The novel begins with an internal monologue by the 31-year-old Maria Wyeth, followed by short reminiscences of her friend Helene, and ex-husband, film director Carter Lang. The further narration is conducted from a third-person perspective in eighty-four chapters of terse, controlled and highly visual prose typical for Didion. The protagonist, an unfulfilled actress, recounts her life while recovering from a mental breakdown in an exclusive Neuropsychiatric Institute. The reason for her confinement is purportedly having participated in the suicidal death of a befriended bisexual movie producer, BZ (an abbreviation for benzodiazepines, sedative drugs). The “facts” from Wyeth’s childhood include being raised in the small town of Silver Wells, Nevada, to a gambling, careless father and a neurotic mother who used to “croon to herself” of chimeric yearnings. After graduating from a high school in Tonopah, encouraged by her parents, she leaves for New York to become an actress. In the Big Apple, Maria works temporarily as a model and meets ex-boyfriend, Ivan Costello, as is later insinuated, a domineering psychological blackmailer who has no scruples using the money and the body of his acquiescent girlfriend. During her stay in the city, Maria receives the news about the death of her mother, possibly a victim of a self-provoked car accident. Her father dies soon afterwards, leaving useless mineral rights to his business partner and friend, Benny Austin. Maria withdraws from acting and modeling to get over the shock of her mother’s death, splits up with Ivan, moving to Hollywood with the newly met Carter. We learn that she and Carter have a 4-year-old daughter Kate, undergoing mental and physical “treatment” for some “aberrant chemical in her brain.” Maria truly loves her daughter, as indicated by her tender descriptions of the child, frequent visits to the hospital, and a determination “to get her out.” She seems to be the only significant person in Wyeth’s life. The love for the girl obviously means more than her marriage to despotic Lang and affairs with men, including his Hollywood acquaintances, Les Goodwin and BZ. In the course of the novel, Maria becomes pregnant, plausibly by Les, and is coerced by Carter to abort. The traumatic procedure leaves her mentally shattered and haunted by nightmares of dying children. Looking for oblivion, she plunges into her routine of compulsive driving on the roads and freeways of southern California, wandering through motels and bars, drinking and chancing sexual encounters with second-rate actors and ex-lovers. She spends a night in jail for car theft and drug possession, after a one-night stand with a minor film star, Johnny Waters. Eventually she involves herself in a perverse love quadrangle with Carter, BZ and his wife Helene, abruptly ended when BZ overdoses on sedative barbiturates (specifically, Seconal) in Maria’s hotel bedroom. The book concludes with reclusive Maria planning a new life with Kate, resolved to “keep on playing,” despite her past.

Play It As It Lays

Delia Brand, the protagonist, is a beautiful young woman living in tiny Cody, Wyoming. Delia is determined to avenge the tragic deaths of her parents; her prospector father''s by shooting and her mother''s suicide from grief. When she believes she knows the culprit, she buys some cartridges and announces her intention to shoot a man. After discussing her intentions with her uncle Quinby Pellet, the town taxidermist, Delia goes to visit her sister, Clara. Clara Brand is secretary to Dan Jackson, who runs a grubstaking business for local prospectors, and has just lost her job. In the middle of Delia''s argument with Dan, she hears noises outside the office and discovers that Quin has been knocked unconscious by someone whom he hasn''t seen. After dealing with the doctor and the police, Delia returns to her car to find that her gun and cartridges have been stolen. Dan Jackson''s father-in-law Lem Sammis is Delia''s godfather, Delia goes to see him and his brassy wife Evelina to get Clara''s job back. Lem agrees and gives Delia a note to Dan to say so. When Delia returns to the office to confront Dan once again, she finds him dead and is arrested for his murder, due to her earlier incautious statements. However, very few people know that, although the late Dan Jackson was no favorite of Delia''s, her actual suspicions were of the Reverend Rufus Toale. Other characters of interest include Delia''s lawyer and suitor, Tyler Dillon; millionaire playgirl Wynne Cowles, known to all as the "Mountain Cat," who has come to Cody for her second divorce in two years; and illiterate prospector Squint Hurley. Squint Hurley comes up with a document found near Delia''s father''s body that he''s never been able to read, which leads Delia to the identity and motivation of the real murderer.

