Maureen Corrigan

An infamous case of wrongful conviction — which took the efforts of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to resolve — is the subject of the new novel from Julian Barnes. Arthur and George vividly details how the lives of two utter strangers intersected in what was known as "the Great Wyrley Outrages."

The latest novel from Sigrid Nunez, The Last of Her Kind, tracks a woman's life from her college days in the late 1960s to the present. As she describes her own life, the narrator, Georgette, also details the legacy of fierce idealism — and violence.

Fresh Air book critic Maureen Corrigan lists her favorite books of 2005, including novels by Mary Gaitskill and Kazuo Ishiguro, and memoirs by Joan Didion and J.R. Moehringer.

The novels, “The Ice Harvest” by Scott Phillips, “The History of Love” by Nicole Krauss; the nonfiction “The Beggar King and the Secret of Happiness” by Joel ben Izzy, and the short story 1961 classic “Tell Me a Riddle” by Tillie Olsen.

The Woman at the Washington Zoo: Writings on Politics, Family, and Fate was written by Marjorie Williams. Williams died last year of cancer.

The novel Veronica by Mary Gaitskill.

The Tulip and the Pope is the new memoir from Deborah Larsen. The story explores young women on the road to becoming nuns in the 1960s. Larsen's previous work includes the novel The White.

Two writers describe how their lives have been shaped: Kim Ponders was an Air Force pilot during the first Gulf War; and Nicole Lea Helget grew up on a turbulent Minnesota farm in the 1980s.

In The March, novelist E.L. Doctorow applies his distinctive approach to historical fiction to events of the Civil War -- especially Gen. William T. Sherman's decisive, destructive assault on Georgia and the Carolinas.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews the new memoir The Tender Bar by Los Angeles Times reporter J.R. Moehringer. It tells the tale of his dysfunctional family on Long Island — and the community's center, the local bar.