"The Amber Spyglass" and Other Books with Colors Quiz

Answer: Philip Pullman

"The Amber Spyglass" masterfully completes Philip Pullman's fantasy trilogy "His Dark materials". Lyra and Will, the heroes of the first two books, ("Northern Lights" and "The Subtle Knife"), face a great danger. They travel to a dark and mysterious world with the help of Iorek Byrnison, the armed bear, and two tiny Gallivespian spies, the Chevalier Tialys and the Lady Salmakia. Meanwhile, Dr. Mary Malone is building an amazing amber spyglass which helps her see into the Dust. The book was awarded the 2001 Whitbread Prize and it was the first young adult book to be nominated for the Man Booker Prize.

From the book: "Iorek Byrnison: Can is not the same as must.
Lyra Silvertongue: But if you must and you can, then there's no excuse."

Answer: Aravid Adiga

In Aravind Adiga's book Balram Halwai, servant, businessman, philosopher and murderer, chronicles his life in an e-mail to the Chinese Prime Minister. Born in utter poverty, Balram leaves school to gain money for his family and quickly climbs out of the mud to what he believes is his freedom. A look into the caste system and the essence of the Indian psyche, in 2008 the book received the 40th Man Booker Prize and it was made into a movie in 2018.

From the book: "- In the jungle, which is the rarest animal, one that comes only once in a generation? - The white tiger. - That's what you are, a white tiger."

Answer: Toni Morrison

"The Bluest Eye" is Toni Morrison's first novel and it is set in Morrison's childhood hometown of Lorain, Ohio. The story centers on black, eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove. From a dysfunctional family riddled with violence, incest and poverty, Pecola dreams for her eyes to turn blue so that she will be beautiful and loved like all of America's blond, blue-eyed children. For her the answer to fear and loneliness, prejudice and abuse lies in the color of her eyes and her hair. The novel is considered one of Morrison's most poignant and unforgettable novels that touches on color, gender, rape, racism and madness.

From the book: "Here was an ugly little girl asking for beauty...A little black girl who wanted to rise up out of the pit of her blackness and see the world with blue eyes."

Answer: Lucy Maud Montgomery

Set in the fictional town of Avonlea, in Canada's Prince Edward Island, "Anne of Green Gables" is a favorite coming-of-age book worldwide. Children have read the adventures of spirited, feisty, fiery, red-headed and freckled Anne Shirley, an 11-year-old orphan girl who is adopted by siblings Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert in a small farm, in more than 36 languages and 50 million copies. The book has been adapted numerous times as tv series, movies, animation, musical and plays in every part of the world. Lucy Maud Montgomery wrote sequels for the book, following Anne Shirley into adult life and marriage.

From the book: "There's such a lot of different Annes in me. I sometimes think that is why I'm such a troublesome person. If I was just the one Anne it would be ever so much more comfortable, but then it wouldn't be half so interesting."

Answer: Baroness Emma Orczy

Paris in 1792, at the peak of the Reign of Terror that followed the French Revolution. English aristocrat Sir Percy Blackeney's mission is to save families of French aristocrats from the blade of the guillotine and transport them safely to Britain. To do so he uses disguises and a league of gentlemen friends. He is known as The Scarlet Pimpernel, from his signature flower, a weed with the scientific name Anagallis arvensis. His nemesis is the French agent Chauvelin. The book has all the ingredients of a classic historical novel, adventure, passion, noble cause and romance. Baroness Emma (Emmuska) Orczy wrote the novel, the first in a series of historical fiction books with Sir Percy Blackeney as the protagonist.

From the book:
"They seek him here, they seek him there
Those Frenchies seek him everywhere
Is he in heaven or is he in hell?
That demned elusive Pimpernel"

Answer: James Ellroy

"The Black Dahlia" is the fictionalized murder case of Elizabeth Short, an aspiring young actress whose mutilated body was found in a vacant lot in Los Angeles on January 15, 1947. The newspaper titles of the time referred to the victim as Black Dahlia, most probably from the murder mystery movie "Blue Dahlia". James Elroy submerges into a world of crime, police corruption, betrayal and madness and composes what is perhaps one of the darkest novels of post-war era, a true example of noir fiction. Elroy uses the same setting, 1940s and 1950s Los Angeles, for the other three books of "L.A.'s Quartet": "The Big Nowhere", "L.A. Confidential" and "White Jazz". The real story of Elizabeth Short's murder and James Elroy's book inspired a film adaption by Brian de Palam in 2006.

From the book: "I never knew her in life. She exists for me through others, in evidence of the ways her death drove them"

Answer: Tracy Chevalier

American-British writer Tracy Chevalier was inspired by Johannes Vermeer's iconic painting "The Girl with the Pearl Earring" to write her book with the same title. The story takes us to 17th century Delft in the Netherlands when young Griet enters the household of grandmaster Vermeer as a maid. In the very little time she has for herself, she begins to appreciate the master's art and allows herself to become enchanted by the colors, the shapes and the painter, a fact that the social and religious norms of the time clearly prohibit. She leaves the Vermeer household and returns years later as a married woman to receive the pair of pearl earrings she wore when Vermeer painted her portrait. The book was made into a movie and a play.

From the book: "I slowed my pace. Years of hauling water, wringing out clothes, scrubbing floors, emptying chamber pots, with no chance of beauty or color or light in my life, stretched before me like a landscape of flat land where, a long way off, the sea is visible but can never be reached."

Answer: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel "Half of a Yellow Sun" is a compelling and moving account of the Biafran War in 1960s Nigeria. Three very different heroes, Olanna, Richard and Ugwu, cross paths while a country's passionate struggle for independence ends in terror and defeat. Drawing from her own family's history - both Adichie's grandparents died in refugee camps after being evacuated from their Biafran hometowns - the author masterfully addresses colonialism, ethnic conflicts, betrayal, loss and love. She uses as her novel's title the symbol of the former Republic of Biafra, half a yellow sun on a black, red and green tricolor.

From the book: "The real tragedy of our postcolonial world is not that the majority of people had no say in whether or not they wanted this new world; rather, it is that the majority have not been given the tools to negotiate this new world."

Answer: Orhan Pamuk

Orhan Pamuk's "My Name is Red" transports us to sixteenth-century Istanbul and the splendor of the Sultan's Palace. It is the 1000th anniversary of the Hegira and the Sultan commissions the creation of a book in the European style, a blasphemous act for Islam. The court's best miniaturists and calligraphers set to work in secrecy until one of them disappears. Is it a religious crime, a crime of passion or of professional envy? A combination philosophical and crime mystery "My Name is Red" takes the reader in a world of art, love, power, religion, intrigue and happiness. Orhan Pamuk received the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature and is known for his unique, pluralistic style where even the inanimate objects have a voice.

From the book: "I'm so fortunate to be red! I'm fiery. I'm strong. I know men take notice of me and that I cannot be resisted."

Answer: C. S. Lewis

"The Silver Chair" is the fourth book in the fantasy novel series "The Chronicles of Narnia" by C. S. Lewis. The series was first published in England between 1950 and 1956. In "The Silver Chair" it is the Narnian-year 2356, (Earth year 1942) and King Caspian's son Prince Rilian has been missing for ten years. Aslan sends Eustace Scrubb and his classmate Jill Pole to find him. To do so, Jill has to memorize the Four Signs that will help them in their mission. They find the imprisoned Prince and return to the kingdom where he becomes king after King Caspian's death. In 1990 "The Silver Chair" was made into a BBC television series of six episodes.

From the book: "I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms," said the Lion. It didn't say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as if it were angry. It just said it."