The Big Read

Want to help choose the next Big Read for 2010?

Please e-mail your choice from among the 21 books. The 21 titles have been selected by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is underwriting the Idaho Big Read.

HOW TO VOTE: Choose one of the titles from the list below, and e-mail your selection to bigread@idahostatesman.com

• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Humor, trouble, and adventure follow Tom Sawyer everywhere‹from the banks of the Mississippi to the brink of death and back in Mark Twain's first full novel.

• The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

In 1870s New York, Newland Archer and his fiancée seem the perfect match. But when the alluring Countess Ellen Olenska returns home from Europe, Newland must make the most important decision of his life.

• Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya

One of the most respected works of Chicano literature, Rudolfo Anaya tells the story of Antonio Luna Márez, a young boy who grapples with faith, identity, and death as he comes of age in New Mexico.

• The Bridge of San Luis Rey and Our Town by Thornton Wilder

In 1714 the bridge of San Luis Rey, the most famous in Peru, collapsed, killing five travellers. Their stories form the novel's scheme, posing fascinating questions about each individual's influence on others and the true meaning of a disaster. Our Town describes life in the quiet New Hampshire town of Grover's Corners.

• The Call of the Wild by Jack London

Abducted from his comfortable home and sold as a sled dog, Buck battles the elements to become leader of the pack. This story of a struggle for survival is an unforgettable adventure.

• The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy's Ivan Ilyich is a Russian judge and middle-class everyman. Suddenly stricken by a life-threatening disease at forty-five, Ivan discovers a horrifying truth: He has not lived a meaningful life.

• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Told through the eyes of narrator Nick Carraway, F. Scott Fitzgerald's lyrical masterpiece recounts Jay Gatsby's desperate quest to win back his first love as he struggles to escape the past.

• Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allan Poe

In this collection, the reader is treated to Poe classics such as "The Tell-tale Heart," "The Masque of Red Death," "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," "The Raven," "Annabel Lee," and "Lenore."

• The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

A teenage outcast, a drunken socialist, a black doctor, and a sad café owner confess their secrets to a deaf-mute, in Carson McCullers' dramatic story of poverty and racism in a 1930s Georgia mill town.

• The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

In sixteen interwoven stories, Amy Tan's characters‹four Chinese immigrant mothers and their American-raised daughters‹struggle to connect despite the ghosts and secrets of the past.

• A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines

A frustrated schoolteacher in 1940s Louisiana tries to give a condemned man back his dignity before he dies. Vivid and compassionate, this novel asks: Knowing we're going to die, how should we live?

• Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich

This award winning novel is a collection of stories about the intertwined lives of characters living on a Chippewa reservation in North Dakota.

• Old School by Tobias Wolff

At a New England prep school where keeping up appearances is everything, Tobias Wolff's youthful narrator learns the painful difference between truth and fiction.

• The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick

Bear witness to Rosa Lublin‹a mother, madwoman, and holocaust survivor. Cynthia Ozick's heartbreakingly empathic novella explores universal ideas of family and loss, denial and starting over.

• Sun, Stone, and Shadows by Jorge Hernandez

This anthology presents a superb selection of the finest Mexican short stories ever written, and offers a glimpse into a diverse and fascinating culture.

• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston's vibrant novel presents Janie Mae Crawford's growth from a voiceless teenage girl into a woman who takes charge of her own destiny.

• The Thief and the Dogs by Naguib Mahfouz

Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz's moral thriller follows a thief's quest for revenge down the boulevards and back alleys of Cairo.

• The Things They Carried by Tim O¹Brien

Twenty-two recollections based on O¹Brien¹s platoon experience, replay the Vietnam War with horrifying reality. Every solider carries some military item: grenade, M-16, or C-rations. But they also carry revealing personal items.

• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

As Harper Lee's narrator, Scout Finch, tries to draw out a reclusive neighbor, she finds herself involved in a racially charged trial that decides the fate of a man in her Alabama community.

• Washington Square by Henry James

In the Washington Square area of New York City in the late nineteenth century, devastating betrayals by both her father and her lover leave shy and fragile Catherine Sloper permanently scarred.

• A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

In the first book of Ursula K. Le Guin's widely admired fantasy series, only the power of language can restore balance to a dangerous world.

HOW TO VOTE: Choose one of the titles from the list above, and e-mail your selection to bigread@idahostatesman.com