Welcome to bookchat where you can talk about anything...books, plays, essays, and books on tape. You don’t have to be reading a book to come in, sit down, and chat with us.
The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.
Dorothy Parker
Questions about us, first. (Answers below). I know some people do multiple things and if my answer is wrong, please comment. Mea culpa for not mentioning more of my readers. This is just for fun. I do appreciate you all. Feel free to say, "Hey I do that, too!"
1. Which lady reads one book while riding her stationary bike and another at bedtime?
a) sarahnity...b) RunawayRose...c) jlms qkw...d) all of the above
2. Which lady goes to Book Fairs in FL and hears neat authors speak?
a) Limelite...b) Sensible Shoes...c) anotherdemocrat...d) all of the above
3. Who has written a book (or several)?
a) Diana in NoVa...b) Sensible Shoes...c) Dump Terry McAuliffe...d) all of the above
4. Who walks and bikes for AIDS in TX?
a) anotherdemocrat...b) GussieFN...c) newdem1960...d) all of the above
5. Who specializes in Russian literature?
a) FrankCornish...b) bookgirl...c) pico...d) all of the above
6. Who travels a lot to neat places and leaves books there for others to have?
a) FoundingFatherDAR...b) plf515... c) jlms qkw...d) all of the above
7. Who has shared a lot of great quotations or odd facts?
a) plf515...b) rimjob...c) MT Spaces...d) all of the above
8. Who works hard to provide a list of Daily Kos authors?
a) Arcparser...b) sarahnity...c) jojimbo...d) all of the above
9. Who writes poetry?
a) rserven...b) john keats...c) Yosef 52...d) all of the above
10. Who knows a lot about music?
a) chingchongchinaman...b) dirkster42...c) Land of Enchantment...d) all of the above
11. Who writes diaries about green things?
a) RLMiller...b) gmoke...c) Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse...d) all of the above
12. Who writes travel diaries?
a) LaughingPlanet...b) palantir...c) Azazello...d) all of the above
Answers:
- b
- a
- d
- a
- c
- c
- d
- b
- d
- d
- d
- a
How did you do?
Guess which author? (Answers and wiki sites below...no peeking!) I apologize if these are too easy, but I hope to get discussion going.
- Has the title the 'Queen of Crime'
Only the Bible is known to have outsold her collected sales of roughly four billion copies of novels. UNESCO states that she is currently the most translated individual author in the world with only the collective corporate works of Walt Disney Productions surpassing her.
a) J. K. Rowling...b) Agatha Christie...c) Dorothy Sayers
-
He outfits a white van with a bunk, a camping stove, a portable toilet and a copy of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass and John Neihardt's Black Elk Speaks. Referring to the Native American resurrection ritual, he christens the van "Ghost Dancing," and embarks on a 3 month soul-searching tour of the United States, wandering from small town to small town, often just because they have interesting names. The book chronicles the 13,000 mile journey and the people he meets along the way, as he steers clear of cities and interstates, avoiding fast food and exploring local American culture.
a) Charles Kuralt...b) John Steinbeck...c) William Least-Heat Moon
- Of Bombay, he was to write
Mother of Cities to me,
For I was born in her gate,
Between the palms and the sea,
Where the world-end steamers wait.
In 1907, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first English language writer to receive the prize, and to date he remains its youngest recipient.
a) Vikram Seth...b) V. S. Naipaul...c) Rudyard Kipling
-
On January 3, 1841, he sailed from New Bedford, Massachusetts on the whaler Acushnet, which was bound for the Pacific Ocean. He was later to comment that his life began that day. The vessel sailed around Cape Horn and traveled to the South Pacific.
a) Herman Melville...b) Jack London...c) Henry David Thoreau
-
Born in Annapolis, Maryland, she spent some of her childhood in Africa where her father was a medical doctor, and grew up near Carlisle, Kentucky.
Attended DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana on a music scholarship, studying classical piano. Eventually, however, she changed her major to biology.
In the late 1970s, she lived in a number of places, including Greece, France, and Tucson, Arizona, working variously as an archaeological digger, copy editor, housecleaner, biological researcher and translator. She earned a Master's degree in ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona. She then took a job as a science writer for the university. The science writing led to some freelance feature writing and journalism. In 1986, she won an Arizona Press Club award for outstanding feature writing...
