Doesn’t that sound like a drag of a book? I though so, too. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese was published in 2008, and though many friends raved about it at the time, I passed. The book synopsis often begins with, “Well, the story opens in an Ethiopian operating room in 1954…” and with that, many eyes glaze over. Verghese’s debut novel (he has authored two prior works of non-fiction) is anything but boring. It’s one of those well-written books that sweeps you into another world and causes you to lose sleep. I admit to reading at stoplights during certain segments of this one. I say parts of the novel captivated me more than others because there were stumbling blocks–saggy, overly wordy interludes describing medical procedure and bits of historical information that could have been presented more crisply. However, it was just what the doctor ordered for a gloomy week of reading in February.