Fully Upright and Locked Position: Not-So-Comfortable Truths about Air Travel Today. Mark Gerchick. Norton. 324 pages. $24.95.

Nonfiction

The good, bad of airline travel

An insider details everything from safety, seat prices, food sanitation to lost luggage.

YOU ARE ONE OF THEM. Elliott Holt. Penguin. 293 pages. $26.95.

Fiction

Best friends caught up in the Cold War

Sarah and Jenny bond, and then are torn apart in a suspicious plane crash.

What are you reading now?

“I’ve recently read two books I really liked; I read a lot on my book tours. That’s the real joy of book tours! I read How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid. I really liked it. And Dave Eggers’ A Hologram for the King. I thought it was brilliant.”

Revenge Wears Prada: The Devil Returns. Lauren Weisberger. Simon & Schuster. 400 pages. $25.99.

Fiction

The return of ice queen Miranda in Lauren Weisberger’s sequel to ‘The Devil Wears Prada’

Who said fashion is all about the next new thing? Author Lauren Weisberger revisits her over-the-top characters from The Devil Wears Prada, including top magazine editor and ice queen Miranda Priestly, 10 years later in her latest novel. Other than a few fleeting trends that clearly define the setting as 2013, things haven’t changed all that much.

Alice Munro says she’s ‘probably’ done writing

Less than a year after Philip Roth announced he had stopped writing books, another literary great may be retiring: Alice Munro.

Khaled Hosseini is also the author of the bestselling novels "The Kite Runner" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns."

Author appearance

‘Kite Runner’ author to discuss his new bestseller in Coral Gables Wednesday

Khaled Hosseini’s novels about Afghanistan and its people can break your heart. But readers are not the only ones who find themselves deeply moved by the darker elements of his stories. Photo Gallery Available

Midnight in Mexico; A Reporter’s Journey Through a Country’s Descent into Darkness. Alfredo Corchado. Penguin. 284 pages. $27.95.

Nonfiction

Broken promise of Mexico

A journalist’s very personal account of how his home country progressed into a state of drug wars, violence and corruption

Graphic novels

Superheroes and terrific tales

Batman Incorporated: Demon Star. Grant Morison and Chris Burnham. DC Comics. 176 pages. $24.99.

Bad Monkey. Carl Hiaasen. Knopf. 336 pages. $26.95.

Fiction

Carl Hiaasen captures Florida’s eccentricities in ‘Bad Monkey’

Carl Hiaasen’s latest spoof involves an unattached arm, a good cop and a nasty monkey.

The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls. Anton DiSclafani. Riverhead. 390 pages. $27.95.

Fiction

Coming of age in the Great Depression

A scandal sends a sheltered teenage girl away from home to a mountain camp to ride horses and learn about life.

What do you recommend?

“Meg Wolitzer’s The Interestings. It’s such a fantastic book, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s one of those novels you have on a plane, and you’re excited because you have this book with you, and you’re looking forward to being consumed by it.”

The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America. George Packer. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 448 pages. $27.

Nonfiction

Winners, losers in America’s decline

George Packer tracks how rich and poor dealt with the enormous changes wrought in the last 35 years.

books

Excerpt 2 from Carl Hiaasen’s new book ‘Bad Monkey’

The following is an excerpt from Carl Hiaasen’s “Bad Monkey,” which will be released on Tuesday. Another excerpt was published in Sunday’s Tropical Life, and a third will be published Wednesday. You can read them all at MiamiHerald.com. Photo Gallery Available

books

Excerpt 3 from Carl Hiaasen’s ‘Bad Monkey’

The following is an excerpt from Carl Hiaasen’s “Bad Monkey,” which was released on Tuesday. Additional excerpts were published Sunday and Tuesday. You can read them all at MiamiHerald.com. Photo Gallery Available

TransAtlantic. Colum McCann. Random. 259 pages. $27.

Fiction

In Colum McCann’s ‘TransAtlantic,’ ‘nothing ever finishes’

National Book Award winner Colum McCann goes back and forth between eras and continents to define lives and history.

Jami Attenberg, author of the novel "The Middlesteins."

Author! Author!

Author appearance: Novelist Jami Attenberg will get you hungry

If, while reading Jami Attenberg’s latest novel, you find yourself craving a meal — say, for example, the exquisite flavors of lamb-cumin noodles — you are not alone.

What are you reading now?

“I just finished Flora, by Gail Godwin (I’m a longtime Gail Godwin fan). She’s so good at writing complicated narrators, enmeshed in setting. At this very moment I’m reading Janet Malcolm’s 41 False Starts. I’ve just finished two essays about visual artists, a subject I know nothing about, but Malcolm’s so amazingly insightful and precise that she can (and does) make anything interesting.”