She is a member of the Rock Bottom Remainders, a rock and roll band consisting of published writers, including Amy Tan, Matt Groening, Dave Barry, and Stephen King among others.
a) Anne Tyler...b) Sharyn McCrumb...c) Barbara Kingsolver
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An American scientist and award-winning author of science fiction. He has received the Hugo, Locus, Campbell and Nebula Awards.
Born in Glendale, California in 1950. In 1973, he graduated from the California Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science in astronomy. He followed this with a Master of Science in applied physics in 1978 and a Doctor of Philosophy in space science in 1981, both from the University of California, San Diego...
Wrote a number of articles criticizing several science-fiction and fantasy series, including Star Wars, and The Lord of the Rings.
a.) Phillip Dick...b) David Brin...c) John Varley
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His third biography is about a United States president, written in 2001. One of the fastest-selling non-fiction books in history, the book won his second Pulitzer Prize, also for "Best Biography or Autobiography...
Premiering in 2008, the seven-part miniseries starred Academy Award-nominated actor Paul Giamatti in the title role.
a) Stephen Ambrose...b) David McCullough...c) James McPherson
-
A best-selling American author of humorous books on travel, as well as books on the English language and on scientific subjects. Born an American, he was a resident of North Yorkshire, England, for most of his professional life...
Won the prestigious Aventis Prize for best general science book. This 500-page popular literature piece explores not only the histories and current statuses of the sciences, but also reveals their humble and often humorous beginnings.
a) Bill Bryson...b) James Herriot...c) Dave Berry
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A Native American author of novels, poetry, and children's books. She is an enrolled member of the Anishinaabe nation (also known as Ojibwa and Chippewa) and also has German, French and American ancestry. She is widely acclaimed as one of the most significant Native writers of the second wave of what critic Kenneth Lincoln has called the Native American Renaissance.
a) Annie Dillard...b) Buffy Sainte-Marie...c) Louise Erdrich
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Known for his book, Language of Life: Festival of Poets and Recipient of the 2006 Lifetime Emmy Award, "He has devoted his lifetime to the exploration of the major issues and ideas of our time and our country, giving television viewers an informed perspective on political and societal concerns," according to the official announcement, which also noted, "the scope of and quality of his broadcasts have been honored time and again. It is fitting that the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences honor him with our highest honor – the Lifetime Achievement Award."
He has received well over thirty Emmys and virtually every other major television-journalism prize, including a gold baton from the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, a lifetime Peabody Award, and a George Polk Career Award (his third George Polk Award) for contributions to journalistic integrity and investigative reporting. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and has been the recipient of numerous honorary degrees, including a doctorate from the American Film Institute.
a) Bill Moyers...b) Howard Zinn...c) Phil Donahue
-
She attended Smith College from 1937 to 1941. After graduating cum laude from Smith she moved to an apartment in New York City. In 1942 she met actor Hugh Franklin when she appeared in the play The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov. She married Franklin on January 26, 1946, the year after the publication of her first novel, The Small Rain. (Later she wrote of their meeting and marriage, "We met in The Cherry Orchard and were married in The Joyous Season.") The couple's first daughter, Josephine, was born in 1947.
The family moved to a 200-year-old farmhouse called Crosswicks in rural Connecticut in 1952. To replace Franklin's lost acting income, they purchased and operated a small general store, while she continued with her writing. Their son Bion was born that same year. Four years later, seven-year-old Maria, the daughter of family friends who had died, came to live with the Franklins, and they adopted her shortly thereafter. During this period, she also served as choir director of the local Congregational Church.
a) Diane Ackerman...b) Ursula Le Guin...c) Madeleine L’Engle
-
She earned a Bachelor's degree in History from Rice University in Houston, Texas in 1968. She later earned a second B.A. degree in Biology. In 1968, she joined the United States Marine Corps, attaining the rank of 1st Lieutenant while on active duty. She married in 1969 and they have a son, Michael, born in 1983.
She first got serious about writing in her mid-thirties and had a newspaper column in a county weekly newspaper. Her first novel was The Sheepfarmer's Daughter which won the Compton Crook Award. Most of her writings contain military science fiction themes, though biology, politics and personal relationship issues also feature strongly.
She wrote a space opera. Another book is a Nebula Award-winning near-future story told from the viewpoint of an autistic computer programmer, inspired by her own autistic son Michael.
She has many interests outside of writing. She has a musical background, having played the accordion during her university days as well as singing in choirs.
