A whole book on paper cups, duct tape, and toothbrushes? That’s nothing! I read Petroski’s 400+ page book on The Pencil and loved it. With an engineer’s eye for detail and a curious child’s question of “why?”, Petroski lays out the myriad decisions and unintended consequences of those often invisible objects which reside in our everyday existence.

With “The Constant Gardener” and this book, Le Carre has pulled himself out of his Cold War home and firmly into the present day. His characters are regular people forced to confront the big issues of good and evil which most of us never really have to face. I really like Ted Mundy, but I’ve got the terrible feeling that there’s tragedy coming…

This is my first encounter with Murakami’s strange world, and I’m enjoying it immensely. Right now, I’m thinking that I’ll never be able to look at a woman’s ear the same way again.