Murakami is Amazing!

Sputnik Sweetheart (book #39)is the fourth Haruki Murakami book I've read this year (or ever, actually.) Murakami's stories have one foot in conventional reality and one in some sort of future world or world where people communicate in unusual ways. His characters are always unusual - but in an effortless way, without any self-consciousness. His books have a somewhat dreamy quality, and actually when I finish one of his books the aura of it stays with me a long time. Sputnik Sweetheart was wonderful.