The young man Jules is a motorbike-riding courier for RCA in Paris, and a major fan of classical music and opera. Jules is also a groupie of the beautiful Cynthia Hawkins, an American opera singer. Hawkins is unusual in that she only performs live. She has never made a recording, studio or otherwise. One day, Jules secretly records a Cynthia Hawkins concert. He then shares the tape with his teenage friend Alba, who shares the tape with her adult friend Serge. Criminal Serge Gorodish is in his mid 40''s, he shares his life with Alba, a precocious teenage beauty. Serge realizes that the Cynthia Hawkins tape could fetch a large amount of money. Meanwhile, Nadia is a twentysomething in the employ of Saporta. Saporta controls the largest drug cartel and prostitution ring in Paris. Nadia records harmful evidence against Saporta on a cassette tape. Nadia''s cassette is erroneously dropped into the satchel on Jules'' motorbike. Soon, Jules is being chased by the police, as well as gangsters, though he has no idea why. Saporta mobilizes his entire crime organization to attempt to retrieve the tape from Jules. Locating an intrepid and skilled motorbike rider in Paris is not easy. Meanwhile, there is a furious underground bidding war for Jules'' tape of Cynthia Hawkins'' concert.

Diva: A novel

Player Piano is set in the future after a fictional third world war. During the war, while most Americans were fighting overseas, the nation''s managers and engineers faced a depleted work force, and responded by developing ingenious automated systems that allowed the factories to operate with only a few workers. The novel begins ten years after the war, when most factory workers have been replaced by machines. The bifurcation of the population is represented by the division of Ilium into "The Homestead", where everyone who is neither a manager or engineer lives, and the other side of the river, where all the engineers and managers lives. Player Piano develops two parallel plot lines that converge only briefly, and insubstantially so, at the beginning and the end of the novel. The more prominent plot line follows the protagonist, Dr. Paul Proteus (hither to referred to as Paul), an intelligent, thirty-five-year-old factory manager of Ilium Works. The ancillary plot line follows the American tour of the Shah of Bratpuhr, a spiritual leader of six million residents in a distant, underdeveloped nation. The purpose of the two plot lines is to give two perspectives of the system: one from an insider who is emblematic of the system, and one from an outsider who is looking in. Paul, for all intents and purposes, is the living embodiment of what a man within the system should strive to be, while the Shah is a visitor from a very different culture, and therefore applies a very different context to happenings he sees on his tour. The main plot line follows the metamorphosis of Paul from being within the system to being against the system. At the beginning of the novel, Paul displays a sense of dissatisfaction with the industrial system and his contribution to society. Symbolically, he reflects on his colleagues'' desire to destroy an old building, once a part of Edison''s factory, which he saves and instead keeps it alive to store new machinery. Looking for salvation from a yet unknown plight, he gets a knock at his door, figuratively speaking, and Ed Finnerty, an old friend whom Paul has always held in high regard, informs him he has quit his important engineer job in Washington D.C. Paul and Finnerty visit a bar in the "Homestead" section of town, where workers who have been displaced by machines live out their meaningless lives in mass-produced houses. There, they meet an Episcopal minister, named Lasher, with an M.A. in anthropology, who puts into words the unfairness of the system that the two engineers have only vaguely sensed. They soon learn that Lasher is the leader of a rebel group known as the "Ghost Shirt Society", and Finnerty instantly takes up with him. Paul is not bold enough to make a clean break, as Finnerty has done, until his superiors ask him to betray Finnerty and Lasher. He quits his job and is captured by the "Ghost Shirt Society;" he is forced to join as their leader but only in name. Paul''s father was the first "National, Industrial, Commercial Communications, Foodstuffs, and Resources Director"” As his lengthy title suggests, Dr. George Proetus has almost complete control over the nation’s economy and was more powerful than the President of the United States. Through his father''s success, Paul''s name is famous among the citizens, so the organization intends to use his name to their advantage by making him the false ''leader'' to gain publicity.

