Dear NHS, edited by Adam Kay – celebrities say thank you

Tales of embarrassing injuries and moments of poignance, plus some poor efforts, in a revealing collection of essays

Poetry book of the month: Antiemetic for Homesickness by Romalyn Ante – review

An NHS nurse pines for her native Philippines in her captivating debut as a poet

Vernon Subutex 3 by Virginie Despentes review – perfectly over-the-top end to Parisian potboiler

The concluding part to an extraordinary pulpy trilogy features rehab workers, cocaine fiends and much violence

Greyhound review – Tom Hanks goes to war on the high seas

Hanks plays a ship’s captain under attack from a wolf pack of Nazi U-boats in a tense and poignant second world war drama

The Double X Economy by Linda Scott review – how to solve economic sexism

A passionate and timely study shows the damage caused to the global economy by failing to harness the power of women

Why We Drive review – a motorist puts his foot down

Matthew Crawford’s heartfelt riposte to a ‘smart’ future of driverless cars is persuasive and thought-provoking

In brief: Artifact; The Museum of Whales You Will Never See; A Woman Like Her – review

A joyful tale about the search for satisfaction and the sad fate of Pakistan’s first social media celebrity

Shadow State by Luke Harding review – Putin’s poisonous path to victory

This compelling account shows how sowing chaos in the west has led the Russian leader to a post-cold war triumph

British Summer Time Begins review – lyrical social history

Ysenda Maxtone Graham eloquently captures the quirky nature of the bygone British summer break

Our Time Is Now review: Stacey Abrams for attorney general, if not VP to Biden

An eloquent and moving call for voting rights reform shows the former Georgia House minority leader is ready for higher office

Bread Winner by Emma Griffin review – victims of the Victorian economy

Britain had never been richer, so how did working families become trapped in a nightmare of dirt and want? An intimate history, from darning to dinners in the gutter

The Wild Laughter by Caoilinn Hughes review – an Irish Cain and Abel

Resentment seethes between two brothers as their father lies dying in the wake of boom and bust

The Old Guard review – Netflix immortality thriller won’t live long in the memory

Not even Charlize Theron can save an action movie crying out for a comic touch to match the silliness of its premise

London’s New Scene by Lisa Tickner review – seven events that smashed the art world

From the pop art of Peter Blake, Pauline Boty and David Hockney to Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up … how 60s’ London came to lead the way

Fracture by Andrés Neuman review – the damage of the past

The Argentinian writer’s best novel yet follows a Japanese man investigating his country’s history of trauma and survival