Love Jodie Picoults’ books, always so well written so involving.This novel that introduces us to Eygitian culture and so much more.No spoilers just highly recommend #netgalley#randomhouse

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! No spoilers. Beyond amazing I enjoyed this book so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to. Truly Amazing and appreciated the whole story. This is going to be a must read for many many readers. Maybe even a book club pick.

Dawn’s life in Boston with her husband Brian and daughter Meret is good. But years ago, before her mother’s death, she had another life, a different love, both work wise and personally. One she cannot forget . After 15 years, she returns to Egypt and Wyatt Armstrong, wondering what her life would have been like had she stayed and worked on her Book of Two Ways and continued her research and life with Wyatt. She quickly falls back into the Egypt part of her. After surviving an airplane crash returning to Boston, she knows she has to make a decision, being totally full-filled and challenged and with Wyatt, or staying in her present life as a doula, and being comfortable with her family.
Anyone who is fascinated by Egyptology will enjoy this book, Ms. Picoult has done her research.

Dawn survives a crash landing of the airplane she's on, and her life is split in two from then on. At home is her loving husband Brian and their teenaged daughter, and in Egypt is Wyatt Armstrong, who still has Dawn's heart after fifteen years. The novel takes place in parallel times in the main character's life, and she must choose between the two. Will Dawn continue on to Boston and go home to her family or fly to Egypt to reconnect with Wyatt?

I have voluntarily read and reviewed a copy of this title given to me via NetGalley. This book was just amazing. I just lost myself in this story and didn’t want it to end. It was really well written and just drew in you into these characters lives. I look forward to seeing what’s next from this author.

I started this book several times but couldn’t get past the elongated Egyptian history lesson. Honestly, that’s not why I read a novel. No matter how many times I dug into this, I couldn’t get past the endless details. I was very disappointed since I generally love Picoult’s books.

Thank you Netgalley for for this ARC

Egyptian lore has a story where the weight of one's soul is weighed against the feather of truth as one of the trials that could grant a person passage to the afterlife. Dawn, a former doctoral candidate in Egyptian studies, was forced home from a dig season in Egypt to deal with the death of her mother. With a young brother in need of a guardian, she changes the course of her life. From falling in love with a new man and raising a child with him to becoming a social worker who operates as a death doula, fifteen years pass swiftly. But a new client forces Dawn to look back at her life and we follow Dawn through past and present as she struggles to assess what's truly in her heart of hearts.
Death, man! What a heavy topic to read about when watching pandemic numbers rise! But the setting fascinates, the passion sizzles, and the questions peek out around corners like ghosts in a haunted house.

I always looked forward to a newly released Jodi Picoult book. I know on page one I will often get transported from my living room directly into the story and I can get lost in my reading for a few hours. I know I will always learn something new. I know there usually is a touch of a romantic story. I debated with this book between 3 and 4 stars as it's Jodi Picoult:) I love her writing for the exact reason I expressed; you can just get lost in the story. However I didn't find the ancient Egyptian history that interesting (not sure of the mass appeal on the topic) and instead of a touch of romance this one was filled with it. I don't think there has been a Jodi Picoult book without a taboo subject and this book is no exception; the language around death and letting go were both beautiful and educational.

I was so excited when NetGalley allowed me early access to this Jodi Picoult (one of my favorite authors) book. And it pains me to say that it was a big disappointment.

There is way too much information regarding Egyptology, hieroglyphics, archeology, burial chambers and more. I think Ms. Picoult had one eye in a college textbook as she wrote The Book of Two Ways.

The characters are painstakingly dreary. Even Wyatt as arrogant as he is, is dreary, and Dawn spends much of the book lamenting the road not taken. The story itself is flat, and it was hard to stay interested. I did, however, find the concept of death doula very intriguing.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

When Dawn Edelstein's plane goes down, what flashes through her mind isn't her husband and daughter; it is Wyatt, a man she left behind in Egypt 15 years ago when she had to quit their Egyptology graduate program at Yale. She has a good life now with her husband Brian, her daughter, and her work as a death doula. However, surviving the plane crash makes her wonder what she missed out on by having to walk away from Egypt and Wyatt. When the airline offers transportation to the survivors to go wherever they want, Dawn has to choose between going home to her current life and family or seeing what might have been in Egypt. The story jumps back and forth between the "Land" timeline in Egypt and the "Water" timeline in Boston.