The Mountain Cat Murders

Paradyzja (from "paradise") is the story about the human colony on a space station orbiting a distant and mineral rich star system. The colony is controlled by a totalitarian regime. All human activity is tracked by electronic devices. It had been primarily devised as a ring, in which the gravity force is simulated by the centrifugal force exerting upon all objects inside a ring tube in the direction opposite to the centre of the ring. This space station was built accidentally. The expedition had to settle on planet Tartar in order to live there and exploit the natural goods. But general Cortazar, the leader of settlers, decided that Tartar was not suitable for settling because of a lack of good conditions for living, so the living place had to be built as a space station on the Tartar''s orbit. On Paradise, living rooms are made of transparent material and to get to some of them you have to pass through other living rooms. Personal watches are not allowed, there; the only clocks are those in living rooms. Rinah Devi''s first impression is that all people strictly adhere to the regime law, but then he discovered that they had devised various ways to work around the system. One of them is "the only language of truth" - Koalang, an artificial poetic language invented by the inhabitants of Paradise in order to cheat the electronic eavesdropping system. The government and the safety service is trying to suppress every possible knowledge of physics, which could allow a verification of the statements about what Paradise is as presented to Paradisians. That is why every research in physics is blocked, especially every research about Coriolis force. The main hero discovered this, when he was trying to check whether the forces really differ on every floor: all things that would be used to make such an experiment (even such as a spring from his ballpen) have been taken from him by the customs officers and no other things that would make such a simple experiment possible are accessible. Then he discovers that minutes on clocks in living rooms are not equal in length. Finally, he finds out that Paradise is not a ring-tube space station, but a train of buildings lying on the surface of Tartar planet. In addition, Tartar is a planet quite well suitable for settlement and the group in charge built some buildings and gardens for itself, keeping the majority of settlers in the fictional Paradise and making them believe that it was an artificial planet.

Paradyzja

Blue Remembered Earth takes place in the 2160s, at a time when humanity has repaired Earth''s climate and extensively colonised the solar system. An omnipresent surveillance system (known as the "Mechanism") ensures that violent crime is almost unheard-of, and genetic engineering has vastly extended human lifespans. China, India and the nations of Africa are now the world''s leading technological powers, although they face competition from the United Aquatic Nations, a new underwater civilisation populated by water-breathing transhumans. Almost all humans possess neural computer interfaces known as "augs", which allow them to access online information, view augmented reality displays, translate speech in real-time and operate telepresence robots. Some individuals, wishing to escape the constant surveillance of Earth''s Mechanism, live in a bohemian, ungoverned "Descrutinized Zone" on the dark side of the Moon. The story focuses on Geoffrey and Sunday Akinya, a brother and sister who are members of a powerful African corporate family. Following the death of their influential grandmother Eunice, the siblings begin investigating a series of cryptic messages that Eunice left across the solar system over the previous century.

Blue Remembered Earth

The novel focuses on Molly Bolt, the adopted daughter of a poor family, who possesses remarkable beauty and who is aware of her lesbianism from early childhood. Her relationship with her mother is rocky, and at a young age her mother, referred to as "Carrie," informs Molly that she is not her own biological child but a "bastard." Molly has her first same-sex sexual relationship in the sixth grade with her friend Leota B. Bisland, and then again in a Florida high school, where she has another sexual relationship with another friend, Carolyn Simpson, the school lead cheerleader, who willingly has sex with Molly but rejects the "lesbian" label. Molly also engages in sex with males, including her cousin Leroy when the two were younger. Her father, Carl, dies when she is in her junior year of high school. In a combination of her strong-willed nature and disdain for Carrie, Molly pushes herself to excel in high school, winning a full scholarship to the University of Florida. Unlike Carrie, Carl has always supported Molly''s goals and education. However, when Molly''s homosexual relationship with her alcoholic roommate is discovered, she is denied a renewal of her scholarship. Possessing little money, she moves to New York to pursue an education in filmmaking. Upon reaching New York, she realizes that the rubyfruit is maybe not as delicious and varied as she had dreamed within the concrete jungle.

