Problem: (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."
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

Problem: The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: "Olympische Sommerspiele 1936"), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event that was held in 1936 in Berlin, Germany. Berlin won the bid to host the Games over Barcelona, Spain, on 26 April 1931, at the 29th IOC Session in Barcelona (two years before the Nazis came to power). It marked the second and final time the International Olympic Committee gathered to vote in a city that was bidding to host those Games.

To outdo the Los Angeles games of 1932, Adolf Hitler had built a new 100,000-seat track and field stadium, six gymnasiums, and many other smaller arenas. The games were the first to be televised, and radio broadcasts reached 41 countries. Filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl was commissioned by the German Olympic Committee to film the Games for $7 million. Her film, titled "Olympia", pioneered many of the techniques now common in the filming of sports.

Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler saw the Games as an opportunity to promote his government and ideals of racial supremacy and antisemitism, and the official Nazi party paper, the "Volkischer Beobachter", wrote in the strongest terms that Jews should not be allowed to participate in the Games. When threatened with a boycott of the Games by other nations, Hitler appeared to allow athletes of other ethnicities from other countries to participate. However German Jewish athletes were barred or prevented from taking part by a variety of methods and Jewish athletes from other countries (notably the US) seem to have been side-lined in order not to offend the Nazi government.
1. How many times did the IOC take the vote in a country hoping to be the host?
2. When was they last time?
3. Where was the vote held?
4. Who won the vote
5. Who lost?
6. Which games were they voting on?
7. Where was the last one held?
8. Did Germany use an old building for the games?
9. Who recorded the event?
10. Did she get paid?
11. How much?
12. Who paid her?
13. What did she call the movie?
14. Do people still use her methods?
15. To record what?
16. Who was going to boycott?
17. Who were they boycotting for?
18. Who was not allowed in the games?
19. What about Jews in the US?
20. Why/
Answer: 1. twice
2. on 26 April 1931
3. in Barcelona
4. Berlin
5. Barcelona, Spain
6. The 1936 Summer Olympics
7. Los Angeles
8. no
9. Leni Riefenstahl
10. yes
11. $7 million
12. the German Olympic Committee
13. Olympia
14. yes
15. sports
16. other nations
17. Jews
18. German Jewish athletes
19. they were side-lined
20. to not offend the Nazi government

Problem: CHAPTER XI

A MIDNIGHT FEAST

While the three students were discussing the situation the door of the dormitory opened, and Sam Day and Shadow Hamilton entered.

"Hello, why weren't you down to supper?" asked Sam.

"We didn't get here in time," answered Roger. And then he related what had occurred on Bush Island.

"It was just like Jasniff and Merwell," said Shadow. "And like old Haskers, too! I suppose he is laughing to himself now because he made you go without your supper."

"But I am not going without it," said Dave. "That is, not if you fellows will do me a favor."

"Want me to get something from the pantry for you?" queried Sam, quickly. "I'll do it--if it can be done."

"You can't get in the pantry any more," said Phil, with a wry face. "Since Dave and I did the trick some time ago they keep the doors locked."

"And that puts me in mind of a story!" cried Shadow. "Once a little boy----"

"Quit it, Shadow!" interrupted Sam. "You don't expect Dave and Roger and Phil to listen to your yarns when they are starving, do you? Tell the story after they have filled up."

"Well, it was only a short yarn," pleaded the story-teller of the school. "But, of course, if we can do anything----"

"You can--I think," said Dave. "But you must act quickly."

"What's to be done?"

"Since I have been here I have noticed a wagon going through on the main road every evening about this time. It belongs to Rousmann, the delicatessen man of Rockville. I wish you'd stop him and see what you can buy for us." And as he finished Dave took a two-dollar bill from his pocket and held it out.
1. who came in?
2. did the first person ask someone something?
3. what did he ask?
4. who did he ask?
5. what was his answer?
6. did something happen somewhere?
7. where?
8. who plead?
9. what was his plea?
10. was someone hungry?
11. who?
12. who owns the wagon
13. what is his profession?
14. from where?
15. who had money?
16. what type?
17. where did he store it?
18. did someone cry?
19. who?
20. what did he cry?
Answer:
1. Sam Day and Shadow Hamilton
2. yes
3. Hello, why weren't you down to supper?
4. Roger
5. We didn't get here in time
6. yes
7. on Bush Island
8. the story-teller
9. Well, it was only a short yarn
10. yes
11. Dave and Roger and Phil
12. Rousmann
13. the delicatessen man
14. Rockville
15. Dave
16. two-dollar bill
17. his pocket
18. yes
19. Shadow
20. And that puts me in mind of a story!