Modern Good Reads discussion

Use this thread to chat, collaborate and commiserate as the desire takes you.

The questions and place for posting answers/request for hints is combined in the other thread. Do let us know what you think! Don't forget you can ask for a hint!

Time to dumb down the quiz... I like them fun, not hard. I didn't get a single one!

Lissa wrote: "Time to dumb down the quiz... I like them fun, not hard. I didn't get a single one!"

Francine has just got off to a flying start and she asked for a hint. You can also ask for a hint AND you can steal her answers - if you can be sure which ones are correct.

We'll see how this one goes and then look at the mix of questions in the next.

Zack wrote: "Maybe you should actually read the books before making quizzes on them."

(Comment moved here from other thread.)

Please note rules:
"A) The moderator’s decision is final. Even if there proves to be more than one book that provides an answer to this question – no. 5 might prompt a few ‘valid’ answers – the books and answers in the moderator’s list will be the winning answers."
Edited: Rule A) amended as there may be more than one answer to a question in the one book!

In this case, the answer to No 7 wasn't correct. You need the book title and author, as well.

I do accept there is more than one possible answer, but the quiz answer is the more common name used in the book. Edited: The answer thread now acknowledges this.

I have a question - I asked for a hint to number 5, but can I ask for a hint on other questions each day? Or have I used up all my questions now for the rest of the game? (Ooh, I hope it's the former...!)

Ceri wrote: "You can also ask for a hint AND you can steal her answers - if you can be sure which ones are correct..."

Well, we know that 7 is correct, in response to Zack's answer. ;-)

Francine wrote: "I have a question - I asked for a hint to number 5, but can I ask for a hint on other questions each day? Or have I used up all my questions now for the rest of the game? (Ooh, I hope it's the fo..."

Yes, you can ask for a hint each day. You can't ask for another hint to 5). But you can get a friend to ask for further hints. Collaboration is fine.

Yes, re 7, I bent the rules given that there were at least four legitimate answers. The quiz is tough enough already! But you did get it first! ;)

Francine wrote:

Francine, I need to know, have you just read all these books and have a great memory (plus friends) or are you doing research to get these answers?

Ceri wrote: "Francine wrote:

Francine, I need to know, have you just read all these books and have a great memory (plus friends) or are you doing research to get these answers?"

Lamb is one of my favorite books ever. My friend just read Siddhartha for grad school. My hubby reads the Anita Blake books. I took a Children's Lit course in grad school and Seuss was one of the authors we *really* studied (the fifty words thing came up as a piece of trivia). I was obsessed with Alexandre Dumas years ago and read everything I could get my hands on (when I was going through a French lit period). And my hubby (again) read Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and didn't like it. I remember having a long discussion with him over why he didn't like it and the exile thing was one of those. Did I miss anything?

I'll be honest - I have no clue about 2, 3 and 10 though...

Francine wrote: "Ceri wrote: "Francine wrote:

Francine, I need to know, have you just read all these books and have a great memory (plus friends) or are you doing research to get these answers?"

Lamb is one of m..."

You missed A Town Like Alice! That's impressive. Maybe someone else will come and help out with the last three.

Ceri wrote: "You missed A Town Like Alice! That's impressive. Maybe someone else will come and help out with the last three."

Oops - sorry! And that was the one that took me the longest to find because I had to dig through tons of stuff from grad school! It was one of the books we were supposed to read for our MA comprehensive exams -- we were given 3 questions for the take home part of the comps -- and we were supposed to choose 2 of the questions and write 2 papers based on them.

The question was:

In The Company We Keep, literary critic Wayne C. Booth argues that readers read to experience the minds of authors and characters, and he claims that audiences have three choices in response to the minds of fictional characters: they can surrender uncritically to an appealing mind; they can remain aloof from a repugnant mind; or, they can more consciously use a character’s mind as a mirror to examine their own minds. Theorists in the controversial emerging field of evolutionary literary criticism currently argue that experiencing the fictional minds of characters enhances our understanding of the minds of others and is thus the core adaptive function of fiction. In an essay in The Literary Animal: Evolution and the Nature of Narrative, British novelist Ian McEwan asserts that the experience of specific fictional minds does provide a mental map to universals of the human mind.

However, neither Booth nor McEwan grapples with the problem of essentialism: do authors and readers and audiences reduce characters to “essential” stereotypes? If experiencing the mind of a 21st century British upper class white male fictional character is “essentialized” to a stereotype, how is knowledge of the minds of others enhanced?

