A Dublin Student Doctor by Patrick Taylor

I'm back to reading this "Irish Country" series. I got a few behind.

This one is told mostly in flashback - the "modern" 1960s story (about knock on the noggin for a familiar regular) is mostly a framing device for the reminiscence about Fingal's days in med school and his first romance with the pretty young nursing student Kitty O'Halloran.

I liked that this one shifted less back and forth, and left me longer in the storyline. It also filled in a lot of backstories, not just on the romance with Kitty, but with Fingal's dislike of the doctor in the next town over and also how he decided to become a general practitioner.

And Again by Jessica Chiarella

Four end-life patients participate in a clinical trial to transplant part of their brain and all their memories into new, cloned, biologically cleansed versions of their own body.

The point to be made is this: how much of our personality/humanity is in our head and how much is body-centric? Are habits part of your brain or in your muscles? Is love in your limbic system or in your heart?

This was a unique audiobook that utilized four narrators - one for each character. The book is told chronologically, but switches from person to person to give multiple perspectives. Each character struggles with the idea of "self" in their new bodies, and they work through some of their concerns in group-therapy sessions. But each also holds secrets - thoughts or actions they can't even share with these few people who might understand.

It's a fantastic story, mostly about internal struggles of self - the author mercifully leaves the science part rather vague and mostly out of the action. My favorite character is the young painter who can no longer make magic with her hands; when you've defined yourself by a talent, who are you when that's gone? I also enjoyed the way each character weighs out the despoiling of their new body: sex, alcohol, cigarettes, food, tattoos, scars and more.

God is in the Pancakes by Robin Epstein

Smart-ass 15-year old candy striper Grace has met her match with smart-ass nursing home resident Mr. Sands. She probably should have been fired after she busted him out and they went to a movie. But when he asks Grace to help him kill himself rather than be further ravaged by Lou Gehrig's disease, she's got a big choice to make.

Without being heavy-handed, this is a great book that deals with belief, morality, and ethics. I think it would be a great book for a family read or a teen book discussion - there's a lot to ponder. Even Grace acknowledges she's not sure what she would do, looking back or in the future.