Rubyfruit Jungle

Jack Havig, born in the American midwest in 1933, has a genetic mutation that allows him to travel effortlessly through time. He learns that an apocalypse will arrive around the turn of the 21st century, due to over-pollution and nuclear warfare. Farther still in the future, a New Zealand/Micronesian culture known as "the Maurai Federation" will come to dominate the world and impose their vision of a less industrialized, more ecologically balanced world. Jack reasons that there must be other people with the same ability to travel through time; to find them, he visits Jerusalem at the time of the crucifixion, walking through the street singing the Greek mass. He is identified by agents of a time-traveling organization, the "Eyrie," who take him to their headquarters in the far future. At first Jack joins their group, but eventually he rebels against the group''s leader, a 19th-century racist whose goal is to stop the Maurai ascendancy. To defeat him, Jack must return to the 20th century, where he locates an independent group of time-travelers, eventually returning to the future to overthrow the Eyrie. Much of the story takes place in times past, including an interlude in the Byzantine empire, where Jack saves the life of a Byzantine girl during the carnage of the Fourth Crusade and falls in love with her.

There Will Be Time

The novel and its trilogy use the Moonshae Isles as its setting. Kazgoroth, the Beast, has come into the world to destroy the power of the Earthmother. Changing its shape as needs be, the Beast goes across the island of Gwynneth, corrupting everything in its way. Its destination is a large gathering of Northmen raiders at Oman''s Isle, in the middle of the Moonshaes, where they are preparing an assault on the kingdom of Corwell. The Northmen don''t realize yet that this is going to be more than just a plundering raid. They don''t know that their leader isn''t King Thelgaar Ironhand, but the Beast, who has killed the king and assumed his shape. Meanwhile, the Earthmother, aware of the danger and hurting from the corruption brought to the land, her body, by the vile presence of the Beast, awakes her children - the Leviathan, the Pack, and Kamerynn, the Unicorn. They will try to stop Kazgoroth in different ways, but that won''t be enough. At Caer Corwell, the seat of the king of Corwell, rumour brings word of war coming to the kingdom. Preparation is under way, but the Ffolk don''t know where the enemy will strike. It is up to Tristan to organize the Ffolk against this both human and demonic threat. In his fight against the odds, helped by Robyn, he will grow into the responsible leader that should inherit his father''s kingdom.

