Tag: authors

Odds & Ends Quiz

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Here’s how to play… Leave a comment with the # and the answer and I’ll cross it off the list. No Googling, that’s cheating and no fun! If you know them all, please don’t guess every one, maybe five max?  GUESSES ARE WELCOME AND ENCOURAGED 🙂

1. What Herman Hesse book gave its name to a rock group?  STEPPENWOLF, rock on Donstuff

2. What book was Mark David Chapman carrying with him when he killed John Lennon on 12/8/1980?  THE CATCHER IN THE RYE, the wild and crazy guy, Donstuff

3. Who is the woman on the cover of Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter? TAN”S GRANDMOTHER

4. The book Peter Pan was responsible for the creation of what name(s)? 

WENDY- first time Wendy was used as a girl’s name

TINKER BELL, pretty fairy dust for Bermudaonion.

5. What renowned Irish writer wore an eye patch? JAMES JOYCE

6. What writer was expelled from West Point for showing up for a public parade wearing only a belt & gloves? EDGAR ALLAN POE

7. What Irish-born playwright was sentenced to two years at hard labor for homosexuality?  OSCAR WILDE, two cheers to Elena Margo Gould

8. What game, played by Alice while in Wonderland, was banned in Boston in the 19th century as being too “immoral”?  CROQUET, kudos to the morally correct Elena Margo Gould

 

10. What Watergate figure was the author of numerous spy novels?  E HOWARD HUNT

Who Am I?

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Lots of authors use a pen name or pseudonym.  Do you think you would recognize famous authors by their real names?

Here’s how to play…Identify the famous authors by their real names.  Leave a comment with the # and the pen name for the author and I’ll cross it off the list. No Googling, that’s cheating and no fun! If you know them all, please don’t guess every one, maybe five max?

Example- A. Samuel Clemens           Answer-His pen name was Mark Twain

1. Charles Lutwig Dodgson  Lewis Carroll, thanks to the adventurous Jason

2. William Sidney Porter (Gifts are sometimes hard to choose) O. Henry

3. Evan Hunter (The 87th Precinct is the place to be) Ed McBain, no mystery to donstuff

4. Eric Arthur Blair  George Orwell, big brother would be proud of Donstuff

5. Mary Westmacott (I goofed up on this one.  This is actually her pen name when this best selling mystery writer wrote romances.)  Agatha Christie, no mystery to Elena Margo

6. Howard Allen O’Brien (My name seems masculine, but by vampires seem feminine)  Anne Rice, thanks to Jason for not leaving bite marks

7. Alisa Rosenbaum (She shrugged her way into a movement)  Ayn Rand, Roarke sends his congrats to bermudaonion

8. Mary Anne Evans  George Eliot, hats off to bermudaonion

9. James Oliver Rigney Jr. (The wheels continue after all this time) Robert Jordan

Famous Epitaphs

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Here’s how to play…Identify these famous writers by the inscription on their tomb. Leave a comment with the # and the author and I’ll cross it off the list. No Googling, that’s cheating and no fun! If you know them all, please guess every one!!!! But also feel free to guess for fun  🙂

1. “I told you so, you damned fools.” –HG Wells

2. “Beren” –JRR Tolkien

3. “The only proof he needed for the existence of God was music.” — Kurt Vonnegut

4. “Quoth the Raven, Nevermore“ EDGAR ALLAN POE, Jason

5. “I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.” ROBERT FROST, Dave

6. “Called Back” — Emily Dickinson

7. “The Stone the Builders Rejected” –Jack London

8. “Don’t Try” — Charles Bukowski

9. “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” — F Scott Fitzgerald

10. “And alien tears will fill for him, Pity’s long, unbroken urn. For his mourners will be outcast men, And outcasts always mourn.” — Oscar Wilde

Anthony Doerr Book Signing

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Anthony Doerr was at Joseph-Beth last night and Jason & I went to hear him speak.  He looks like his dust jacket photo and seemed like a genuinely nice guy.  The crowd was full of family and friends.  He grew up in the Cleveland area (Novelty), so the evening had a reunion atmosphere with Anthony being the long lost relative.  There were also a few local authors on hand to support him.  It was an enjoyable reading.

He read from three sections of his book, Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World, and then answered questions.  I am still reading this latest book and was really hoping to see the twins that he wrote about so lovingly, but they weren’t there.  The couple in front of me had come all the way from Pittsburgh to meet him.  He was self-deprecating enough to be really charming and I encourage you all to check him out.  He’s written something for everyone.  He has a book of short stories, a novel, and a memoir.

Les Roberts Book Signing

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Jean and LesThis is Jean and Les.