For the following three works, postulate how each of these major characters' mind is revealed to be both complex and unusual:
- Jean Paget and Noel Strachan in Nevil Shute's A Town Like Alice
- Suyuan Woo and Betty St. Clair in Amy Tan's Joy Luck Club
- Patria Mirabal and Maria Teresa Mirabal in Julia Alvarez's In the Time of the Butterflies

Write an essay in which you explain the power and novelty of each fictional mind, and you evaluate whether or not specific aspects of each character’s mind might contribute to the character’s mind being “essentialized” to a stereotype.

I did not choose this question since I only read 2 of the 3 novels and didn't have time to read the third.

Francine wrote: "Ceri wrote: "You missed A Town Like Alice! That's impressive. Maybe someone else will come and help out with the last three."

Oops - sorry! And that was the one that took me the longest to find b..."

That's a really interesting question! I wouldn't be able to answer it having not read two of the books, and I barely remember A Town Like Alice, but a writing book I've been reading was discussing something very similar with much simpler language!

Maybe we could have the question "For the following book, postulate how each of these major characters' mind is revealed to be both complex and unusual" for the BOTM. If people would be interested . . . Given it's Halloween type genre, the analysis could prove interesting!

Ceri wrote: "Maybe we could have the question "For the following book, postulate how each of these major characters' mind is revealed to be both complex and unusual" for the BOTM. If people would be interested . . . Given it's Halloween type genre, the analysis could prove interesting!"

Ooh, I'll bet you'll get some pretty interesting answers! You could always try it... :-D

Ceri wrote: "2. In what part of this book do all the characters come together?

Hint for number 2 is: A medieval story telling contest."

"You may have a hint. A big broad one.

Miller follows Knight. "

Why am I now thinking DC?

Tina wrote: "Ceri wrote: "2. In what part of this book do all the characters come together?

Hint for number 2 is: A medieval story telling contest."

"You may have a hint. A big broad one.

Miller follows Kni..."

I put you both off the scent, Tina, by not noticing a correct answer had become incorrect. My apologies. I've posted a clarification, you both only need to find the answer to one question. No one has asked a hint for it yet!

Remember you can go get friends to ask for additional hints if you need them!

The last question will always be the hardest. Reminds me of getting to the last piece of a jigsaw puzzle only to discover its missing.

Phew! Amazing work by Tina and Francine.

That ironed out a few glitches in the process.

I'm happy to run another quiz (I do have one ready), but would love some feedback on how to improve it so more people want to take part and people collaborate. It is purely for fun. So:

Combine comments and answer threads? Or will that be too confusing.

Mix in easier questions with tougher ones?

I'm thinking that the next quiz will have 10 questions plus a Winner Question (that everyone else but the previous winner needs to answer.) The previous winner is on their honor to keep the secret. That way the winner can still take part in the quiz.

Let me know what you think!

It is exactly like that! Frustrating trying to find that missing piece but so satisfying when you or someone else finishes it.

Can I explain my reasoning behind answers? Just so you know I wasn't just pulling things out my backside lol

In question 2 canterbury tales, I was convinced it was that book to start with but then got confused because they all meet at the inn to start with but are then joined later by the canon and yeoman who catch up to them because they've heard of the contest and want to take part. So I switched parts of that book.
Then I was so convinced 3 was correct that I started looking for other answers to 2! I chose The sandman because during "The Wake", all the characters come together at his funeral (even batman) and Frank Miller has written some Batman - (Dark Knight Rising) -Miller follows Knight hint-
Also in Sandman's "Worlds' End" the story arc has people coming together in an inn during a time storm and people from different times tell stories much like canterbury tales.
I may have stretched to get that answer but like you said, some questions can fit several books and the big broad one hint implied we needed to think outside the box, so Miller follows Knight took me to comics and Sandman.
Maybe I'm just mental. Lol

Tina wrote: "It is exactly like that! Frustrating trying to find that missing piece but so satisfying when you or someone else finishes it.

Can I explain my reasoning behind answers? Just so you know I wasn't..."

LOL, I did wonder where 2) became Sandman etc. So even the hints can lead to other books! And there was I thinking the Miller and Knight would make it obvious. To be honest, I'm amazed you have so many books to draw on.

I think the quiz will invariably include books that I or other mods who might run the quiz will not have read. We're trying to cross genres with it and get a mix, so even with due diligence we might mess up.

Think I'll put a caveat over it. Quiz not bullet-proof!

Hi, I had a lot of fun doing this. Google and my bookshelves were my best friends during it. It really got me thinking outside the box and trying to piece the clues together was great.
I think it was a difficult quiz but the more people ask for hints for questions the easier it is to narrow down the answer if it doesn't come to you immediately so I don't mind if they stay like this one, which at first read-through I thought was impossible. The hints are cryptic but great.