Darkwalker on Moonshae

Godfrey, son of the wealthy Matthew and Frances Winshaw of Yorkshire, is shot down by German anti-aircraft fire during a secret wartime mission over Berlin, on 30 November 1942. His sister Tabitha alleges that he was betrayed by their brother Lawrence, but no-one believes her, and she is committed to a mental institution. Nineteen years later, after a party to mark the 50th birthday of their other brother Mortimer, Lawrence is attacked in the night by an intruder, but survives, killing the intruder in the process. The intruder, a middle aged man, remains unidentified. Later, in the 1980s, a young novelist, Michael Owen, is commissioned to write a history of the Winshaw family, receiving a generous stipend from Tabitha Winshaw to do so. He works on this on and off, but with no deadline or pressure to complete, the project stagnates and Michael becomes reclusive, staying in his London flat watching videotapes of old films – in particular the 1961 British comedy What a Carve Up! starring Kenneth Connor, Shirley Eaton and Sid James. He emerges back into society, and resumes his interest in the project, following a visit from a neighbour, Fiona, seeking sponsorship for a 40-mile bicycle ride. The novel focuses by turns on the various figures in the Winshaw family: the lazy, hypocritical, populist tabloid newspaper columnist Hilary, the ambitious and ruthless career politician Henry, the brutal chicken and pork farmer Dorothy, the predatory art-gallery owner and art dealer Roderick (Roddy), the investment banker Thomas, and the arms dealer Mark. In each of these sections the novel depicts the way in which actions by individuals from the same family, serving their own greedy interests, have distressing and far-reaching consequences. Michael''s renewed interest in the Winshaws coincides with the appearance in his life of Findlay Onyx, a private detective hired by Tabitha to pursue the mystery of whether or not Lawrence was complicit in Godfrey''s death. Michael develops a warm, but platonic, relationship with Fiona. She suffers from the symptoms of some mysterious illness, but her consultations are constantly delayed, or her records are misplaced, by underresourced health service professionals. She is eventually admitted to hospital, but because treatment was not administered soon enough, she dies shortly after New Year, 1991. Very soon afterwards Michael is surprised to be invited by Mortimer Winshaw''s solicitor, Everett Sloane, to attend the reading of Mortimer''s will at the remotely located Winshaw Towers in Yorkshire. Until this point he believes he was invited to write the history by chance, but as events transpire he is more deeply related to the family than he realizes. He attends the reading of the will along with the artist Phoebe, one of Roddy''s conquests and lately Mortimer''s personal nurse. The family members learn that they will inherit nothing from Mortimer but his debts. As the night progresses events begin to shadow those of the film of What a Carve Up! more and more, with the various members of the family meeting violent deaths that accord with their professional sins. It is the night that allied warplanes embark on the bombing of Iraq following Saddam Hussain''s invasion of Kuwait in 1990. It is revealed that Michael is the son of Godfrey''s surviving co-pilot, who was also Lawrence''s mystery attacker. The following morning Tabitha ensures that she is piloting Hilary Winshaw''s seaplane to take Michael home, but deliberately destroys the plane, killing them both.

What a carve up!

Though Athera may be free, the fight is far from over… The heartstopping conclusion to the Alliance of Light series brings Lysaer''s army of Light to besiege the great citadel of Alestron. Master of Shadow, Arithon, with barely a moment''s recuperation from his victory over the necromancers, has discovered that young Jeynsa s''Valerient whom he has sworn to protect, has joined the ranks of his disowned allies within the threatened citadel. Worse, following a failed rescue attempt, his beloved Elaira, his double, Fionn Areth, and the spellbinder Dakar are also trapped within Alestron''s walls. The chancy wiles of Davien the betrayer must spirit Arithon across the enemy lines to attempt a bold and perilous rescue mission. Arithon must seek the heartcore of his talent, even while embroiled in a savage battle against those he has vowed to protect. But treachery strikes from deep within the duke''s ranks. Lysaer''s fanatics will be unleashed to claim their bloody revenge. With the Fellowship Sorcerers in mortal danger, and all under threat from a collapsing grimward, Davien the betrayer is unable to intercede to save his colleagues and so will be forced to invoke the dire terms of an ancient and most secretive bargain. Arithon stands alone at the hour of reckoning as the true purpose of the Koriani enchantresses becomes, at long last, fully unveiled – with the covetous Prime Matriarch now poised to snatch a prize, a prize beyond that of merely integrity and life…

Stormed Fortress

Edgar Huntly, a young man who lives with his uncle and sisters (his only remaining family) on a farm outside Philadelphia, is determined to learn who murdered his friend Waldegrave. Walking near the elm tree under which Waldegrave was killed late one night, Huntly sees Clithero, a servant from a neighboring farm, half-dressed, digging in the ground and weeping loudly. Huntly concludes that Clithero may be the murderer. He also concludes that Clithero is sleepwalking. Huntly decides to follow Clithero when he sleep walks. Clithero leads Huntly through rough countryside, but all this following doesn''t lead to Huntly learning much about the murder. Eventually, Huntly confronts Clithero when they are both awake and demands that he confess. Clithero does confess, but not to Waldegrave''s murder. Instead he tells a complicated story about his life in Ireland, where he believes he was responsible for the death of a woman who was his patron, after which he fled to Pennsylvania. Clithero claims to know nothing about Waldegrave''s murder. One night, soon after Huntly goes to sleep in his own bed, he wakes up in a completely dark place made of rock, which he eventually determines is a cave. He is hungry, thirsty, and feels as though he''s been beaten. He is attacked by a panther, which he manages to kill and then drinks some of its blood and eats some of its flesh. Looking for his way out of the cave, he finds that some Lenni Lenape, an Indian tribe, are holding a white girl prisoner at the mouth of the cave. Edgar kills the guard and rescues the girl. In their flight, he kills more Indians, who seem to have begun a war. By the end of the novel, Edgar learns (among other things) that he himself has been sleepwalking, that Clithero was indeed not involved in Waldegrave''s murder, that Waldegrave was murdered by a Lenni Lenape Indian, perhaps one he himself had killed, and that he and his fiancee are both destined to inherit nothing.

