This has been a stellar year for both fiction and non-fiction, with a number of popular authors surfacing with excellent work, including E.L. Doctorow, David McCullough, Joan Didion and Elmore Leonard.
Here are my picks for the best books of 2005, in no particular order.
FICTION
"Saturday" (by Ian McEwan, Nan Talese, 289 pages, $26). Perhaps the best novel to appear with 9/11 as its theme, this gripping work follows a single day in the life of neurosurgeon Henry Perowne, who lives in London. While a surgeon is expected to act well under pressure, the reader also sees the way his medical mind works in reaction to other surprising challenges.
"The March" (by E.L. Doctorow, Random House, 363 pages, $25.95). Doctorow succeeds as perhaps no other writer has in creating a compelling and believable work of historical fiction as he follows the infamous march of Union General William T. Sherman through Georgia during the Civil War.
"Grace" (by Linn Ullmann, Knopf, 130 pages, $20). A Norwegian novelist writes with unique finesse about an ordinary husband and wife, and their estranged son, struggling with relationships and the potential of a lethal injection to relieve the husband of his suffering from cancer.
"The Closed Circle" (by Jonathan Coe, Knopf, 367 pages, $25). This book is a sequel to "The Rotters' Club," an earlier novel about a group of school friends in the 1970s. In a masterful development of character, Coe examines the same group of friends 20 years later as they reconnect in fascinating ways.
"The Hot Kid" (by Elmore Leonard, William Morrow, 312 pages, $25.95). At the age of 80, Leonard has written his 40th crime novel — and he just keeps getting better. There is a good vs. evil allegory running through this one as the offbeat characters collide, Carl (the law) and Jack (the underworld). The dialogue is realistic, salty and fast-paced.
"The Franklin Affair" (by Jim Lehrer, Random House, 210 pages, $23.95). Prominent television journalist Lehrer is also an excellent novelist, who focuses on possibly the greatest founding father — Benjamin Franklin — to build his story. It is really about R Taylor, a Franklin scholar, who is morally tested when he discovers adverse information about the subject of his studies.
"The Time in Between" (by David Bergen, Random House, 240 pages, $23.95). In a literary triumph, Canadian novelist Bergen examines the still tender feelings and memories that exist about the Vietnam War. Charles Boatman, a Vietnam vet, returns to the country to try to deal with his emotions, then disappears.
"Never Let Me Go" (by Kazuo Ishiguro, Knopf, 288 pages, $24). Most famous for "The Remains of the Day," Ishiguro has written a powerful and perceptive novel about a group of sheltered young people who are being prepared to make "donations" — yet they are also aware that the rest of the world thinks they have no souls. Suspense is the key.
"A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian" (by Marina Lewycka, Penguin Press, 294 pages, $24.95). In an entertaining debut novel, Lewycka creates a cartoonish widowed father who tells his family he is going to marry a blonde bombshell from Ukraine. His middle-age daughters are astonished, and the comedy builds steadily from there.
"Pomegranate Soup" (by Marsha Mehran, Random House, 223 pages, $23.95). The three Aminpour sisters — Marjan, Bahar and Layla — leave revolutionary Iran to settle in a small sheltered village in rural Ireland. They open a pastry shop and start creating a culinary sensation that grows into a conflict between Persian spices and the Irish temperament.
NON-FICTION
"The Year of Magical Thinking" (by Joan Didion, Knopf, 227 pages, $23.95). At the age of 70, the prolific Didion has created a masterwork of description of the untimely loss of her husband and fellow writer, John Gregory Dunne — and their 39-year-old daughter, Quintana. Didion expresses grief in an eloquent and clear-headed way.
"1776" (by David McCullough, Simon and Schuster, 386 pages, $32). McCullough, a noted historian, takes aim at one year in the Revolutionary War in the most personal and human ways possible. While George Washington is a major character, McCullough also examines King George III, Lord North and several British generals. Even those who dislike war books will probably like this one.
"Rules for Old Men Waiting" (by Peter Pouncey, Random House, 210 pages, $21.95). Pouncey, a classics scholar, has created a strange and interesting character, Robert MacIver, a World War I scholar, who decides to die with dignity with the help of "Ten Commandments for Old Men Waiting."
"Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling" (by Richard Bushman, Knopf, 730 pages, $35). Bushman, an eminent, prize-winning historian and committed Mormon, has accomplished what has seemed impossible — he has written a historically accurate, perhaps definitive, and fascinating biography of Joseph Smith, the LDS Prophet, portraying him "warts and all."
"Becoming Justice Blackmun" (by Linda Greenhouse, Times Books, Henry Holt, 270 pages, $25). Using documents never before available, journalist Greenhouse, a seasoned Supreme Court reporter, has written an incisive and revealing book about the court while telling the compelling life story of Justice Harry Blackmun.
"The United States of Europe" (by T. R. Reid, Penguin, 305 pages, $25.95). In a well-researched book, journalist Reid portrays the reality of political and governmental Europe in the 21st century. He demonstrates that Europe has unobtrusively acquired a new and powerful clout in the world that is unmistakable but essentially unnoticed by the rest of the world.
"Ghosting: A Double Life"(by Jennie Erdal, Doubleday, 270 pages, $24). Erdal, until now an unknown Scottish writer, spent 20 years as the ghostwriter for Naim Attallah, a flamboyant British publisher. With this book she came out of the closet and her story is very interesting.
"Kremlin Rising" (by Peter Baker & Susan Glasser, Scribner, 464 pages, $27.50). Written by two journalists who were stationed in Moscow for three years, this is a book that sheds great light on the problems of the Russian government and the problem-filled tenure of the current leader, Vladimir Putin. Baker and Glasser portray Putin as a dictator in the Stalin mode.
"Bloody Falls of the Coppermine: Madness, Murder, and the Collision of Cultures in the Arctic, 1913"(by McKay Jenkins, Random House, 278 pages, $25.95). This is the superbly written tale of murder in the Canadian Arctic, involving Catholic priests and Eskimos. The struggle to bring justice in an isolated wilderness is beyond belief. Although the book reads like a novel, it is a well-documented true story.
"Mirror to America"(by John Hope Franklin, Farrar, Straus &Giroux, 401 pages, $25). This memoir by a nationally-prominent American historian tells his life story within the greater American story of racism. Franklin is a 90-year-old activist and scholar who played a prominent role in the civil-rights revolution. He tells riveting personal stories about his confrontations with discrimination.
E-mail: dennis@desnews.com