Books

Airline veteran and writer William McGee says airlines' aggressive cost-cutting hasn't just added fees and hassles. He says they're taking steps that compromise safety — and regulators are letting it happen.

For the past 80 years, the Man of Steel has endured in books, movies, radio serials, comic books and cartoons. "Americans embrace Superman partly because he captured so many things that are part of our psyche and part of our sense of ourselves," says biographer Larry Tye.

Comedian Joan Rivers hates a lot of things. Her new book, I Hate Everyone, Starting With Me, details the things Rivers can't stand, from her appearance to obituaries to younger comedians who steal her gigs.

In his new book, Heaven on Earth, English barrister Sadakat Kadri describes how early Islamic scholars codified — and then modified — the Shariah laws that would govern how Muslim people lead their daily lives. He then reflects on the present day, describing how today's religious scholars interpret the Shariah.

Our brains are filled with billions of neurons. Neuroscientist Sebastian Seung explains how mapping out the connections between those neurons might be the key to understanding the basis of things like personality, memory, perception, ideas and mental illness.

Advertisers collect information with every digital move people make. They then target ads based on that information. Communications scholar Joseph Turow worries that advertisers will use such data to discriminate against people and put them into "reputation silos."

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Katherine Boo spent more than three years in Mumbai's Annawadi slum. In her book Behind the Beautiful Forevers, she profiles people living in extreme poverty — right in the shadow of luxury hotels.

Tikva Records was founded as an independent Jewish record label in 1947. For three decades, it would record everything from folk songs to klezmer pop. A new compilation honors the now-defunct label.

New York Times advice columnist Philip Galanes details how to handle breakups, cellphone calls and food allergies — among other topics — in his book Social Q's: How to Survive the Quirks, Quandaries and Quagmires of Today.

After Steve Jobs was diagnosed with cancer, he asked Walter Isaacson to write his biography. The new book tells the personal story of the man behind the personal computer — from his childhood in California to his thoughts on family, friends, death and religion.