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Which of the three books below should be the next Big Read Community Reading title? The winning book will be announced in the Dayton Daily News on Aug. 17th.

The Big Read will take place in Spring, 2009. Friends, co-workers, neighbors and strangers will all read the same book, then join together for lively discussion.

Stay tuned — more details will be announced at your nearest library, bookstore,
and through the Dayton Daily News.

• Voting has ended

About The Big Read

The Big Read is a communitywide, six-week-long event during which people gather in all sorts of combinations at all sorts of locations to talk about the myriad issues raised by any good piece of writing.

Book Summaries

Nineteen Minutes

By Jodi Picoult
455 pages, published 2007

In this novel, Peter Houghton is an alienated teen who has been bullied since his very first day of school. One day he brings four guns to his high school, opens fire and kills 10 people. Flashbacks reveal how his parents and teachers failed him and how constant bullying caused Peter to retreat into a world of violent computer games. The judge assigned to Peter's case tries to maintain her objectivity as she struggles to understand her daughter, who was once Peter's best friend and who is now one of the surviving witnesses of the shooting. > Buy this book

The People Of the Book

By Geraldine Brooks
376 pages, published 2007

Why would a Muslim risk his life to save the Sarajevo Haggadah, one of the earliest illuminated Jewish books in existence? And what secrets do the hidden clues — an insect wing, wine stains and white hair — mean when rare book expert Hanna Heath discovers them while analyzing and conserving the famed book? Pulitzer prize winner Geraldine Brooks takes readers on a fictionalized adventure based on a true story through time, from Muslim-ruled Spain and inquisition era Venice to the present, as the book is rescued from war and destruction several times. This novel is history, mystery and an ode to the power of the book. > Buy this book

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace … One School at a Time

By Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
336 pages, published 2006

Mountain climber Greg Mortenson was rescued and nursed back to health by the people of a small Pakistani village after his failed attempt to climb K2, the world's second highest mountain. Out of gratitude, he promised to build a school for the village. This grew into a one-man mission to promote peace by building schools, especially for girls, throughout Taliban territory. He worked under difficult circumstances, was feared and hated, survived kidnapping, death threats and long separations from his wife and children. But his success speaks for itself — at last count, his Central Asia Institute has built 55 schools. > Buy this book

Cast your vote!

Which of the following books should be chosen for The Big Read?

Nineteen Minutes 56.33% 378 The People Of the Book 18.18% 122 Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace … One School at a Time 25.48% 171