March Book Notes Plus Quiz

Book Notes Plus is a wonderful blog written by library patron Gerald Lively. Check it out! Here is the March quiz from his blog, which we encourage you to visit.

Each entry below represents a make-believe newspaper headline that describes the plot or an incident in a famous novel, non-fiction book, short story or play. Can you name each work and its author? The answers are posted on the Quiz Answers page.

1. Accused murderer accidentally hangs himself while trying to escape London mob

2. Architect found innocent after admitting he destroyed Government housing project

3. Man planning to marry found to have crazed wife locked in attic

4. Boy raised by wild animals in Indian jungle

5. Man lobotomized after numerous altercations with nurse in mental hospital

6. Slave beaten to death by New Orleans area plantation owner

7. “Gutter Snipe” reportedly transformed into “Lady” by noted phonetics professor

8. Woman forced to choose which of her two children must die

9. Adulteress throws self under moving train

10. Maids write tell-all about employment in southern white society

11. Teacher falsely accused of lesbian relationship commits suicide

12. King kills his father, and marries woman old enough to be his mother

13. Vicious attacks by birds reported in small Cornish town

14. Fireman hunted for not burning books

15. Man makes trip through Hell, Purgatory and Heaven, and lives to tell about it

16. Mysterious millionaire found murdered in swimming pool

17. Prominent white southern attorney defends black man charged with rape of white woman

18. Well-known London detective falls to death during clash with criminal mastermind

19. Chauffeur kills boss’ daughter, and burns body in furnace

20. White boy and escaped slave raft down Mississippi River

21. Doctor with multiple personalities kills selves

22. Woman’s cells live on after her death

23. Book exposes unsanitary practices in meat packing industry

24. Frenchman visits America, and writes tell-all about what he saw

25. Boys marooned on island savage each other

Book Notes Plus Oscar Quiz

Book Notes Plus is a wonderful blog written by library patron Gerald Lively. Check it out! Here is the February quiz from Book Notes Plus:

The 85th Academy Awards presentation will take place on Sunday, February 24th, so I decided to see if you can recall some lines from some famous movies that were based on books, and plays. Here’s your mission – should you choose to accept it: Name the film the quote is taken from, the work the film was based on, and the author of the work. Free of charge I’ll throw in the year the movie was made and the year the book or play was published. Find the answers at Quiz Answers.

1. “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”
2. “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse”
3. “I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!”
4. “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”
5. “The stuff that dreams are made of.”
6. “They call me Mister Tibbs.”
7. “A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.”
8. “Bond. James Bond.”
9. “I’m walking here! I’m walking here!”
10. “You know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow.”
11. “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
12. “You can’t handle the truth!”
13. “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.”
14. “Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”
15. “Oh, Jerry, don’t let’s ask for the moon. We have the stars.”
16. “It’s alive! It’s alive!”
17. “If you build it, he will come.”
18. “Houston, we have a problem.”
19. “A boy’s best friend is his mother.”
20. “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is a War Room!”
21. “Here’s Johnny!”
22. “Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico?”
23. “Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make.”
24. “Sawyer, you’re going out there a youngster, but you’ve got to come back a star!”
25. “Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me. Aren’t you?”
26. “Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!”
27. “I want to be alone.”
28. “What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.”
29. “One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don’t know.”
30. “Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape.”

Book Notes December Quiz

Book Notes Plus is a wonderful blog written by Gerald Lively. Check it out! Here is the December Christmas quiz from Book Notes Plus:

Below are 11 quotes concerning Christmas.  Can you guess the titles of the books they come from and the names of the books’ authors?  You can find the answers here.

