Best books of 2022: Health and wellbeing
![Book cover of ‘Age Proof’](https://www-ft-com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/https%3A%2F%2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net%2Fproduction%2F5c1ba246-b7bd-42c5-b84f-2b8a01937567.jpg?source=next-article&fit=scale-down&quality=highest&width=700&dpr=1)
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Age Proof: The New Science of Living a Longer and Healthier Life
by Rose Anne Kenny, Lagom £20
Shortlisted for the 2022 Royal Society Science Book Prize, this is at the respectable end of the self-help genre. Rose Anne Kenny, professor of medical gerontology at Trinity College Dublin, offers readable advice on staying happier and healthier into old age: get a good night’s sleep, have a social life and eat well, fasting occasionally. Oh, and keep having sex.
![Book cover of ‘The Expectation Effect’](https://www-ft-com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/https%3A%2F%2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net%2Fproduction%2Fcb20b640-37a5-4679-a6ca-799395dad335.jpg?source=next-article&fit=scale-down&quality=highest&width=700&dpr=1)
The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Transform Your Life
by David Robson, Canongate Books £10.99
While mountain biking recently, I took a wrong turning on to what looked like an easier path. It was the harder track all along — I suspect that I finished it intact only because I expected it to be easier. David Robson, a science journalist, explains how expectation changes our experience of the world — and how we can cultivate that mindset to our advantage.
![Book cover of ‘The Man Who Tasted Words’](https://www-ft-com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/https%3A%2F%2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net%2Fproduction%2F36499c5f-b6c0-42d6-8826-3b9c61be7357.jpg?source=next-article&fit=scale-down&quality=highest&width=700&dpr=1)
The Man Who Tasted Words: Inside the Strange and Startling World of Our Senses
by Guy Leschziner, Simon & Schuster £16.99
Our interpretation of the world around us — in other words, our version of reality — is constructed from the input of our five senses. When this neural wiring goes awry, so does the nature of human experience. Guy Leschziner, a neurologist at King’s College London, offers an unsettling guide to the mayhem caused by sensory dysfunction.
Tell us what you think
What are your favourites from this list — and what books have we missed? Tell us in the comments below
![Book cover of ‘And Finally’](https://www-ft-com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/https%3A%2F%2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net%2Fproduction%2F67ca1a18-5f84-43ec-b141-2d0c00d48bb8.jpg?source=next-article&fit=scale-down&quality=highest&width=700&dpr=1)
And Finally: Matters of Life and Death
by Henry Marsh, Jonathan Cape £16.99
Henry Marsh, an eminent neurosurgeon and author, contemplates life as he grapples with a diagnosis of advanced cancer. This reluctant doctor-turned-patient reflects — not always proudly — on how he treated his own patients, as well as on what ultimately matters. A haunting memoir from someone who has spent a career at the fragile border between life and death, now confronting the prospect of his own crossing.
Books of the Year 2022
![](https://www-ft-com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/https%3A%2F%2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net%2Fproduction%2F43c41a77-ab10-40ed-a2a2-efa99ef32a10.jpg?source=next-article&fit=scale-down&quality=highest&width=700&dpr=1)
All this week, FT writers and critics share their favourites. Some highlights are:
Monday: Business by Andrew Hill
Tuesday: Environment by Pilita Clark
Wednesday: Economics by Martin Wolf
Thursday: Fiction by Laura Battle
Friday: Politics by Gideon Rachman
Saturday: Critics’ choice
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