IPL 2026 NEA Big Read Selection

1776 tells the story of those who marched with General George Washington in the year of the Declaration of Independence—when the whole American cause was riding on their success, without which all hope for independence would have been dashed and the noble ideals of the Declaration would have amounted to little more than words on paper. Based on extensive research in both American and British archives, 1776 is a powerful drama written with extraordinary narrative vitality.

Programming for 1776 may include: America250 birthday celebration, program collaboration with Sons of the American Revolution or Daughters of the American Revolution, patriotic music program, ROTC performances and flag retirement ceremony, patriotic tea party, Revolutionary War movie screenings, time capsule burial, and more.

In the Heart of the Sea brings to new life the incredible story of the wreck of the whaleship Essex—an event as mythic in its own time as the Titanic disaster in ours, and the inspiration for the climax of Moby-Dick. In this harrowing page-turner, Nathaniel Philbrick tells the epic tale of the Essex crewmembers’ fight for survival.

Programming for In the Heart of the Sea may include: Movie screening, author keynote, programs on sustainability and history of whaling, local historians or American literature panel, discussions about the book and Moby Dick, sea shanty musical performance, nautical knot tying, make your own hardtack, whale crafts, boat races, fish and chips cookoff, and more. 

The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and the character Tim O’Brien, who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of 43. Taught everywhere from high school classrooms to graduate seminars in creative writing, this book has become required reading for any American and continues to challenge readers in their perceptions of fact and fiction, war and peace, courage and fear.

Programming for The Things They Carried may include: Author keynote, program about the 1960s culture, Vietnam war and protests, interactive art program about the things we carry everyday, music of the 60s, Texas Clearwater Revival concert, flag ceremony, Vietnam veterans panel or living history talks, Veterans Day celebration, Vietnam war movie screenings, and more.