Taking the Medicine Druin Burch (Vintage, £9.99) This is so good, it should be available on prescription. It's a history of bad medicine, showing how human emotions such as fear or arrogance have led doctors to use treatments which make people ill — or avoid treatments which make them better. The author’s name sounds as if it must be an anagram, but he is apparently a doctor at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. At any rate, he writes like a dream, and makes a passionate case for evidence-based treatment, as espoused by the Oxford-based Cochrane Collaboration, which collates and rates information from clinical trials. He points out the stunning improvement in the 20th century, with most (80 per cent) of modern treatments based on good evidence. However, that still leaves 20 per cent where we simply don’t know.

Target Simon Kernick (Corgi, £6.99) Oxfordshire author Simon Kernick follows his bestseller Relentless with Target, more of a chase novel rather than a thriller. Disillusioned writer Rob Fallon is at the flat of his best friend’s girlfriend after a drunken night out when he sees two men kidnap her. But no-one believes Rob’s claims that Jenny was taken. On the run from her kidnappers, he joins forces with Det Sgt Tina Boyd to become embroiled in a terrorist plot involving IRA activists. Rob’s mission to save Jenny is an attempt to make up for past mistakes. A quick-paced read, but with a less-than-thrilling climax.

E. E.

Bringing Nothing To The Party: True Confessions Of A New Media Whore Paul Carr (Orion, £6.99) This autobiographical novel about one man’s attempt to join the dot-com revolution is a terrific read. Whether you’re new to new media or a regular twitterer, this thought-provoking story from US-based British writer Paul Carr will keep you gripped.

Modernism: The Lure of Heresy: From Baudelaire To Beckett And Beyond Peter Gay (Vintage, £10.99) Beautifully written and well-researched by 86-year-old Yale University history professor Peter Gay, this thought-provoking account of the revolutionary path of modernism is fascinating.