It’s still winter. Take advantage of reading season with a new paperback; here are six fresh ones that come highly recommended. “The Vanishing Half” by Brit Bennett (Penguin, $16.99). No sophomore jinx for Brit Bennett, who followed up her widely praised debut novel “The Mothers” with one of the most acclaimed books of 2020, about a pair of separated twins leading very different lives. After breathlessly reading it that year, I wrote, “‘The Vanishing Half’ has much to say about race and identity, about family and kinship (there are several layers of sisters here), about performance, about a wo…