Player Piano

Five of the 19 surviving Little Sisters of Hoboken, a one-time missionary order that ran a leper colony on an island south of France, discover that their cook, Sister Julia, Child of God, accidentally killed the other fifty-two residents of the convent with her tainted vichyssoise while they were off playing bingo with a group of Maryknolls. Upon discovering the disaster, Mother Superior had a vision in which she was told to start a greeting card company to raise funds for the burials. The greeting cards were an enormous success and, thinking there was plenty of money, the Reverend Mother bought a VCR and camcorder for the convent, leaving her with no money in the kitty to pay for the last four burials. With the deceased nuns on ice in the deep freeze, they decide to stage a variety show in the Mount Saint Helen''s School auditorium to raise the necessary amount. Participating in the project are Mother Superior Mary Regina, a former circus performer who can not resist the spotlight; her competitive but dignified rival, second-in-command Sister Mary Hubert; Sister Robert Anne, a streetwise nun from Brooklyn; Sister Mary Leo, a novice who is determined to be the world''s first ballerina nun; and wacky, childlike Sister Mary Amnesia, who lost her memory when a crucifix fell on her head. The entertainment that they present includes solo star turns, madcap dance routines, and an audience quiz. Naturally, VCRs and camcorders are now no longer such current or expensive devices, so modern presentations of the show tend to substitute newer or more generic terms such as "home entertainment system" or a "plasma TV".

Nunsense

Ramona Quimby is growing up. She and Beezus manage to convince their parents to let them stay home alone together after school for one week to see how it goes. When the sisters find their cat, Picky-Picky, dead in the basement and handle the funeral and burial themselves, their parents decide they are responsible enough to take care of themselves. Ramona is especially happy not to have to go to the Kemp''s after school any more because Howie''s rich Uncle Hobart has arrived from Saudi Arabia. He''s the kind of man who thinks it funny to tease kids, and the girls don''t like him. There are more changes coming for the Quimbys. Mr. Quimby is almost finished with college, and everyone hopes he''ll get a teaching job in the area. It''s especially important because Mrs. Quimby is expecting another baby, and she plans on staying home to take care of it. Beezus thinks it will be wonderful to have a baby around to take care of, but Ramona realizes she won''t be the littlest any more. She''s not sure how she feels about being the middle child. Before she gets a chance to find out, something else changes. Aunt Bea and Howie''s Uncle Hobart get engaged, and Beezus and Ramona are to be maids of honor. They only have two weeks to plan the wedding, though, and by the time the wedding day arrives everyone in the neighborhood has become involved. By the time baby Roberta arrives, Ramona realizes, along with everyone else, that "She was winning at growing up."

Ramona Forever

Martin, the narrator, a rich South African businessman, recalls the events of a weekend which settled the future of his family farm: he wants to sell it although he has promised his father on his death-bed that he will never do so, and although his brother wants to take it over. So he visits the farm for a weekend to tell his mother she will be "evicted". For the trip, he calls off a meeting with his lover Bea, who leaves him for that because she wanted to tell him that she is pregnant. It is a long drive to the farm and he does not often go there. He takes his son Louis along to get closer to him. Since Louis has come back from the Angolan War of Independence, he is traumatized and silent. The imagined good talk between them makes matters worse, though - the father begins by asking his son casually about his "trip to Angola", and when Louis finally opens up and talks about the atrocities of the war, they end up arguing about politics. The farm is extremely drought-stricken, and Martin''s mother has invited a water diviner to look for an underground stream. Martin thinks this is ridiculous. When he then visits the family graveyard for one last time, loses his glasses, so that from then on the egocentric man is in every sense of the word "blind” to the events happening around him. At night, a black worker murders his wife and is taken to prison, leaving a baby and older children behind. This is regarded by the whites as "typical” tribal behavior and helps Martin to underline his opinion that his mother should not run the farm on her own because it is too dangerous - although the real reason is that he will get a good price for the farm. The visit of a few neighbours, who are also farmers, shows that most people in the area are selling their land, which is regarded by those who stay on their family farms as treason. When Martin – still almost blind without his glasses – gets lost in the jungle on a short walk, almost not making it back to the farm where he was born and raised, it is obvious that he does not belong here. Father and son drive home. The farm will be sold and Martin''s mother will live with their family although she and Martin''s wife do not get along. Louis gets an ultimatum to find a job, after which he disappears and never comes back.

