speaks in this tale of a boy coming to terms with loss, which investigates the real and illusory with calm good humour

The best recent thrillers – review roundup

Nicci French and Liane Moriarty keep it in the family, a deadly haunted house game for Halloween and rural Australia has a new cop on the block

Putting It Together review – how Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park With George was born

James Lapine’s account of how he and Stephen Sondheim braved bad previews and cast members jumping ship to create a hit musical is fascinating

Burntcoat by Sarah Hall review – sex on the eve of destruction

A sculptor recalls her fling with a restaurateur as the world succumbs to a deadly virus in Hall’s urgent lockdown tale

A Carnival of Snackery by David Sedaris review – a magpie with an eye for the absurd

The second volume of the American humorist’s diaries is full of his trademark wit but best consumed in small bites

Rationality by Steven Pinker review – it all stands to reason

The cognitive psychologist makes perfect sense in his defence of rational thinking and why our brains often lead us astray

In brief: Love & Deception: Philby in Beirut; The Tale of the Tailor and the Three Dead Kings; Ghosts of the West – reviews

A fresh take on the Kim Philby saga, a chilling retelling of a medieval tale and the third of Alec Marsh’s colourful mysteries

The Survivors by Alex Schulman review – bloody family reunion

The Swedish writer’s international debut novel uses a tricksy narrative structure to tackle the meeting of three brothers driven apart by tragedy

Shutdown by Adam Tooze; After the Virus by Hilary Cooper and Simon Szreter – review

While Tooze brilliantly chronicles Covid-19’s impact on political thinking and our working lives, Cooper and Szreter identify the lessons we must learn from our forebears to rebuild

The Contrarian review – inside the strange world of PayPal founder Peter Thiel

Max Chafkin’s thorough study of the tech titan reveals a man with his eye on the main chance, rather than a visionary

I’ll Take Your Questions Now review: Stephanie Grisham’s tawdry Trump tell-all

The press secretary who wouldn’t brief the press wants to talk. Like all else to do with Donald and Melania, truth is a casualty

Spider Woman by Lady Hale review – a tangled web she weaves

The former supreme court president’s memoir illustrates her incredible strength in triumphing over institutional sexism, but is light on personal revelations