Jodi Picoult is one of my favorite authors, but this book didn't capture me the way her books usually do. That is not to say that it isn't a good book, because it definitely is. I just had trouble connecting to Dawn. Usually in Picoult's books,we have a handful of narrators providing different angles from the story. I can see why that wouldn't have worked for this story, but I did miss seeing the different angles. I did think it was neat that Picoult knew she needed to write a story about Egyptology after learning about it while her son was majoring in it.

Jodi Picoult is one of my very favorite authors and this book does not disappoint. Dawn Edelstein is on a plane home when there is an emergency crash landing. As the plane hurtles toward earth, Dawn does not think about her husband of fifteen years, or her teenage daughter. Rather, she thinks of the life she left behind years before, and her first love, Wyatt, whom she also left behind. Dawn begins to question her life choices, and wonder how she ended up with such a different life than she imagined. She has spent her whole life taking care of others, but when is it time for what SHE wants? The book grapples with the question of what makes us who we are. How much control do we have over our own lives? Is it ever too late to back and fulfill our lost dreams? I loved how nuanced the characters are - good people who are flawed and struggle with their own imperfection.

Another winner from Jodi Piccoult! The Book of Two Ways keeps you reading to find out what will happen next. I liked the way the story was set up, switching between stories. Dawn, is an Egyptologist working as a grad student in Egypt. She falls in love with Wyatt, but has to leave abruptly when her mom calls to say she is dying. After leaving, Dawn doesn't return to Egypt for 15 years. The book then tells the story of Dawn reuniting with Wyatt, while alternating with chapters of her life with her husband Brian and daughter Meret. In the end Dawn must choose between the two men.

OH MAN, I really wanted to like this more than I did. The story of Dawn who has studied Egyptology and spent a good amount of time at dig sites in Egypt as a grad student. Then life happens and she must end her studies and head for home.

This story is told in different timelines and well, it is quite confusing at times. I was never sure if we were in a specific time period or if Dawn was reminiscing or if I had fallen asleep and was dreaming. The time warps just did not work for me.

When we are in Egypt at the dig site, the book reads like a text book. Lots of information overload and lots of Egyptian names and hieroglyphs that are hard to understand and make sense.

I could go on, but I really didn't want this review to be negative, because I did enjoy the basic story. I just did not particularly enjoy the delivery of this one.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Ballentine books for this advanced readers copy. This book is due to release in September 2020.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House - Ballentine for this ARC.

Where do I even start?! Jodi Picoult has long been a favorite author of mine. She has always written with such heart & emotion that I find myself sobbing while reading most of her works. Sometimes happy tears, but usually tears from the sadness that her characters frequently exude. Each one has a heart breaking story that comes to light with such detail, that you find yourself feeling everything right along with them.

This story is no different. Without giving away spoilers, bc I hate that, It is essentially two books within one. A story so magically crafted that you find yourself wondering if they are alternate universes or one in the same. In true Jodi style, the topic at hand, Egyptology, has been so well researched that you think that the author herself lived this life with the vast knowledge that appears in each chapter. How she is able to create such stunning stories is beyond me.

Do yourself a favor and preorder this book. You won’t be disappointed.

I loved this book. It's a great book to read during this stressful time - it will allow you to relax and enjoy and laugh and love. It will not add to your stress or anxiety level. The story is fantastic - and it shows that when push comes to shove, priorities will be obvious and will be acted on. You will cheer for the heroine! Not only was this a book that left me feeling good about me and about life, I learned a lot. I learned about death doulas - who I didn't even know existed, but now I know I want one when my time comes. I learned so much about Egyptology - which is totally fascinating. These did not distract from the book but rather added so much to it.

Take some time for you. Give yourself a gift. Get this book and devour it. Enjoy it. Escape our crazy world for a few hours.

Jodi Picoult has done it again. Nothing well ever top her Leaving Time for me, but this one gets pretty close, because deep inside of me is a 4th Grader obsessed with Ancient Egypt longing to be free. The Book of Two Ways is definitely more women's fiction-y than some of her other books, because of its emphasis on alternate timelines and relationships--but it's packed like a textbook of information and I cried...multiple times.

Dawn is a death doula, someone who helps people transition to death, make final plans, grant final wishes, etc. At the beginning of the book, Dawn survives a plane crash and enters her own "book of two ways"--on one path, she goes back to Boston, to her husband and daughter and the marital tensions she was running away from. On another, she goes back to Egypt, where she worked as a graduate student studying ancient Egypt and falling for a man she hasn't seen since she left to take care of her dying mother fifteen years ago.  As we alternate between "land" and "water", Dawn re-finds her love in a new tomb in Egypt and meets a new client, Win, who changes what she wants with her own life and getting her own answers. Of course, being a Jodi Picoult novel, there's a twist towards the end, and the timelines get more crossed than you might imagine. 