Edgar Huntly

In "D is for Deadbeat," Kinsey is asked by ex-con Alvin Limardo to deliver a check for twenty-five thousand dollars to a fifteen-year-old boy named Tony Gahan. According to Limardo, Tony helped him through a tough time in his life, leaving Limardo indebted. However, when the retainer check Limardo made out to Kinsey for four hundred dollars bounces, she learns that Alvin Limardo is actually John Daggett, a man known by all and liked by few, recently released from a local prison. He was also a bigamist: his first wife Essie''s fanatical religious views have kept her married to Daggett, while Daggett, in disregard of his marital status, underwent a second marriage to Lovella on his release from prison, but has subjected her to repeated violence. In her search to find Daggett and get her money back, she discovers that he was found dead on the beach only a few days after hiring her. Through Daggett''s daughter Barbara, Kinsey learns that Tony Gahan was the sole survivor of a family killed in a car accident caused by Daggett, for which he received a conviction on charges of vehicular manslaughter. Tony''s been a wreck since the death of his family, rarely sleeping and doing poorly in school. He now lives with his uncle and aunt, Ramona and Ferrin Westfall. Also killed in the accident was a friend of Tony''s young sister, and a boy called Doug Polokowski, who had hitched a ride in the car. Kinsey tracks down an ex-con friend of Daggett''s, Billy Polo, now living in a trailer park with his sister, Coral. Billy is the one who introduced Lovella to Daggett. Kinsey finds out that Doug Polokowski was Billy and Coral''s brother. There''s no shortage of people with a motive for Daggett''s death, but the police are classifying it as an accident. Kinsey discovers that shortly before his death Daggett was staggering about drunk at the marina in the company of a blonde woman in a green outfit. She sets out to discover which of the numerous blonde women in the case might be the killer. She also suspects that Billy Polo is not giving her the full truth about his involvement with Daggett, a suspicion confirmed when Polo is also murdered at the beach, shot with Kinsey''s own gun, stolen from her car a few days earlier. Coral finally levels with Kinsey: she, Billy, and Lovella were plotting together to rob Daggett of money he had come by illicitly in prison, not knowing that Daggett had given the money to Kinsey to pass on to Tony. The police investigating Billy''s murder discover a home-made silencer used in the killing. Kinsey immediately recognises the towelling used as padding as coming from the Westfall household, and Ramona jumps to the top of her suspect list. This means confronting Tony, who has given Ramona an alibi for the time of Daggett''s death. In pursuing Tony, Kinsey realises Tony himself, dressed as a woman in his aunt''s wig, was actually the killer. He was also the one who stole her gun, and killed Billy Polo, who had recognised Tony at Daggett''s funeral. Killing the man who killed his family has done nothing to ease Tony''s torment, however, and he commits suicide by throwing himself off a building in front of Kinsey, who has been unable to talk him down.

