Heavy, densely emotional, soul searching, heart wrenching, spiritual and hopeful are but some of the words I use to describe this book containing complicated medical terminology and eight cases of cancer patients who faced death. Groopman powerfully describes both his spiritual insights and his patient's journey with serious illness.

It took longer than usual for me to read this because I wanted to do justice to each story.

A frequent contributor to The New Yorker, this prolific writer also has a string of credentials that are amazingly incredible and include the Recanati Professor of Immunology at Harvard Medical Center, the head of the experimental medicine program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and he is a cutting edge research specialist regarding aids, cancer and diseases of the blood.

With all those hard-earned roles, you would think the book would be egoistic, pedantic and difficult to understand. But, this isn't the case. He explains medical terminology in a fascinating way and I learned a great deal about the complexities of cancer.

While filled with complicated medical descriptions, it is the heart breaking stories that make this a stellar book written by a truly remarkable man.

These are gut wrenching stories of his journey walked with patients who face cancer, their struggles, pain, desiccation of the body and their experiences of living in hope against the overwhelming odds of survival.

I wholeheartedly agree with Lindapanzo when she said in her review "Due to its subject matter, I thought it'd be a depressing book and yes, I did shed a few tears while reading it. Overall, though, it was more uplifting than I'd expected."

I highly recommend this book and give it five stars --a rating I use sparingly. ( )

Written by a wise and empathetic Harvard doctor, this book discusses the spiritual aspects of life-threatening illness by focusing on 8 patients facing cancer, AIDS, and other serious ailments.

In a few instances, I didn't always understand all the medical lingo, but I was able to get the gist of it. The author is a terrific writer and I enjoyed this book as much as I enjoyed his other book a few years ago, How Doctors Think.

Due to its subject matter, I thought it'd be a depressing book and yes, I did shed a few tears while reading it. Overall, though, it was more uplifting than I'd expected. ( )