This book is SO heavy on information, but I weirdly loved it. Picoult DOES HER RESEARCH folks, and this book is one of the best examples of that so far. There's Ancient Egypt, death meditations, hieroglyphics, alternative universe physics, plane crashes, brain surgery, and the like. I never thought I was the kind of person who cried about death--I feel like I have a healthy relationship with it and it doesn't effect me that much--but wow, I cried a few times during this book. There is a memory of a dog death, and that made me curl up with my cat and sob into her fur for awhile, which I'm sure she appreciated. There's romance and drama and Ancient Egyptian tombs and some great lines about what it means to fall in love and love someone for a long time. I found myself highlighting a lot! Dawn isn't an inherently likeable character, which I love, but you are enraptured by her story, her relationships, and her interests. I loved the raw honesty of her relationship with her daughter Meret, and I know romance lovers are going to LOVE Wyatt Armstrong. 

There's so much this book has to offer and I can't wait for more people to read it! I was so excited when I heard Picoult say she was writing a book about Ancient Egypt, and this book delivers!

This book was brilliant. Brilliant in a way that it should also come with a warning telling you that you will have to go into the depths of your brain to understand some of it. Quantum physics. Egyptology. Jodi Picoult did some major research to publish this brilliant book, so props to her! I have to admit I was a little lost at the beginning of the book because the extent of knowledge on the two subjects were so prominent and vast and spread far beyond my comprehension. However, once I started to understand it and we got to know the characters more, I was hooked! She had me falling in love and empathizing with characters that weren't even the main ones. You know a good book when it makes you cry and this one got me in my feels! The few curveballs towards the end were also so brilliant and I couldn't have imagined the story ending any other way.
This is a 4.5 star only because the beginning had me wondering if I was going to be able to get into the rest of the book if I didn't quite understand the quantum physics (mostly) and Egyptology.

Thank you to Netgalley, Random House Publishing, and Jodi Picoult for the advanced copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.

Who said women’s fiction is light and fluffy? Certainly not anyone who has read Jodi Picoult’s latest release, The Book of Two Ways. There is an actual ancient Egyptian coffin text from whence the title of Picoult’s novel. Dawn, the protagonist, was something of an expert in the artifact while in Yale graduate school studying Egyptology. The book depicted both a water route and a land route from this world to the afterlife. The theme of “two ways” echoes throughout the novel.

We all muse about the “path not taken” when -- at pivotal moments in life -- we choose one option over another. What if we had decided differently? In this case, Dawn wonders what might have happened if she’d married her grad school crush, Wyatt, a sort of Indiana Jones; instead of her steady physicist husband, Brian? What if she had stayed in the field of Egyptology instead of becoming a “death doula,” assisting clients as they prepare for the ultimate transition? The theme is repeated in Brian’s world of quantum mechanics where particles rotate two ways at once. The narrative shifts between Egypt with Wyatt’s world of archeological digs and Boston with marriage to Brian and her doula practice.

Along the way, the reader receives a generous helping of hieroglyphics (how will this be captured on audiobook?!), quantum mechanics (over my head) and the death doula industry (fascinating). The author definitely put many hours of research into this story; however, at times, the level of detail slows down the pacing.

I have read all of Picoult’s books, and I have to say that this one is not among my favorites. Nevertheless, there is much here for book clubs to discuss. The ending will definitely engender sharp differences of opinion among readers. I was left feeling unsatisfied, but others will love it. This book is best not read in solitude; readers will want to talk about it afterward.

I normally love a Jodi Picoult book but I just couldn't with this one. I was lost in the Egypt scenario and the detail that ensued. Some chapters had me hopeful and then I was thrown into another chapter that read like the encyclopedia. It just wasn't for me, I honestly struggled to finish this book. I'll definitely look forward to Jodi Picoult's next read as I'm usually her biggest fan.

Dawn, a death doula, finds herself with a near death experience that makes her realize that it’s not her life that flashes before her eyes, but one single person that causes her to question every decision she’s made in the last 15 years. As her story unfolds to follow “The Book of Two Ways,” she is both simultaneously in Boston and Egypt, fixing her marriage and uncovering her past. As the story seats back and forth, Dawn’s journey is plagued by never ending questions of her past and future decisions. While heavy on the Egyptian history, the story of Dawn and her own personal journey is one that will year at your heart and make you question your decisions.