Got book? "The Love Song of Monkey" is a trippy weekend read.

Last summer, while researching primate behavior, I accidentally ordered The Love Song of Monkey, a strange little novel by neuroscientist Michael S.A. Graziano. It sat on my desk until a rainy Saturday and then turned into one of those memorable books that serendipitously drops into your reading life.

Jonathan, a young man dying of AIDS, consults a physicist who's constructed a machine in which terminally ill patients undergo a complete molecular rearrangement and emerge invincible. The process is hideously painful (accounting for its marked lack of popularity), but Jonathan endures it, motivated by love for his wife, Kitty. The results of the procedure are less than hoped for, but the story exceeds expectations.