In brief: Sal; The Little Book of Feminist Saints; Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race – reviews

Mick Kitson has a moving tale of sisterhood and survival, Julia Pierpont runs the rule over 100 female trailblazers, and Reni Eddo-Lodge reflects on race relations in modern Britain

Waiting for the Last Bus: Reflections on Life and Death by Richard Holloway – review

An elegiac, inclusive and hugely nourishing reminder to take stock of our mortality from the former head of the Anglican Church in Scotland

The Genius Within review – a smart look at boosting our brains

David Adam explores the history of intelligence and ways to improve his own, raising timely questions

From a Low and Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan – review

The nature of empathy connects the stories of three men in this hard-hitting, uplifting novel

Hired: Six Months Undercover in Low-Wage Britain – review

Journalist James Bloodworth’s story of being ‘embedded’ for six months as a zero-hours worker is vital reading for all

Blake Morrison: ‘You must write a memoir as if you’re writing a novel’

The author of And When Did You Last See Your Father? on his new novel, the story of a literary executor

Force of Nature by Jane Harper review – five go feral in the outback

One missing, four traumatised … In this gripping follow-up to The Dry, police detective Aaron Falk investigates an office trip that loses its way in the bush

Bookworm by Lucy Mangan review – an enchanting memoir of childhood reading

Narnia, The Secret Garden and other favourites of a bookish child in Margaret Thatcher’s south London

Writers and Their Mothers review – the legacy of maternal blessings

Made, marred, mollycoddled and inspired … Philip Larkin, Ian McEwan and Samuel Beckett are among the authors in this lively collection of affectionate and celebratory essays

The Friendly Ones by Philip Hensher review – love, loss and banter in multicultural Britain

A story about two families in Sheffield – one white English; the other from Bangladesh – meanders through the decades

The Life and Death of Sherlock Holmes review – a history of Holmes appreciation

Benedict Cumberbatch’s sleuth is striking but every era has had their own version of the fictional detective as Mattias Boström’s lively study shows

The best recent science fiction and fantasy novels – reviews roundup

The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch; Embers of War by Gareth L Powell; The Bitter Twins by Jen Williams; Spare and Found Parts by Sarah Maria Griffin; All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai

The Long Hangover by Shaun Walker review – Putin’s new Russia

Russian nationalism and nostalgia in a former Moscow correspondent’s account of Putin’s rule

Afterglow: A Dog Memoir by Eileen Myles review – for the love of dog

An elegy for a lost pet by a rock star of the spoken word takes in love, death and animal vision

Folk by Zoe Gilbert review – a dreamlike tapestry of island fables

Dark magic, superstition and foreboding ritual haunt this immersive portrait of the fictional village of Neverness