What would you like to read and discuss in 2006?

Cast your vote for the 2006 selection for One Book, One Bloomington and Beyond.

Ballot boxes are in the  Information Commons and the Reference Desk in the East Tower of the Wells Library and at other Bloomington locations. Or vote online. Votes must be submitted by 5 p.m.  on December 15. The winning book will be announced on January 16, 2006.

This year's nominees are:

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
A Class study of men at war focusing on the members of a single platoon, this collection off 22 interconnected stories catalogues not only the things they carried into battle, but more importantly, the things they carried inside and the nightmares they carried home.

Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley
Shelley's disturbing and profoundly moving class tells the story of a man (or monster) built by Dr. Victor Frankenstein and brought to life by electricity, hinting at the corrupting influence of society on human nature and the possible dangers inherent in the pursuit of pure science.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
In this portrait of the Jazz Age in all its decadence, a self-invented millionaire pursues his now-married wartime love in a blind quest embodying some of this country's most abiding obsessions: money, ambition, greed, and the promise of new beginnings. A cautionary tale about the American Dream.

On the Road by Jack Kerouac
This thinly fictionalized autobiography, taking Kerouac's real life friends, lovers, and fellow travelers on a cross-country bohemian odyssey, has influence writing and penetrated into the deepest levels of American thought and culture.

My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
A deeply moving story about a religious boy who must learn to balance his overwhelming need to draw, to paint, to render the world he knows and the pain he feels on canvas for everyone to see--without shaming his people or relinquishing any part of his deeply felt Judaism.

When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
This debut novel paints a portrait of the Japanese internment camps with crystalline intensity and precision, using a single family to evoke the displacement--both physical and emotional--of a generation of Japanese Americans.

One Book, One Bloomington, now in its fifth year, is sponsored by the Bloomington Area Arts Council. Additional support comes from the Herald-Times, AuthorHouse, and the Indiana Arts Commission.