LIT PICKS

We recommend these recently reviewed titles:

Shark Drunk

The Art of Catching a Large Shark From a Tiny Rubber Dinghy in a Big Ocean By Morten Strøksnes (Knopf; 307 pages; $26.95)

The Greenland shark is the totemic protagonist of Norwegian journalist Strøksnes’ prime, digressive entertainment.

The Force

By Don Winslow (William Morrow; 482 pages; $27.99)

Winslow’s outstanding crime novel centers on Staten Island cop Denny Malone, a complex Everyman who may earn our sympathy and even empathy.

The Book of Joan

By Lidia Yuknavitch (Harper; 267 pages; 26.99)

Isadora

By Amelia Gray (Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 386 pages; $27)

These two novels make use of the lives of radical historical figures in distinct ways. Both, in a sense, are writing about the present — one through the lens of the early 20th century, the other from 2049.

Unsub

By Meg Gardiner (Dutton; 367 pages; $26)

In this fleet-footed thriller, Gardiner offers up a fictional, Zodiac-style killer who terrorizes the Bay Area.