Rumours of Rain

Pearl Andreas, Ruby Landry''s daughter, is graduating high school and goes to an apprenticeship at a hospital. There, Jack Weller invites her to his house ("to study") and tries to seduce her, saying she is "frigid". Pearl leaves, but begins to wonder about what he said. Whilst Ruby is at Pearl''s graduation party, her friend Nina dies. Nina sends a message for Ruby to hurry, but Ruby stays for the rest of the party. When she does get there, Nina is already dead. Soon after, one of Pearl''s little brothers, Jean, dies from a snakebite. His twin, Pierre, become catatonic with grief, Beau begins to drink, and Ruby, thinking that this happened because she did not go to Nina when she was asked, flees to where she grew up- the bayou. Pearl follows her there, and while there looking for her, begins a relationship with Jack Clovis. Pearl is kidnapped by Buster Trahaw, to whom Grandpere Jack promised Ruby many years ago. Pearl escapes, and when Buster tries to follow her he is eaten by alligators. Eventually Pearl and Jack find Ruby, who practices a vodoo ritual. Ruby and Pearl return to New Orleans, and Pierre eventually comes out of his catatonic state. Pearl keeps up her relationship with Jack Clovis.

Hidden Jewel

The protagonist of this legal thriller is 33 year old, Nikki Hill. Nikki is a lead prosecutor at the District Attorney''s office, and he has trusted her to help find the killer of Madeleine Gray, Hollywood''s most popular TV host of a blackmail show. At first there is a hands down suspect, Jamal Deschamps, who was found at the scene of the crime. He possessed her ring and his skin was also under Maddie''s thumb. After a lie detector test, it was proven that Deschamps was not the killer. It turned out, he merely found the cadaver and whilst stealing its ring, cut himself on her thumb. Nikki, another smart aleck prosecutor, and two quirky homicide detectives have a few loose strings, and bewilderment of who the real killer is. At Maddie''s mansion, there was a missing rug, and a glass a ball that had Maddie''s blood on it. And upstairs, where her blackmail files are, there is a busted drawer with missing contents. Nikki and the team discover that R&B singer, Diana Cooper, had a fight with Maddie the day of the murder. She quickly becomes a major suspect when Maddie''s blood is also found in her trunk. The detectives come up with a scenario: Maddie threatened to give Diana''s blackmail information, so she stole it and killed Maddie. This was soon proven wrong when detective Goodman''s girlfriend confessed to stealing the black mail file for Diana''s husband. Diana''s charges were also dropped due to conflict with her alibi the time of the murder. Next, fingers were pointed towards John Willins, Diana''s huband. Maddie had told Palmer, her neighbor, that she had slept with a J man. There were also logs at a private getaway club that a J. W. and M. Gray went together several times. Nikki and the team try to trace John Willin''s past, and it turned up that he was from a small town. While putting together clues, they find out that John''s family was killed in a fire, and that he could be taking on the identity of his deceased cousin. This leads to another question: did he murder his family with the fire? The only way to really find out was to go to the town and see if there was a grave for "John Willins". When they report this phenomenal news to district attorney, Joe Walden, he decides he wants to come along. And when they finally get to the town''s only cemetery, they find out that Joe Walden, the district attorney, is the J.W....!

The trials of Nikki Hill

After acting as an aide-de-camp at the Battle of Waterloo, Jack Staple is finding civilian life tedious. Following a formal (and somewhat boring) dinner party in honour of his cousin''s engagement, Jack sets out by himself on horseback to visit a more congenial friend some 60 miles away. After getting lost in the dark and rain he reaches a toll-gate where a frightened 11-year old lad is acting as toll collector in the absence of his father. A combination of curiosity, compassion, tiredness, and dampness lead him to stay at the toll house overnight with a view to sorting out the situation in the morning. Over the next few days Jack''s circle of acquaintances rapidly expands to include a highwayman, a Bow Street runner, and the local gentry plus their devoted retainers. Other complications include a dead body, stolen treasure, and some masked villains. In the process of preventing a scandal, Jack also manages to identify the murderer, deal with the villains, retrieve the treasure, satisfy the law, provide for his friends, and resolve his own romance.

