I really enjoyed this book and first read it in 1999 when I was having my "quarter life" crisis. After having two babies back to back and mourning my loss of identity, I found myself re-reading the book. The stories still comforted me and were still relevant 6 years later.

The book is written by a sensitive human being who has suffered much. Many insights are helpful.

A rich collection of relatively short essays, with those highlighting Remen's family of origin (including her rabbi grandfather, a very thoughtful, spiritual man, and her parents and siblings who are all MD's of one sort or another), sprinkled among the majority of essays using stories from her patients as inspiration or illustration for her intuitive observations. She does attend medical school (as expected) and begins her medical practice at Stanford in a fairly conventional way. However, her involvement in an extended research project at the Esalen Institute gradually reawakens her more intuitive and philosophical inner strands, and she becomes involved in counseling (rather than medical treatment of) her patients, focusing particularly on those with cancer and other serious conditions. In spite of the rather (to me) cheesy title, Remen is indeed a wise, perceptive and compassionate woman -- reading her book I felt as if she and I were indeed sitting at the kitchen table with a cup tea, having wonderful conversations and fueling my soul.

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