Definitely like the idea I can still take part in the next one :-)

Thanks for running the quiz Ceri! Xx

"Quiz not bullet-proof" I like that!

Miller and Knight had me in a quandary because I was so sure of 3 that i'd questioned my answer to 2 so I started looking elsewhere. I knew that hint supported Canterbury precisely but I just thought I was missing something. I was, 3 was wrong. Once that hit me I couldn't stop laughing!

I think me coming up with Sandman, especially after the hints, supports your statement that questions can have several answers and that even in one book there may be a couple of answers (i was going to say Worlds' End to start with because that has the storytelling but then people across the ages go to the funeral and tell stories too).

The hints can narrow it down or send you on a tangent like my Sandman answer but if none of my answers were correct for that question one of them may have triggered something in someone for them to find the right one.

Your quiz rules are clear enough and your answers, and judgement, is final. No amount of me saying "but look, this fits" or questioning your decisions will change anything. You are the boss. It's your quiz, so it's done your way. I totally respect that.

I think next time I'll remember that collaboration is allowed. ;-)

Tina wrote: ""Quiz not bullet-proof" I like that!

I think next time I'll remember that collaboration is allowed..."

Definitely allowed, I think collaboration on the comments thread would make it more fun, because everyone one can argue it out and then race to put an entry in! ;)

I agree, I'm looking forward to the next one. :-)

I feel like an idiot!!! Thanks so much.... NOW, the only one I know is #7... it's corn and I can't remember the book or author so I don't even know it all... hope it helps someone!!!!

Lissa wrote: "I feel like an idiot!!! Thanks so much.... NOW, the only one I know is #7... it's corn and I can't remember the book or author so I don't even know it all... hope it helps someone!!!!"

Lissa, trust me, if I was faced with these questions I would feel the same way, and the others didn't know them all straight off either.

The game isn't to be the one to know them all. It's to feed off everyone else's knowledge, pool it together and sneak your answers in. There's time to work on them. If all the answers could be answered quickly there would be no quiz!

Hi Lissa, you mentioned number 7, we're both thinking field of dreams eh? I looked up amazon and found the book it was based on. I didn't know it was based on a book but I'm gonna try it. let's hope it's right. :-)

I need to think up some more cryptic clues for some obscure books!

Parinita wrote: "Quick question: can an answer have multiple answers?
and will all multiple answers be right since they are right?"

It depends. :) If it's a variation on the same theme, like the different names for Joshua in Quiz 1, I will make a judgement call. If however, I am looking for a specific answer, I will continue to give hints to help narrow it down or until someone hits on it by chance. In other words, the answer may be technically right, it's just not the answer intended that is on my answer sheet.

But have a go! You can only help eliminate possibilities or get it right.

Quiz 3, Q1...
What makes a tiger?

The Hungry Tiger of Oz - has his own book by L Frank Baum... He's a friend of Dandy who I think may also be the Cowardly Lion (Lol Dandy Lion)? But I can't find any reference to what makes a tiger.

Does this spark a memory for anyone?

There are so many Oz stories that it would be hard to pin down the proper one anyway - I've never read the Oz stories...

Anyone else got ideas?

xD

Mr Tawky Tawny is a Tiger that features in Shazam by DC comics... he dresses smart and talks in cultured tones...but I cant find "what makes a tiger"

Daisy wrote: "Quiz 3, Q1...
What makes a tiger?

The Hungry Tiger of Oz - has his own book by L Frank Baum... He's a friend of Dandy who I think may also be the Cowardly Lion (Lol Dandy Lion)? But I can't find a..."

That question is a hard one...

Grrr... I think I've exhausted all avenues on this, time for a break and some fresh eyes in the morning.

xD

Quiz 3

Anyways... As near as I can tell... these are the questions and hints that remain

1) What makes a tiger?
Hint: He restyles himself as a dandy (Clueless...apart from my Oz theory in a previous below...)

2) What part of a garment loves royalty?
Hint: A father disinherits his daughter
Hint: Around this time, the Scots allow women to propose marriage during leap years (red petticoats were supposed to be worn to give fair warning)

7) Who benefits from playing outside?
Hint: A robin makes an interesting friend (I'm still thinking this might be a Winnie the Pooh reference???)

9) Who prayed his father would die?
Hint: Blood is thicker than water (I've got no idea)

Daisy wrote: "Quiz 3

Anyways... As near as I can tell... these are the questions and hints that remain

1) What makes a tiger?
Hint: He restyles himself as a dandy (Clueless...apart from my Oz theory in a pr..."