1. “But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round — apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that — as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!’”
2. “The story had held us, round the fire, sufficiently breathless, but except the obvious remark that it was gruesome, as, on Christmas Eve in an old house, a strange tale should essentially be . . .”
3. “Thousands of lights were burning on the green branches, and gaily-colored pictures, such as she had seen in the shop-windows, looked down upon her. The little maiden stretched out her hands towards them when–the match went out. The lights of the Christmas tree rose higher and higher, she saw them now as stars in heaven . . .”
4. “Christmas was close at hand, in all his bluff and hearty honesty; it was the season of hospitality, merriment, and open-heartedness; the old year was preparing, like an ancient philosopher, to call his friends around him, and amidst the sound of feasting and revelry to pass gently and calmly away.”
5. “The grate had been removed from the wide overwhelming fireplace, to make way for a fire of wood, in the midst of which was an enormous log glowing and blazing, and sending forth a vast volume of light and heat; this I understood was the Yule-log, which the Squire was particular in having brought in and illumined on a Christmas eve, according to ancient custom.”
6. “I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the compliments of the season.”
7. “At last the anchor was up, the sails were set, and off we glided. It was a sharp, cold Christmas; and as the short northern day merged into night, we found ourselves almost broad upon the wintry ocean, whose freezing spray cased us in ice, as in polished armor.”
8. “There must be something ghostly in the air of Christmas–something about the close, muggy atmosphere that draws up the ghosts, like the dampness of the summer rains brings out the frogs and snails.”
9. “Maybe Christmas,” he thought, “doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas… perhaps… means a little bit more.”
10. “Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall.”
11. “But Ma asked if they were sure the stockings were empty.  Then they put their hands down inside them, to make sure.  And in the very toe of each stocking was a shining bright, new penny!  They had never even thought of such a thing as having a penny.  Think of having a whole penny for your very own.  Think of having a cup and a cake and a stick of candy and a penny.  There never had been such a Christmas.”

Want to see how you did? Head over to the answers on Book Notes Plus

Book Notes November Quiz

Book Notes Plus is a wonderful blog written by Gerald Lively. Check it out! Here is the November quiz from Book Notes Plus:

Many Broadway musicals have been based on well-known – and a few not well-known – literary works.  Can you guess the titles and authors of works used as the basis for the following Broadway musicals?

1.Mame

2.Oklahoma

3.South Pacific

4.Gigi

5.My Fair Lady

6.Candide

7.Camelot

8.Cabaret

9.Man of La Mancha

10.Hello Dolly

11.West Side Story

12.The King and I

13.Show Boat

14.Oliver!

15.Big River

16.Phantom of the Opera

17.Les Misérables

18.Fiddler on the Roof

19.Carousel

20.Jekyl and Hyde

Want to see how you did? Head over to the answers on Book Notes Plus

Book Notes October Quiz

Book Notes is a monthly email newsletter written by Gerald Lively. If you would like to sign up for his newsletter please email him at geraldlively@cox.net Here is the October quiz from Book Notes:

You read the titles of literary works all the time, but do you understand what all the words mean and why the titles were chosen? Here’s a quiz that will test your title knowledge. The answers appear at the end of the newsletter.

1. What is the name of the thin man in Dashiell Hammett’s novel of the same name?

2. What is the purpose of the lottery Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery”?

3. Who is Charley in John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley?

4. Name the two cities in Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities?

5. Who are the title characters in John Grisham’s novel The Brethren?

6. Name the title character in Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

7. What are the dolls in Jacqueline Susann’s Valley of the Dolls?

8. What is the source of the title of Ernest Hemingway’s novel For Whom the Bell Tolls?

9. Where does the title of William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies come from?

10. What does “wuthering” mean in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights?

11. In Robert Browning’s “The Pied Piper of Hamelin,” what does “pied” mean?

12. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, what is the letter, and what does it stand for?

13. In Arthur Conan Doyles story “The Five Orange Pips,” what are “pips”?

14. What is “Mrs. Warren’s Profession” in George Bernard Shaw’s play of the same name?

15. In D. H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover, who is her lover?

16. Name the title character in Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man?

17. What is the name of the title character in Stieg Larsson’s The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest?

18. What is the vacancy in J. K. Rowling’s new novel The Casual Vacancy?

19. In Nicholas Myers’ novel The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, what substance is the seven percent composed of?

20. In Neil White’s book In the Sanctuary of Outcasts, what is the sanctuary?

Want to see how you did? Head over to the answers on Book Notes Plus