The most upbeat message of recent books on health and medicine is contained in "Heart Illness and Intimacy: How Caring Relationships Aid Recovery," by Wayne M. Sotile (Johns Hopkins University Press, hardcover $19.95).

For most heart patients, according to Sotile, a psychologist at Wake Forest University Cardiac Rehabilitation Services, sex is no more dangerous than gardening. He also maintains that fear, anger and guilt can be turned into positive emotions and that coping with heart illness can bring families closer together.