(CNN) -- Pour yourself a cold martini, make sure it's extra dry, put some classic jazz on the stereo, a mournful saxophone is a must, and settle in with one of the best-reviewed novels of the year, "Rules of Civility."

Written by first-time novelist Amor Towles, a principal at a Manhattan investment firm, the book has shot up the best-seller charts and is drawing rave reviews from critics. It's a nostalgic love letter to New York of the late '30s, a novel of manners with lofty aspirations that evokes some of the classics of American literature.

The story unfolds largely in flashback, set on New Year's Eve in Manhattan 1937. The Jazz Age is over, the Depression in its final days, World War II just over the horizon. At its outset, there is a budding love triangle between Katey Kontent, that's "kon-tent, like the state of being"; her boardinghouse roommate, Eve; and a handsome banker, Theodore "Tinker" Grey, but an unexpected accident sends the story in a more serious direction.

Katey is the narrator and the wry heart of this novel. She's a young woman of "poise and purpose." Brooklyn-born, the daughter of immigrant laborers, she works in a Wall Street secretarial pool though aspires to much more.

Alongside a supporting cast with WASPy nicknames like Dicky, Bitsy and Peaches, Katey navigates her way through Manhattan jazz clubs and Long Island cocktail parties and into the upper echelons of New York society.

The novel takes its title from young George Washington's "Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation"; you'll find all 110 of them in the novel's appendix. These rules are described as "a do-it-yourself charm school. A sort of How to Win Friends and Influence People 150 years ahead of its time." What are the answers to this following set of questions: 1. Where does Amor Towles work?
2. Where?
3. Has he written a book?
4. What's the name of it?
5. Is it his first?
6. What is he now considered?
7. Who narrates the story?
8. Is that an old woman?
9. What is she?
10. Where does she work?
11. As what?
12. What were her parents?
13. Were they born in New York?
14. What were they?
15. Where is Kathy born?
16. Where is the book set?
17. When?
18. Is it a holiday?
19. Which one?
20. Is there a love triangle?
Answer: 1. an investment firm
2. Manhattan
3. yes
4. "Rules of Civility"
5. yes
6. a novelist
7. Katey
8. no
9. a young woman
10. Wall Street
11. a secretary
12. laborers
13. no
14. immigrants
15. Brooklyn
16. Manhattan
17. 1937
18. yes
19. New Year's Eve
20. yes

Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds that matter is the fundamental substance in nature, and that all phenomena, including mental phenomena and consciousness, are identical with material interactions.

Materialism is closely related to physicalism, the view that all that exists is ultimately physical. Philosophical physicalism has evolved from materialism with the discoveries of the physical sciences to incorporate more sophisticated notions of physicality than mere ordinary matter, such as: spacetime, physical energies and forces, dark matter, and so on. Thus the term "physicalism" is preferred over "materialism" by some, while others use the terms as if they are synonymous.

Materialism belongs to the class of monist ontology. As such, it is different from ontological theories based on dualism or pluralism. For singular explanations of the phenomenal reality, materialism would be in contrast to idealism, neutral monism, and spiritualism.

Despite the large number of philosophical schools and subtle nuances between many, all philosophies are said to fall into one of two primary categories, which are defined in contrast to each other: Idealism, and materialism.[a] The basic proposition of these two categories pertains to the nature of reality, and the primary distinction between them is the way they answer two fundamental questions: "what does reality consist of?" and "how does it originate?" To idealists, spirit or mind or the objects of mind (ideas) are primary, and matter secondary. To materialists, matter is primary, and mind or spirit or ideas are secondary, the product of matter acting upon matter. What are the answers to this following set of questions: 1. what is materialism closely related to?
2. do some people prefer that term?
3. what is matter to materialists in terms of priority?
Answer: 1. physicalism
2. Yes
3. secondary

CHAPTER VIII

"I don't think I shall marry you, after all," Maggie announced that evening, as she stood looking at herself in one of the gilded mirrors with which the drawing-room at Belgrave Square was adorned.

"Why not?" Nigel asked, with polite anxiety.

"You are exhibiting symptoms of infidelity," she declared. "Your flirtation with Naida this afternoon was most pronounced, and you went out of your way to ask her to dine to-night."

"I like that!" Nigel complained. "Supposing it were true, I should simply be obeying orders. It was you who incited me to devote myself to her."

"The sacrifices we women make for the good of our country," Maggie sighed. "However, you needn't have taken me quite so literally. Do you admire her very much, Nigel?"

He smiled. His manner, however, was not altogether free from self-consciousness.

"Of course I do," he admitted. "She's a perfectly wonderful person, isn't she? Let's get out of this Victorian environment," he added, looking around the huge apartment with its formal arrangement of furniture and its atmosphere of prim but faded elegance. "We'll go into the smaller room and tell Brookes to bring us some cocktails and cigarettes. Chalmers won't expect to be received formally, and Mademoiselle Karetsky will appreciate the cosmopolitan note of our welcome."

"We do look a little too domestic, don't we?" Maggie replied, as she passed through the portiere which Nigel was holding up. "I'm not at all sure that I ought to come and play hostess like this, without an aunt or anything. I must think of my reputation. I may decide to marry Mr. Chalmers, and Americans are very particular about that sort of thing." What are the answers to this following set of questions: 1. Did Maggie decide she didn't want to get married, after all?
2. When did she make this proclamation?
3. Who was she looking at, at the time?
4. In what?
5. And in what room?
6. What's the name of the fine house she lives in?
7. Who is it she decided not to marry?
8. Is he violently angry about it?
9. Do Americans care about a woman's reputation?
10. Who's the American mentioned in this fun fable?
11. Is he someone Maggie might decide to wed?
12. Are they going to retire to a larger or smaller room?
13. What do they want to have with their cigarettes?
Answer:
1. yes
2. in the evening
3. herself
4. a mirro
5. tthe drawing room
6. Belgrave Square
7. Nigel
8. no
9. yes
10. Mr. Chalmers
11. Iyes
12. smaller
13. cocktails