Notable Books of 2005

Quiz

1. What is the subject of Joan Didion's new memoir, The Year of Magical Thinking?

  • The death of her husband and illness of her daughter.
  • A battle with substance abuse.
  • The death of her mother.

2. Which novel won the Man Booker Prize?

  • John Banville's The Sea.
  • Ian McEwan's Saturday.
  • Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go.

3. Which novel is an updating of E.M. Forster's Howard's End?

  • Prep, by Curtis Sittenfeld.
  • On Beauty, by Zadie Smith.
  • March, by E. L. Doctorow.

4. What's the name of Frank McCourt's new memoir, which completes his trilogy?

  • A Monk Swimming.
  • The Education of a Coach.
  • Teacher Man.

5. In her 2004 book, Lynne Truss bemoaned grammatical and punctuation errors that pop up in headlines, on billboards, among other places. What pet peeve does she tackle in her 2005 book?

  • Rudeness.
  • Profanity in music.
  • Bad drivers.

6. In the book Freakonomics, what does author Steven Levitt say is even more dangerous to children than guns?

  • Trampolines.
  • Video games.
  • Backyard swimming pools.

7. What's the name of the painting that's the subject of Jonathan Harr's The Lost Painting: The Search for a Caravaggio Masterpiece?

  • The Supper at Emmaus.
  • Taking of Christ.
  • Death of the Virgin.

8. Which novel won the 2005 National Book Award for Fiction?

  • Gilead.
  • Kafka on the Shore.
  • Europe Central.

9. Which novel won the 2005 National Book Award for Fiction?

  • The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
  • The Da Vinci Code.
  • Memoirs of a Geisha.

10. How many copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth book in the series, were printed?

  • 50.5 million.
  • 10.8 million.
  • 5 million.

1. What is the subject of Joan Didion's new memoir, The Year of Magical Thinking?
The death of her husband and illness of her daughter.

2. Which novel won the Man Booker Prize?
John Banville's The Sea.

3. Which novel is an updating of E.M. Forster's Howard's End?
On Beauty, by Zadie Smith.

4. What's the name of Frank McCourt's new memoir, which completes his trilogy?
Teacher Man.

5. In her 2004 book, Lynne Truss bemoaned grammatical and punctuation errors that pop up in headlines, on billboards, among other places. What pet peeve does she tackle in her 2005 book?
Rudeness.

6. In the book Freakonomics, what does author Steven Levitt say is even more dangerous to children than guns?
Backyard swimming pools.

7. What's the name of the painting that's the subject of Jonathan Harr's The Lost Painting: The Search for a Caravaggio Masterpiece?
Taking of Christ.

8. Which novel won the 2005 National Book Award for Fiction?
Europe Central.

9. Which novel won the 2005 National Book Award for Fiction?
The Da Vinci Code.

10. How many copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth book in the series, were printed?
10.8 million.

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