Editors' Choice: Recent books of particular interest.

SOLAR, by Ian McEwan (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, $26.95.) In McEwan's funniest novel yet, a self-deluding physicist cheats on his wives, sends an innocent man to jail and tries to cash in on another scientist's plans against global warming. VANISHING POINT: Not a Memoir, by Ander Monson (Graywolf, paper, $16.) Monson's collection, in a tradition that has been described as the ''lyric essay,'' pointillistically confronts puzzles of truth and identity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]