The Toll-Gate

The narrative focuses on the stories of several Harvard Professors as they deliberate whether tenure should be imparted on assistant professor Dennis Gossen. Gossen is an up-and-coming economics figure, who is hopeful that the Promotion and Tenure Committee will find him of adequate qualification to receive tenure at Harvard University—a very prestigious accomplishment. The P and T Committee is headed by celebrated anthropologist and Harvard Dean Denton Clegg and consists of distinguished sociologist Oliver Wu, chemist Sophia Ustinov, English professor Calvin Weber, psychology professor Valerie Danzig, mathematics professor Morrison Bell, Classicist Foster Barrett and dominant economics professor Henry Spearman. Dennis somehow shows up at the door of Henry Spearman, who is not home, and let in by Henry’s wife, Pidge. Because Dennis appears so distraught, Pidge calls her husband and tells him to come home early, which he does. However, Spearman refuses to discuss anything with Dennis on the basis that he is not allowed to converse with tenure candidates. P and T Committee meetings proceed to take place, and Dennis Gossen is turned down for tenure with a 3-3 vote. Oliver Wu, Sophia Ustinov and Calvin Weber all vote in favor of promotion, while Valerie Danzig, Morrison Bell and Foster Barrett all vote that Dennis Gossen is not cut out for Harvard. Dean Clegg is naturally placed in the role of tie breaker, and votes against advancement, as is his policy with ties. Because of his failure, Dennis Gossen seemingly commits suicide. Within the next week, Morrison Bell and Foster Barrett, two of the people who voted against Gossen’s promotion were murdered, and Dennis’s fiancé, Melissa Shannon, is arrested for the crime. The prosecution charged that she murdered them because she felt that they were responsible for her fiancé’s suicide, and the Melissa’s defense argued that the evidence was merely circumstantial; Shannon is eventually convicted by the jury and sentenced to a life in prison. Economist Henry Spearman is skeptical, however. Applying economic analysis, he could not fathom how the benefits of suicide could have outweighed the emotional cost that Gossen—a very rational person—was paying for his failure. He also did not think it rational that Melissa Shannon was so upset that she would kill two Harvard professors. With Melissa Shannon in jail, the Harvard Alumni are all aboard a cruise to Europe. This is where Spearman finally uses economic reasoning to deduce who really murdered Dennis, Morrison, and Foster: Dean Clegg. His theory is proven when Clegg, knowing that Spearman is on to him, leaves behind a note explaining everything; Clegg coveted academic distinction, and went to an island to write a book he hoped would be revolutionary in his field of anthropology. However, he had been absent from his field as Dean for a couple of years and was having trouble. That was when he conceived the idea to forge data for his book. It turned out that Dennis Gossen read his book and found economic inconsistencies in the data Clegg had made up and realized that Clegg was a fraud. Gossen blackmailed Clegg to vote in favor of his promotion, which Clegg happily agreed to. However, Clegg wanted to secure his secret, and so he killed Gossen and made it look like suicide. He then killed two of his colleagues who he thought might find out his dirty secret and framed Melissa Shannon.

The Fatal Equilibrium

Trinity and Brother Dave are a pair of devil-bats looking for a party to break up. They come across a party in Harlem. Although Trinity is eager, Dave warns him not to touch it. "When black folks throw a party, they don''t play!" Trinity joins the party, already in progress, thrown by Miss Maybell in honor of her niece Earnestine''s birthday. Trinity first tries to break the records ("you can''t have a party without music"), but finds that they are unbreakable. He drinks an entire bottle of liquor, thinking he has depleted their supply of alcohol, but finds out that all of the guests have brought their own bottles, and when he tries to eat all of the sandwiches, another plate is brought in. Trinity finds himself unwilling to continue being mean after he insults Earnestine, making her cry. Trinity apologizes to her, and tells her that he has fallen for her. Three more guests show up, Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, and their college-educated son Harold. Earnestine ignores Trinity for Harold. Trinity becomes jealous. Brother Dave arrives in human form, eager to break up the party, but Trinity is unwilling to. Mr. Johnson tells Harold not to get involved with Earnestine, because her family is too "common," and he can''t risk the big future he has ahead of him. Earnestine approaches both Harold and Trinity to dance, but they are pulled back by Mr. Johnson and Dave. Dave persuades Trinity to try to break up the party before midnight, when they will both be turned into the thing that they pretend to be: human beings. As time runs short, Dave and Trinity find themselves at the dinner table with the rest of the guests. Dave insults Mrs. Johnson, prompting her to leave with her husband and son. The rest of the guests tell Dave that they''re glad that they left. After the dinner, Trinity stands up and announces that he and Earnestine are getting engaged, an announcement which infuriates Dave. Dave makes one last attempt to break up the party by trying to make a move on Miss Maybell. When Dave finds that she is all too willing, he turns himself into a cockroach and tries to sneak out the door before being smashed by Miss Maybell.

