You know how some novels just possess you? Grab you by the hair, the head, the heart, the teeth, the gonads? Well, this epic family saga is one of those. It takes a little while--you need to have a little patience as it introduces the numerous main and supporting characters, the place, and the twine...<a target="_blank" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/150921991">more...</a> (Posted on 2/27/11)

This is a monster book - 530 pages, dense text.... if it wasnt so good, it may have been a slog.
<br/>
<br/>Aspiring writers are encouraged to start a book with something that would grasp a readers attention. How about a nun giving birth to twins in the hospital where she works with the father, the...<a target="_blank" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/150708166">more...</a> (Posted on 2/26/11)

I debated the rating I gave but in the end decided that my simple enjoyment of a well-told tale outweighed my few quibbles. That it is a wonderful tale well-told is beyond debated in my view. My quibble is that it is a bit too well told. Too many of the details are wrapped up in ways that are too ...<a target="_blank" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/149757796">more...</a> (Posted on 2/21/11)

This truly was an amazing book! The characters were basically likable and believable. Covering 30+ years and two continents, it was magnificent. There was a lot of medical info gently included, which interested me as a nurse. The author is a physician and he wrote about what he knew.
<br/>
<br/>E...<a target="_blank" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/96682406">more...</a> (Posted on 2/19/11)

Couldn't help myself - planning on scanning any parts that make me squeamish (has quite a bit of surgery, etc.)<br/>*****************<br/>Synopsis: Conjoined twins are born to a nurse-nun in Ethiopia who dies in childbirth and whose surgeon-father disappears. Chaos ensues :-) I know it sounds lik...<a target="_blank" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/104709018">more...</a> (Posted on 2/14/11)

this took me a second to get in to, but i loved it. the basic premise is: twin brothers temporarily orphaned by their mother's death and father's fleeing the scene...how they survive and thrive in Ethiopia under the care of two unlikely guardians.
<br/>
<br/>what i loved about it was the many re...<a target="_blank" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/133000813">more...</a> (Posted on 2/8/11)

Sometimes, there comes a book into one's hands that is a jewel.
<br/>
<br/>Abraham's Verghese book &quot;Cutting for Stone&quot; is such a book. This book is the story of a family, and two countries and many different lives; it is a painting of an era and many continents, but mostly it is the story...<a target="_blank" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/145893222">more...</a> (Posted on 2/4/11)

This is a beautiful book, although it is slow going. The novel is heavily descriptive and frequently digresses from the main storyline with surgical descriptions and information about Ethiopia's political/social history. I think Verghese might have benefited with some courageous editing to help th...<a target="_blank" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/145501660">more...</a> (Posted on 2/2/11)

After hearing and reading such amazing reviews about this book (&quot;the best novel in years,&quot; &quot;something I could read again and again,&quot; etc), I was definitely disappointed. The story is told by Marion, one twin who was born to a nun who dies in childbirth in an Ethiopian hospital, w...<a target="_blank" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/144434411">more...</a> (Posted on 1/29/11)

I don't think I have ever been as excited to post a review as I have with this book. This book &quot;knocked my socks off&quot; and had me reading way past my bedtime.
<br/>
<br/>The story begins in India around the 1940's, the major portion of this book is centered in Africa (Ethiopia), does som...<a target="_blank" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/144033911">more...</a> (Posted on 1/27/11)