TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER The Bookworm Sez Advertisement

Remember when people wrote letters?

It went like this: you spent lots of time putting your thought to paper and recreating your day. When you were done, you folded the paper, put it in an envelope with an address and a stamp, tossed it in the mailbox, then waited forever for a reply.

Ah, the anticipation.

In the new book "Match Day" by Brian Eule, three medical students eagerly and nervously anticipate a letter, almost like the old days. Only this letter will alter the course of their lives.

Every year in March, while most of us are hoping for warmer weather, thousands of medical students are sweating. No matter how laid back they pretend to be, not one of them can stop thinking about the culmination of months and months of travel, hard work and best behavior.

On one certain day in March, it's Match Day.

Long before the important day, students visit hospitals around the country, undergoing rounds of interviews and answering questions. At the end of interview season, the students rank the hospitals at which they'd most like to work. Hospital residency directors do the same with students.

You'd almost have to be a math whiz to understand how a computer pairs thousands of students with the hospitals and vice versa. In the end, though, the "how" doesn't matter to the high percentage of medical students who get a letter confirming residency at one of their top choices. This book is about three of them.

Rakhi Barkowski dreamed since she was a little girl of spending her residency at UCSF hospitals. But her husband, Scott, made a lot of sacrifices during her years at med school. When she was accepted for a graduate program at UCLA, Rakhi learned that in a high-power, dual-career marriage, sacrifices go both ways.

Michelle LaFonda always wanted a family almost as much as she wanted to be a doctor, but the road to radiologist meant putting off having children. With the stresses of being a resident, it also meant asking hard questions about personal relationships.

Stephanie Chao had a goal of being a surgeon, but it would take time: years of residency, followed by years of fellowship and long, unpredictable hours. Fortunately, she had an understanding boyfriend.

Television medical dramas make it look so easy.

In this delightful book, author Brian Eule follows three doctors from just before Match Day, through their first year of residency. While this is an inspiring true story, Eule isn't afraid to be truthful: He describes the angst and doubt an intern feels, the almost-unbearable exhaustion, frustration, lack of family time, and the (sometimes) decades of training that a new doctor endures. Still, while this bluntness will make some people glad they went into another line of work, Eule's deftness of story and his happy ending will make others want to run out and study for the MCAT.

Forget about television. The real drama is here, so open this cover. For doctors, doctor wannabes, or anyone who loves a good story, "Match Day" is striking.

"Match Day" by Brian Eule, St. Martin's Press, $24.95, 261 pages, includes notes.