She is also an experienced paramedic and has served in various capacities in local government.
a) Elizabeth Moon...b) Elizabeth Scarborough...c) C. J. Cherryh
-
A prolific author of works in many categories, especially history and historical fiction, and was also honored for her translations of Czech classics; she is probably best known for her murder mysteries, both historical and modern.
Her books drew international attention to Shrewsbury and its history, and greatly increased tourism to the city.
a) Lindsay Davis...b) Ellis Peters...c) Ruth Downie
-
She said, "So keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was."—quoted by John Nichols for The Nation Original source: "The Fun's in the Fight" column for Mother Jones, 1993
She also said, "If his IQ slips any lower we'll have to water him twice a day."
Awards
William Allen White Award from the University of Kansas (2001)
Smith Medal from Smith College (2001)
Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2001)
Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Progress and Service (2003)
Pringle Prize for Washington Journalism from Columbia University (2003)
Eugene V. Debs Award in the field of journalism (2003)
David Brower Award for journalism from the Sierra Club (2004)
David Nyhan Prize for Political Journalism
She said that she was particularly proud of two distinct honors: having the Minneapolis police force's mascot pig named after her, and being banned from the Texas A&M campus.
a) Barbara Jordan...b) Erma Bombeck...c) Molly Ivins
-
Born in Sacred Heart, Oklahoma, and was a decorated combat veteran of World War II, having served as a mortarman in the 103rd Infantry Division and having earned the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and a Purple Heart.
He worked as a journalist from 1948 to 1962, then earned a master's degree. He taught journalism from 1966 to 1987 at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, where he resided with his wife until his death in 2008. He was a consistently bestselling author...
His writing is noted for the cultural details he provides for the people he writes about: Hopi, Zuni, European-American, federal agents, and especially Navajo Tribal Police. His works in nonfiction and in fiction reflect his appreciation of the natural wonders of the Amercan Southwest and his appreciation of its people, particularly the Navajo.
a) Tony Hillerman...b) Cormac McCarthy...c) Larry McMurtry
Answers:
- b
Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
- c
Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
- c
Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/... Kipling
- a
Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
- c
Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Barbara Kingsolver's "The Lacuna" takes indepth look at American's lack of self-criticism
by people power granny
http://www.dailykos.com/...
- b
Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
- b
Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
- a
Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
- c
Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
- a
Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
- c
Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
- a
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
- b
Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
- c
Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
- a
Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
How did you do?
Now, it is your turn in comments to make us guess who an author is.
Diaries of the week
Write On! Speedwriting.
by SensibleShoes
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Unpublished or slightly-published writers are eligible for the PARSEC Fantasy and Science Fiction Short Story Contest, deadline 4/15/10, first prize $200, theme "The Color of Silence".
http://www.parsec-sff.org/...
If you're about to start querying a novel or have been querying and getting form rejections, read ( http://queryshark.blogspot.com/ ) Query Shark.
kindness
by epjmcginley
http://www.dailykos.com/...
A beautiful book is coming out and Eileen B has a poster in it.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Congratulations Ilona and the VA: "Moving a Nation to Care"
by jimstaro
http://www.dailykos.com/...
GreenRoots/History for Kossacks: We Are The Borg.
by Unitary Moonbat
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Please Watch This "Afghan Marshall Plan: Winning With Jobs Not Guns"
by Ralph Lopez
http://www.dailykos.com/...
another film:
Missing Someone You've Never Met
by jmadlc55
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Let's read a book together! Guns, Germs and Steel: Chapter 14: From Egalitarianism to Kleptocracy
by plf515
http://www.dailykos.com/...
NOTE: plf515 has changed his book talk to Wednesday mornings early.
sarahnity’s list of DKos authors has grown so much that she has her own diary.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
sarahnity says:
It turns out that we have quite a few authors hanging out here who have published books in the real world. A while ago, I started keeping a list of books by Kossacks, former Kossacks and Kossacks-once-removed. I was posting it each week to the diary series What Are You Reading and Bookflurries, but the list has grown long enough, that I've decided to turn it into a diary and post it as a weekly series on Tuesday evenings.
Not all Kossack authors may wish to lose their anonymity, so I am only including the author's UID if he has outed herself here (gender confusion intended). If you'd like to be included on the list, or if you know of an author who is left off, please leave a comment or email me.
(sarahnity@gmail.com)