IN THE COUNTRY OF THE HEARTS: Journeys in the Art of Medicine <i> by John Stone (Delta: $13).</i>

A cardiologist and a published poet, Stone offers his warm reminiscences and reflections on the mysteries of medicine and human anatomy. Like the father in Thomas Mann’s “The Blood of the Walsungs,” Stone maintains a sense of wonder that keeps everything new and fascinating. He compares medical case histories to short stories, emphasizing that “the good doctor must learn to listen to the real messages in these stories of his patients, to read them, as Robert Frost used to say, ‘with a listening ear.’ ” As he recalls various patients, he describes such medical problems as heart murmurs, aneurysms, angina, blue babies and Marfan’s syndrome, a congenital condition of the connection tissue that produces an elongated physique, spidery hands and weakened heart valves. Stone epitomizes the warmly humane physician that every patient hopes to encounter.