Last night I met my friend, Jean, at Joseph-Beth in Legacy Village to hear and meet author Les Roberts.  It was a standing room only crowd. Les has lived in Cleveland since 1990 and has written a series of mysteries featuring detective, Milan Jacovich and the city of Cleveland.  I must admit that I have never read any of his books, so I bought the first one in the series last night.  I’ve enjoyed the first two chapters, but more on that in a later post.

A few interesting tidbits…All the characters in his book are based on someone he knows or has seen.  He warned those of us who where there that we might end up in one of his future books!  The name of the detective is really a dentist in the Cleveland area.  This is his first Milan book in six years, but the last one is being made into a movie with Les as an executive producer.  He plans to have over 90% of the movie shot in Cleveland which brought a huge round of applause from the crowd.  When asked who he would like to play Milan he answered, Robert Mitchum, which could be a problem since he is deceased and unavailable.

He will be signing books in downown Cleveland at the Galleria on Friday from 11:30-1:30 and an Saturday from 1-2 at Borders.  His website, www.lesroberts.com has lots of fun facts and news.

Similar Authors

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I am in the process of starting a page of Similar Authors.  “If you like___, you’ll like ___…”  I will only be recommending authors that I have read and my recommendations will only be my humble opinion, of course.  But, if you have any suggestions of your own, please leave them as a comment on the page. 

If you are interested in a comprehensive list (not just my own much shorter offering) try this website

http://www.literature-map.com/

This is a fun interactive map that can help you find authors that are similar to the ones that you like.  Type in your author and his or her name will be in the middle with other authors floating around.  The names closest to your chosen author are the most similar.  You can also click on any name on the map and it will put that author in the middle and start again.  Try it- it’s fun!

And don’t forget to check out my Similar Authors page once in awhile, right now it is still a work in progress.

Who Am I?

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I’ve given the answers to the Shakespeare quiz if you want to check it out. 

Here’s how to play…Identify the author by leaving a comment with the # and I’ll cross it off the list.  No Googling, that’s cheating and no fun!  If you know them all, please don’t guess every one.  HINT: All of these authors appear on my top 100 list.

1.  I was a great novelist, but was loved for my philosophical system, objectivism.  AYN RAND

2. Although a skilled writer, I wrote only one novel about the pursuit of vanity and my friend Dorian. Oscar Wilde, Jessica

3. “I am probably responsible for the odd fact that people don’t seem to name their daughters Lolita anymore.” (1964)  Nabokov, Mark

4. No one wanted my masterpiece about dunces so I killed myself and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize after my death in 1981. John Kennedy Toole, Jessica

 

5. Who knew my book about a seagull would get so much attention? Richard Bach, Mark

6. I was married six times and had eight children, but still had the time to win two Pulitzer Prizes before my death last November. NORMAN MAILER

7. The grandson of a slave I wrote my first story at 15 and joined the Communist Party in the 30’s before leaving the US for good in 1946.  RICHARD WRIGHT

8. You have all read my short stories, but it is my novel about Puritan adultery that still tops reading lists nad makes women wary of red A’s. Nathaniel Hawthorne, Jason

9. I began my famous “trilogy” guide for hitchhikers on radio, but it became a tv series, comic book series, computer game, and a feature film. DOUGLAS ADAMS

10. I wrote The Awakening, a shocking novel of adultery and suicide and due to bad reviews stopped writing five years before I died of a brain hemorrhage in 1904. KATE CHOPIN

Mary Doria Russell book signing

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Last night Jason & I went to a book signing at Joseph Beth Bookstore at Legacy Village.  If you are in the Cleveland area and ever get a chance to go you should try their cafe which has great food (although not always the best service).  If you want to keep track of their events visit the website and sign up for their monthly email.   http://www.josephbeth.com/Default.aspx?StoreId=3&TabIndex=0&Tabid=1&p=y

Okay, so we went last night to hear Mary Doria Russell speak on her fourth book, Dreamers of the Day.  I have been a fan of Russell’s since The Sparrow (on my top 100 list) and was excited to hear her speak.  She came dressed casually in jeans, a gray shirt, and dog tags around her neck.  Her nephew is currently serving in Iraq and the parallels between the 1921 Cairo Peace Conference and the modern day Middle East was a connection she talked about at length.  The Peace Conference is the basis of this book and I will write more on the novel after I’ve read it.

A few interesting tidbits…Mary is funny.  She was a very entertaining speaker.  The Sparrow has been optioned by Brad Pitt’s film company 🙂  She does not write about what she knows, her curiosity drives her to research.  Her third book, A Thread of Grace took her seven years to write and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 2005.  She has a PhD in Anthropology.  She lives in Cleveland.  If you are interested in learning more you can visit her website.  http://marydoriarussell.info/

If you get a chance I recommend you check out The Sparrow, her first novel.  It is science fiction, but if you keep an open mind I think you’ll like it.