NYT Books X

Sarah Lyall discusses the thriller “Whalefall,” by Daniel Kraus, and Joumana Khatib rounds up the month’s other big books.

At age 3, Shane McCrae was taken from his Black father by his white grandparents — a rupture he explores in a new memoir.

The tropes may be familiar in these romance novels — fake dating, falling for a celebrity — but the books themselves are fresh and beguiling.