Books in Search of.... Trivia Quiz

Answer: Stephen King

"Carrie" was Stephen King's debut novel, published in 1974. The book is about a teenage girl who learns she has strong telekinetic powers, and what happens when others are cruel to her. King wrote the book while he was a high school teacher, so he had plenty of experience with teens to inform his writing.

Answer: Stephen King

Stephen King wrote "The Shining" in 1977; it's the story of a grand, haunted hotel and the family that's supposed to take care of it over the winter season. The Stanley Hotel outside of Boulder served as the inspiration. King and his wife spent a night in the Stanley as the only guests and found it particularly spooky.

Answer: Stephen King

Stephen King wrote "The Dead Zone" in 1979. It follows the life of John Smith, a young teacher who wakes from a coma with supernatural abilities. Part of it takes place in the fictional town of Castle Rock, which is also the setting for other King stories, including "The Body" (1982), "The Dark Half" (1989), and "Needful Things" (1991).

Answer: Philip K. Dick

Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" is a dystopian science fiction novel that was published in 1968. It follows the story of Rick Deckard, a police officer who specializes in locating and exterminating human-looking robots that are not allowed on earth. One of the book's themes relates to how robots can be more humane than humans.

Answer: Philip K. Dick

Philip K. Dick wrote the dystopian novel "The Man in the High Castle", with San Francisco as one of the settings. The story explores what could have happened had Germany and Japan won WWII. Dick spent time in the San Francisco Bay Area, first with his parents when he was young and then when he took classes at University of California Berkeley.

Answer: Philip K. Dick

Dick's science fiction novel "A Scanner Darkly" (1977) portrays the lives of drug users in a future southern California. He took the title from the NKJV Bible (1 Corinthians 13:12) where Paul describes human knowledge of God as veiled. The book was awarded 1978 Best Novel by the British Science Fiction Association.

Answer: Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" (1985) is a dystopian novel set in a world where religious fanatics have taken over the eastern seaboard of the U.S. and many women are forced to bear children for others. The story is narrated by a woman who has been given the name Offred, because she is assigned to a man named Fred, in order to be impregnated by him.

It has received many awards, including the 1986 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction, the 1987 Arthur C. Clarke Award, and the 1987 Commonwealth Writers' Prize: Best Book (winner of the Canada and the Caribbean region).

Answer: Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood released "Cat's Eye" in 1988, nine years before Merriam-Webster added the word "frenemy" to its dictionary, but that is an apt description of the novel. It's about a woman facing the friends from her childhood, who would flip flop between being kind and being cruel.

Answer: Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood released "The Blind Assassin" in 2000. The structure is complex, with a story within a story within another story, involving two sisters and their relationships with two men. It was awarded the Booker Prize in 2000.

Answer: Agatha Christie

One of the world's most beloved amateur detectives, Miss Marple, made her debut in Agatha Christie's "The Murder at the Vicarage", which was published in 1930. When someone is killed at the vicarage next door to her house, Miss Marple keeps her eyes and ears open to sort through the suspects and eventually identify who was behind the death.

Answer: Agatha Christie

"The Pale Horse", a mystery novel by Agatha Christie, was published in 1961. It starts with a woman revealing a list of names before she dies. The police track down each person on the list with surprising and disturbing results.

Answer: Agatha Christie

In Agatha Christie's 1939 mystery novel "And Then There Were None", eight people are invited to an isolated island off the coast of Devon by a mysterious host. One of them dies, and they slowly learn that they all have something sinister in common. The plot follows a rhyme that starts with "Ten little soldier boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were nine."

Answer: Ernest Hemingway

"The Sun Also Rises" was published in 1926. It was based on many true events that took place when Hemingway and his friends traveled to Spain one summer. The novel has many themes, such as toxic masculinity, war, jealousy, the lost generation, alcoholism, and honor.

Answer: Ernest Hemingway

"The Old Man and the Sea" (1952) is one of Hemingway's last and most successful works. The novella is about an old fisherman's unwavering commitment to catching a large marlin and the help a young boy gives him. Hemingway wrote part of it while living in Cuba. It was both a best seller and a critical favorite, receiving the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953.

Answer: Ernest Hemingway

While "The Sun Also Rises", published by Hemingway in 1926, is about people who had survived the Great War, "A Farewell to Arms", published in 1929, is set during the war itself. It follows the story of an American deployed in Italy who is wounded and falls in love with a British nurse. Hemingway himself served in WWI and fell in love with a nurse named Agnes.