Don''t Play Us Cheap

The Golden Globe and Steel Beach take place in a universe similar to, but different from, Varley’s "Eight Worlds" universe; in both universes, the solar system has been colonized by human refugees fleeing aliens (known simply as "the Invaders") invading the Earth. Earth and Jupiter are off-limits to humanity, but Earth''s moon (known as Luna) and the other planets and moons of the solar system have all become heavily populated. There are also minor colonies set in the Oort cloud beyond the solar system itself. The Steel Beach in question is Luna, Earth''s moon and the most heavily-inhabited world in the solar system since the Invaders obliterated human civilization on Earth. The allusion being that humans were thrown onto the inhospitable moon, just as fish made their way onto land as they evolved. The protagonist, Hildy Johnson, is a newspaper reporter who finds trouble beneath the near-utopian society run by the Central Computer. The Central Computer runs every aspect of every person''s life: it is the government, court, information source, and friend to every citizen. Hildy Johnson starts off as a male reporter in the beginning of the book. He, like many people in the moon, has become dissatisfied with life. As a result, society, as well as Hildy, take part in destructive activities such as "slash boxing" (a blend of knife fighting and boxing), and in Hildy''s case, attempting suicide multiple times. The first half of the story deals with the bizarre occurrences of life on the moon, such as the indoctrinations of celebrity heads-in-jars, negotiating with brontosaurus herds to figure out who they will sacrifice to make burger patties, and Earth-themed Disneylands which come complete with snakes, sand and sunburns. In the second half, Hildy makes contact with a group of people who have figured out how to travel through space without spacesuits. These people then reveal that they are hiding from the Central Computer, partially to keep their technology secret, and to keep free of secret experiments the Central Computer has been performing on people. Hildy then learns that the Central Computer has been attempting to clone the deceased in order to keep the population up. Hildy then becomes suspect, as she (he has had a sex change by now) has attempted to commit suicide several times, and it is unclear if she has been rescued or cloned. The Central Computer eventually resorts to launching a military raid on the people, which eventually causes the machine itself to crash. This leaves the moon city in chaos, and in its death throes, the Central Computer sends a projection of itself to Hildy, explaining that the schizoid nature of having multiple versions of itself was conflicting and strenuous, and that the city''s doom was inevitable.

Steel Beach

Someone found a piece of a Bug Fighter and the government is going to test it at a laboratory. Unsurprisingly, the Yeerks don''t want it tested. The Animorphs have a battle at an airport. During the fight Cassie ends up unconscious on the belt with all the luggage. When she wakes up, she is in the cargo bay of a plane flying to Sydney, Australia. The plane is attacked by Yeerks looking for the "Andalite bandit" so she jumps out after unsuccessfully attempting to elude them on board. She hides in the sand as a flea until the Yeerks leave. After the Yeerks leave, she demorphs and meets Yami who lives nearby. He takes her to his family. His grandfather cut himself with a piece of a Bug fighter that he was using as a wood carving tool. Cassie morphs to Hork-Bajir and helps amputate his leg. Later, the Blade ship turns up again and Visser Three demands that she come outside. She does and tries to lead the Yeerks away from Yami''s family. A Chee who was aboard the Blade ship turns up and she goes back home.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Diva: A novel

By Delacorta

Player Piano

By Kurt Vonnegut

Nunsense

By Dan Goggin

Ramona Forever

By Beverly Cleary

Rumours of Rain

No Author Listed

Hidden Jewel

By V. C. Andrews

The trials of Nikki Hill

By Dick Lochte

The Toll-Gate

By Georgette Heyer

The Fatal Equilibrium

No Author Listed

Don't Play Us Cheap

By Melvin Van Peebles

Steel Beach

By John Varley

The Unexpected

By K. A. Applegate