The Gifts of the Body the patients and the caregiver. The book contains ten short stories, the titles of each being associated with "gifts" which are various functions of the body, both physical and emotional: sweat, wholeness, tears, skin, hunger, mobility, death, speech, sight, hope, and mourning. The caregiver experiences each "gift", as he/she deals with patients who have AIDS, showing the different shared relationships in each case. Each patient is a distinct case, differing in terms of age, financial situation, attitude toward the illness etc., showing the reader that this disease affects all types of people. The book is written in the "no-frills style"
Frank Ritter (professor) Psychology from the Carnegie-Mellon University. Ritter has received study fellowships from the United States Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the European Science Foundation's program on Learning in Humans and Machines. Ritter directs The Applied Cognitive Science Lab at Penn State University. He studies cognitive modelling, cognitive architectures, human computer interaction, and learning. His research has been funded by the US Office of Navy Research, the United States Air Force Office of Scientific Research, DARPA, the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (U.K.), and the U.K. Joint Council Initiative on Cognitive Science and Human Computer Interaction, as well as corporations