Nine Years Under: Coming of Age in an Inner City Funeral Home. Sheri Booker. Gotham. 268 pages. $26.

Memoir

Sheri Booker describes the death business in ‘Nine Years Under’

A teenager hired by a funeral home to help out soon finds herself doing a lot more.

Author appearances

Ransome Riggs: “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.” 2 p.m. Books & Books, 265 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables.

Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center. Ray Monk.Doubleday. 825 pages. $37.50.

Biography

Enigma of the father of the A-bomb

The author explores the complex life of brilliant scientist Robert Oppenheimer.

Nonstop action in NUMA thriller

Zero Hour. Clive Cussler and Graham Brown. Putnam. 401 pages. 28.95.

books

Fishing for memories off Key West

The following is an excerpt from Carl Hiaasen’s “Bad Monkey,” which will be released on Tuesday. Additional excerpts will be published in Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s Tropical Life. Photo Gallery Available

books

Soman Chainani hits jackpot with novel ‘School for Good and Evil’

The story of Soman Chainani’s first book, The School for Good and Evil, sounds like a kind of modern fairytale: Young writer lands on the bestseller lists with his first novel, which is promptly sold to a major movie studio for an enormous sum. And Chainani, born in Miami and raised in Key Biscayne, sounds like a creative golden boy, a driven, prize-winning student who graduated summa cum laude from Harvard and racked up fellowships and awards. Photo Gallery Available

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. Karen Jay Fowler. 310 pages. $26.95.

Fiction

A dark journey into Rosemary’s past

Karen Joy Fowler’s new novel goes much further than merely exploring the secrets of a dysfunctional family.

The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies. Jonathan Alter. Simon & Schuster. 448 pages. $30.

Politics

Obama’s battle

Jonathan Alter explores the presidential debates, Romney’s big gaffe and the president’s technological advantages

Big Brother. Lionel Shriver. HarperCollins. 373 pages. $26.99

Fiction

Pandora deals with a big problem

This novel about family and obesity is quick-paced, insightful and sad.

What are you reading now?

“The Ship of Fools. Cristina Peri Rossi reaches back playfully to some imaginary starting point when stories barked and scolded. She strips her narrative of every conventional comfort that has turned the novel into an anodyne; that keeps us as oblivious about our own violence and inhumanity as the inhabitants of that first ship of fools.”

A CONSTELLATION OF VITAL PHENOMENA.Anthony Marra. Hogarth. 384 pages. $26.

Fiction

Orphaned by thugs, saved by a hero

This extraordinary tale of a girl, 8, and her neighbor takes place in a war-torn village in Chechnya.

Suspense

One more job before going home

The Carrion Birds. Urban Waite. Morrow. 288 pages. $25.99.

On Sal Mal Lane. Ru Freeman. Graywolf. 410 pages. $26.

Fiction

Life on the lane grows dangerous in Ru Freeman’s novel

A tiny piece of a divided Sri Lanka is the setting for this artful and character-filled novel.

King of Cuba. Cristina Garcia. Scribner. 256 pages. $28.99.

Fiction

Old hostilities take on new slant in Cristina Garcia’s ‘King of Cuba’

Old hostilities take on a modern slant between Cuba and the United States as an exile plots revenge against ‘El Commandante.’

Brilliant Blunders: From Darwin to Einstein---Colossal Mistakes by Great Scientists That Changed Our Understanding of Life and the Universe. Mario Livio.Simon & Schuster.
354 pages. $26.

Science

Five great scientists with flawed vision

Even geniuses make mistakes, says astrophysicist Mario Livio.

The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth. Mark Mazzetti. Penguin. 400 pages. $29.95.

Nonfiction

‘Smart war’ is license to kill from afar

President Obama has expanded the powers of the CIA to strike down ‘combatants’ with little oversight or accountability.

What are you reading now?

“After reading Ruth Ozeki’s fabulous A Tale for the Time Being, I asked her for a book recommendation. As a result, I’m currently reading Chang-rae Lee’s A Gesture Life. (I have this idea that I can play a sort of game of telephone with my reading; that next I’ll manage somehow to get a recommendation from Lee and so on.) A Gesture Life produces an instantaneous but increasing sense of unease for the reader as it moves from surface to depth, from the performance of a life to the history hidden in that performance. Sometimes I am afraid to keep going, but it is impossible to put down. A beautiful, beautiful book.”