Alias Grace review – a blessed adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s extraordinary novel

This cerebral true-crime miniseries, brilliantly adapted by Sarah Polley, is just as well done – and just as suited to our times – as The Handmaid’s Tale

Alias Grace review – another poignant adaptation of a Margaret Atwood novel

Sarah Gadon’s commanding performance as Grace Marks carries this Netflix series through, despite a lack of soot and grit in its portrayal of Victorian poverty

The White Book by Han Kang review – the fragility of life

The author of The Vegetarian has written a powerful autobiographical meditation on the life and death of a newborn sister

Outsiders: Five Women Writers Who Changed the World by Lyndall Gordon – review

This fascinating book takes us deep into the minds, and works, of Mary Shelley, Emily Brontë, George Eliot, Olive Schreiner and Virginia Woolf

Ancestors in the Attic by Michael Holroyd – review

The revered biographer delves into the magical and peculiar lives of his own ‘grimly eccentric’ family

Heather, the Totality by Matthew Weiner review – thrilling nihilism from Mad Men creator

An elegant novella about the decline and fall of a marriage is bleak but captivating

Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin review – haunting and terrifying

This devastating debut novel about maternal sacrifice, eco-fear and supernatural goings-on demands an instant second reading

The House by Simon Lelic review – a tale of two storeys

This creepy story of a couple moving into their first home packs in the chills as twin narratives entwine and pull apart

How to Think: A Guide for the Perplexed by Alan Jacobs review – excellent food for thought

Open your mind, relax… and take a step back from Twitter

Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine – review

Joe Hagan’s portrayal of the 60s dropout who became a voice of the counterculture and a US publishing mogul is both perceptive and comic

An Almost Perfect Christmas by Nina Stibbe review – pass the frozen turkey

Stibbe’s miscellany of stories, advice and botched Christmases past is a rustled-up delight

Ali: A Life by Jonathan Eig review – the flawed lord of the ring

This exhaustive biography doesn’t shy away from the great boxer’s philandering and questionable views, and shines new light on his early cognitive decline

Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend review – a magical debut

This enchanting adventure of a ‘strange little girl with black eyes’ more than holds its own against a certain H Potter. Roll on the franchise

The Inner Life of Animals by Peter Wohlleben – review

The beauty of beasts is that we will never quite understand them – but this book gives it a decent shot

The Ghost: A Cultural History by Susan Owens – review

The story of how the spirit world has changed with the times tells us a lot about ourselves