You are on top of it all, Daisy. :)

Parinita wrote: "All I could think about the tiger question was William Blake's poem Tiger, Tiger burning bright as it is about God 'Creating' a tiger.
I did at one point think of Oz too but not sure about it."

I thought of Blake's poem The Tiger as well, then even went to its paired poem The Lamb, but it's not right because of the dandy hint...

Below I've attached an excerpt from The Stars My Destination... it could be rage? All the references I've google talk about how the scientific people recognised the type of person Gully Foyle was... Rage is the most frequent descriptor - I've not read the book, but I think it's sounds quite interesting...

"He looked. He saw the old tattoo marks flaming blood-red under the skin, turning his face into a
scarlet and white tiger mask. He was so chilled by the appalling spectacle that his rage died at once, and simultaneously the mask disappeared.
"MyGod..."hewhispered."OhmyGod..."
"I had to make you lose your temper to show you," Jisbella said. "What's it mean, Jiz? Did Baker goof the job?"
"I don't think so. I think you've got scars under the skin, Gully. . . from the original tattooing and then from the bleaching. Needle scars. They don't show normally, but they do show, blood red, when your emotions take over and your heart begins pumping blood. . . when you're furious or frightened or passionate or possessed . . . Do you understand?"


xD

Parinita wrote: "you're right Francine!
are we even doing poems in this?"

I'm not sure...there isn't any rule against poems though! :-)

Blake's poem is the in the start of My Stars My Destination...

Rage and revenge (or vengeance) might make a tiger

xD

Daisy wrote: "Below I've attached an excerpt from The Stars My Destination... it could be rage? All the references I've google talk about how the scientific people recognised the type of person Gully Foyle was....."

Daisy, didn't Ceri say it wasn't Gully Foyle?

Daisy wrote: "Blake's poem is the in the start of My Stars My Destination...

Rage and revenge (or vengeance) might make a tiger

xD"

Well, someone should make a guess then! :-)

Ceri said there could be more than one answer in a book... and I thought that comment occurred after someone posted the My Stars My Destination guess???

xD

Parinita wrote: "@Daisy give it a shot! I searched the Oz books and there are way too many of them! there is one.. the cowardly lion and the hungry tiger, could be that one."

Lol... ok... you try the the Oz one too... we've got to be getting closer.

So I did some digging. I think Gully Foyle may have been the correct character but the question was "what makes a tiger" - I think Daisy was on the right track with the rage thing (from Wikipedia, Plot summary):

After six months of waiting for rescue, a passing spaceship, the Vorga, also owned by the powerful Presteign industrial clan, ignores his signal and abandons him. Foyle is enraged and is transformed into a man consumed by revenge, the first of many transformations.

Foyle repairs the ship, is captured by a cargo cult which tattoos a hideous mask of a tiger on his face, escapes and is returned to Terra.

So maybe it is rage and revenge.

I can't claim credit for number 1... It wasn't me that came up with the My Stars My destiny title - I was lost there, convinced it had to be the Oz connection.

I'm thinking number 2 has to be around petticoats so I'll look into titles concerning those clues but focusing on petticoats today and get back to y'all

xD

I keep coming back to King Lear, but I've also been told that's wrong... Petticoats led nowhere for titles... There are more than 200 of those on goodreads and nothing stood out.

I don't know much about the Tudors but I'll do some research too

xD

Elizabeth I was initially disinherited by her father King Henry VIII. There are a few prominent books about her... Anne Somerset's Elizabeth I and Carolly Erikson's are the two I'm leaning towards... but references to garments are clouding the waters.

Hope this helps someone
xD

Parinita wrote: "question for ceri...
this quiz is based only on fiction or are non fiction books included?"

Fiction. :)

Daisy wrote: "Elizabeth I was initially disinherited by her father King Henry VIII. There are a few prominent books about her... Anne Somerset's Elizabeth I and Carolly Erikson's are the two I'm leaning towards...."

I've been looking into things but tying leap day and disinherited daughter with garments is really making things convoluted. Elizabeth was certainly disinherited by Henry, and Henry also had a bastard son he acknowledged, Henry Fitzroy, who I thought was critical at first because of the things he was presented when he became Duke of Richmond (he was presented with jewels and royal garments).

Similarly, Lear also disinherited Cordelia and garments function much in Lear (he goes naked after all and clothing in various forms are used as metaphors for power, for status, etc.). But neither of these 2 have much to do with Leap Day.