"D" Is for Deadbeat

Rhys and his cousin encounter a mounted warrior named Gwalchmai. He accompanies them to their householding for shelter from the winter cold. There, he is recognized by the head of the clan (and Rhys'' father), Sion ap Rhys, who had befriended Gwalchmai before he become renowned throughout Britain. This chance meeting changes the course of Rhys''s life. He had aspired to be more than a simple farmer. Despite his parents'' disapproval, he asks Gwalchmai to accept him as a servant. As a favor to his father, Gwalchmai agrees only to take him to Camlann, King Arthur''s stronghold, where he can find himself a master. But first, Gwalchmai continues his search for a woman, to beg her forgiveness. He had been sent on an embassy to King Bran, an enemy of Arthur, to keep an eye on him. While there, he had fallen in love with and seduced Elidan, the king''s sister. Bran found out and used it as an excuse to rebel. During the resulting battle, Gwalchmai killed Bran, though he had promised Elidan he wouldn''t. As a result, her love turned to hatred and she disappeared. He is unable to find any news of her and he and Rhys travel to Camlann. When they arrive, Gwalchmai keeps Rhys as his servant, to their mutual satisfaction. Overall, despite the bullying of Gwalchmai''s brother Agravain, Rhys finds the fortress a pleasant place to work; all there are caught up, to varying degrees, with Arthur''s vision of uniting and bringing peace to the land. After a month''s rest, Gwalchmai is sent as an ambassador to King Maelgwn, one of Arthur''s greatest foes. Rhys and Rhuawn, one of Arthur''s warriors, accompany him. Spies had reported foreigners visiting him and Arthur fears that he is allying with a king of Erin. When they arrive, Gwalchmai is shocked to find that his own mother, the infamous witch Morgawse, is the one plotting with Maelgwn. Also there are his father King Lot and his younger brother Medraut. During their stay, Rhys becomes attracted to Eivlin, one of Morgawse''s servants. Meanwhile, Medraut begins to charm Rhuawn and Rhys, planting doubts about Gwalchmai''s sanity, using the well-known fact that he becomes a berserker in battle. Rhuawn is won over, but not Rhys. Seeing this, Medraut changes tactics. Rhys is taken by force to Morgawse. She uses magic to try to break his will, but he resists stubbornly. Eivlin is a miserable witness to his struggle. When Medraut leaves the room, she follows and knocks him unconscious. Needing Medraut''s assistance to break Rhys, Morgawse goes in search of him, giving Eivlin the opportunity to free Rhys and flee with him. The witch casts a spell to kill her disloyal servant. When Eivlin is struck down, Rhys does the only thing he can think of - he baptizes her by the roadside. Then, he takes her in search of help. He runs into a young boy named Gwyn, who takes them to his mother, a nun named Elidan. By chance, Rhys has found Gwalchmai''s lost love - and their son. Medraut tracks Rhys down and takes him back to his mother, only to find Gwalchmai there as well. Gwalchmai tries to leave with Rhys, but Morgawse stands in his way. He prevails in a battle of magic, leaving her exhausted, but physically unharmed. Rhys takes his master to Eivlin, hoping he can cure her. Indeed, he is able to awaken her. Then he tries to reconcile with Elidan or at least gain her forgiveness, but she is unmoved. Rhys had reluctantly promised her not to reveal Gwyn''s identity, so Gwalchmai departs with his misery unabated. They return to Maelgwn''s fortress, where more tragic news awaits. Agravain had arrived to visit his father. In the middle of speaking together, Lot suddenly died for no apparent reason. While Gwalchmai was away, Agravain went to his mother and killed her for murdering Lot. In a rage, Medraut decides to go to Camlann, to see his father - Arthur - and to conspire against him. Arthur''s downfall is set in motion.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

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Play It As It Lays

By Joan Didion

The Mountain Cat Murders

By Rex Stout

Paradyzja

By Janusz Zajdel

Blue Remembered Earth

By Alastair Reynolds

Rubyfruit Jungle

By Rita Mae Brown

There Will Be Time

By Poul Anderson

Darkwalker on Moonshae

By Douglas Niles

What a carve up!

By Jonathan Coe

Stormed Fortress

By Janny Wurts

Edgar Huntly

By Charles Brockden Brown

"D" Is for Deadbeat

By Sue Grafton

Kingdom of Summer

By Gillian Bradshaw