A re-reading only 10 months after I first encountered this book was just as rewarding and even more informative.  Susan and I had decided to make a gift of the book to all 160 internal medicine residents at the BIDMC, and we were invited to a teaching conference on health care proxies.   Since I had been invited to make some remarks, I re-read the book and came away even more impressed that this is a book to be read by families to aid in their planning for end-of-life care scenarios.  Gawande provides practical and wise advice to physicians on how to engage their patients and families in the conversations and decisions that will enable the elderly and the terminally ill to ‘finish their story’ in a way that is dignified and compatible with the arc of their life story.  Beautifully written and very wise, this is a book to be read and re-read.