Quizzes & Puzzles Two Truths and a Lie: Alumni Authors Edition Each famed Cornellian wordsmith penned two out of three of these books. Can you identify the one they didn’t write? DIFFICULTY LEVEL: CHALLENGING You may have played an icebreaker game in which you tell two true things and one false one about yourself—and the listener has to guess which is which. Here’s a Big Red alumni version! Select the “lie”—the one book of the three that the person did not write—for each of these 13 Cornellians, and show how much you know about the work of … 1) Lauren Weisberger ’99 “In Her Shoes” “Everyone Worth Knowing” “The Devil Wears Prada” 2) E.B. White 1921 “The Trumpet of the Swan” “Stuart Little” “The Little Prince” 3) Toni Morrison, MA ’55 “Song of Solomon” “The Bluest Eye” “The Poisonwood Bible” 4) Kurt Vonnegut ’44 “Breakfast of Champions” “The Crying of Lot 49” “Cat’s Cradle” 5) Matt Ruff ’87 “The Destroyer of Worlds” “Fool on the Hill” “The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul” 6) Nicola Yoon ’94 “Everything, Everything” “Paper Towns” “The Sun Is Also a Star” 7) Thomas Pynchon ’59 “The Sirens of Titan” “Mason & Dixon” “Vineland” 8) Susan Choi, MFA ’95 “Trust Exercise” “All the Light We Cannot See” “American Woman” 9) Pearl Buck, MA 1925 “The Good Earth” “The Red Badge of Courage” “Imperial Woman” 10) Téa Obreht, MFA ’08 “The Tiger’s Wife” “Inland” “A Prayer for Owen Meany” 11) Junot Díaz, MFA ’95 “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” “The Corrections” “This Is How You Lose Her” 12) Diane Ackerman, MFA ’73, PhD ’79 “Breathing Lessons” “A Natural History of Love” “The Zookeeper’s Wife” 13) Chris Pavone ’89 “The Expats” “Two Nights in Lisbon” “The Brass Verdict” Time’s up Published August 16, 2023 Comments Karen Viglione Lauterwasser 22 Aug, 2023 Full disclosure: a number of my correct answers came about because I knew the true author of one of the choices. But it was a fun quiz! Reply Tim Lynch, Class of 1990 23 Aug, 2023 Same here; I had absolutely no right getting 12/13, and if I’d worked solely from my knowledge of the listed authors it would have been much less than that. Reply Marc Milgrom, Class of 1994 27 Aug, 2023 Same here on at least a couple, although I’m a huge fan of both Matt Ruff and Téa Obreht and read both White books to my daughter when she was younger. (Also, hi Tim!) Reply Richard Foxall, Class of 1984 22 Aug, 2023 You really ought to include Jandy Nelson, a major YA author, in this list. She’s written to YA best sellers that also appeal to adults. Phenomenal writer. Reply Leave a Comment Cancel replyOnce your comment is approved, your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment * Name * Class Year Email * Save my name, email, and class year in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ Other stories You may like Quizzes & Puzzles What Cornell Building Are You? Chime In Remembering David McCullough, a ‘Tour Guide to the Past’ Quizzes & Puzzles May / June ’23 Trivia Roundup