Barrett Leddy

We treat our skin as a surface to be kept clean and clear, requiring daily application of soap, moisturisers and many other products. But while hygiene - and hand-washing especially - is essential to prevent the spread of disease, this attitude to skincare might actually be damaging our health. In fact, our skin is a complex and diverse ecosystem, playing host to trillions of bacteria that are integral to our immune system. By removing them with soap, we potentially compromise the protection they afford.

Not only is our overuse of soap and skincare products harming the environment, it is likely to be exacerbating or even causing many of the skin conditions we seek to remedy or avoid, and increasing our vulnerability to allergies. In Clean, specialist in preventive medicine James Hamblin shows that this is a relatively recent development, and a healthier, simpler way is available.

The benefits of restrictive diets like paleo and keto have been touted for more than a decade, but as award-winning gastroenterologist Dr Will Bulsiewicz, or 'Dr B', illuminates in this groundbreaking book, the explosion of studies on the microbiome show that elimination diets are in fact hazardous to our health. What research clearly indicates is that gut health is the key to boosting our metabolism, balancing our hormones and taming the inflammation that causes a host of diseases. And the scientifically proven way to fuel our guts is with dietary fibre from an abundant variety of colourful plants.

As a former junk-food junkie, Dr B knows first-hand the power of fibre to dramatically transform our health and the good news is that our guts can be trained. Fibre-rich, real foods - fruits, vegetables, whole grains, seeds, nuts and legumes - start working quickly and maintain your long-term health, promote weight loss and allow you to thrive and feel great from the inside out.

Fibre Fuelled is so much more than a health book: it's a step-by-step methodology to stop the misinformation caused by the diet industry and to show you the simple, science-backed process for a lifestyle that is effortless, sustainable and above all else transforms your health by optimizing your gut microbiome.

With a 28-day jumpstart programme that includes menus, over 70 plant-fuelled recipes, essential advice on food sensitivities and detailed shopping lists, Fibre Fuelled offers the blueprint to start turbocharging your gut for lifelong health.

In August 2012, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad was clinging to power in a vicious civil war. Concerned that Assad might resort to chemical weapons, the international community warned that any such use would cross "a red line", warranting a military response. When a year later Assad bombed the Damascus suburb of Ghouta with sarin gas, killing hundreds, global leaders were torn between living up to their word and becoming mired in another unpopular Middle Eastern war. So when Russia offered to store Syria's chemical weapons, the world leaped at the solution. So begins a race to find, remove, and destroy 1,300 tons of chemical weapons in the middle of Syria's civil war. Told in harrowing detail, the initial effort is a tactical triumph for the West, but soon Russia's long game becomes clear:

it has UN cover to assist Assad's regime. Meanwhile, the territory gains of ISIS further destabilise the country, and the terrorist organisation seeks to secure Syria's chemical arsenals for itself, with horrifying consequences. Red Line is a classic Joby Warrick true-life thriller: a character-driven narrative with a cast of heroes and villains, including weapons hunters, politicians, commandos, diplomats, and spies. Through original reporting and eyewitness accounts from direct participants, Joby Warrick reveals how a well-intentioned effort to save Syrian lives became swept up in a calamitous chain of events that would spawn a terrorist movement, unleash torrents of refugees, frustrate two U.S. presidents and empower the Western alliance's most dangerous foes.