As a long term fan of Jodi Picoult, I was thrilled to get the opportunity to read her latest novel prior to publication. However, this one left me with mixed thoughts. While I liked the two opposing stories and the exploration of how one can choose multiple paths in life and often wonder what if they made a different choice, I was overwhelmed by the ancient Egyptian backstory and folklore. At times it seemed like I was almost reading a nonfiction text about the subject matter. It is very clear that Picoult has done her research and it does tie into the whole message of the novel, but I found myself wanting to skip the facts and get to the actual story. I appreciated the twist at the end but unsure of how I feel about how we were left not getting all of the answers. I will continue to read Picoult in the future, this just happened to not be one of my favorites.

Jodi Picoult is a star at grabbing your attention early on in her books. This is the case with The Book of Two Ways. We’re immediately drawn into an interesting story of the paths we take in life and the ones we didn’t ... and the big question of if we would do something different if we had a second chance.

The main character, Dawn, had a lifelong fascination with all things Eqyptian and while in graduate school, meets Wyatt, a British man who shares her interest, but in a haughty and competitive way. Their initial meeting was frosty and that continues for some time, through school and field trips to Egypt. Life intervenes for Dawn and the path she takes is quite different than she planned, until she has an opportunity to take a second look.

You always go into reading Ms. Picoult’s books expecting a tremendous amount of detail and she is perhaps one of the leading fiction authors in conducting thorough research. Sometimes it’s subjects you’re interested in and other times, it’s not. In this book, she immerses the reader into Egypt (history, culture, rituals and modern day life) and physics. I’m not really interested in either subject, but found myself drawn into the details of Egyptian history and culture (physics...not so much).

At its heart, this is another wonderful book by Ms. Picoult about life, love, family and choices and is well worth reading. Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the opportunity to read The Book of Two Ways in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Ballantine Books , Netgalley and Jodi Picoult for the opportunity to read this arc edition in exchange for an honest review.

In general I tend to remember the endings of books and how the book left me feeling. Quickly I forget how slowly the story developed or sometimes even how it started... when it's a really good book. I'm a little torn about this book. I find Ms. Picoult tends to deliver most of her books in that fashion, drawing you in and making you feel like part of the story. That wow moment that grabs you and keeps your interest to the end. With this book I had to look back on my thoughts and consider more than just that one ah ha moment.
This book travels back and forth from Boston to Egypt with a tenuous love triangle including a child. It's messy and complicated and painful. I've concluded that I liked this book ... was it my favorite book by Jodi Picoult? No, but I did enjoy it enough to give it 4 stars. Initially, I felt like she was trying too hard with her Egyptian research, putting in too many facts about Egypt and it's history, loosely tying it to the main character's current story of being a Death Doula, which was very interesting by itself.
On a side note, the conversations between our MC, Dawn and her patients are like beautiful lyrics in a song. I imagine myself in those situations and I could never respond in such perfect language. It's simply exquisite! Writing about the timing in conversations and responses are impressive, like poety. But I digress... This is basically a love story started in the past and a current relationship hanging by a thread. Our main character us then forced to choose between them, causing pain to someone either way. It is well thought out, developed, researched but I didn't Love it, it fell a little flat in the end.
The strengths of this book are Picoult's writing and insight into relationships. Weakness would be the excessive details about Egyptian history. I could see her feeling the need to develop such detail , but I felt like I was reading two books, not a book about two ways.
I recommend this book for fans of Contemporary Fiction, Chick Lit, Romance and Historical Fiction.

I was caught up in this narrative. First of all, the research was amazing and I learned so much. But as the author delves into an examination of choices we make and what could have been was fascinating. The surprise ending was spot-on. What choice would you make?

Jodi P has Hit this one out of the park with this one. The long standing but star crossed relationship between the two main characters is well done. However, With a surprise ending.
If you enjoy history, the secondary story of the people and customs of ancient Egypt of will be extremely interesting.. The story line is well thought out and paced.
I give it 5 stars.
Well done!!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

what if you could go back to a life you loved and pick up where you left off..what would you do go back to your beloved family or finish what you started in the past? Jody Picoult is wonderful.

I have always enjoyed Jodi Picoult’s writing and this book proves no different. I found the idea of the book fascinating but did get a bit mired down in the more technical Egyptology sections. As always, she gets to the heart of human relationships and the complexities that lie within. Thank you for allowing me to read this advanced copy.

WOW! This novel is about DEATH... and believe me that’s an understatement! I was never a fan of Jodi Picoult until her book Small Great Things. That raised my esteem for her craft and subject matter. Although she has written twenty four books on various themes, this one resonated with me more than any of the others. I loved it. I was looking forward to reading this galley of her newest. It begins with a clash of cymbals or should I say a crash.. airplane that is. From there it hurls forward with urgency as the main character Dawn, a death doula, flies off to Egypt. Death doula? I guess you were as in the dark as I was when I came upon this job description. A death doula aids something who is dying like a doula aids a birthing mother. The research Picoult must have accomplished for this novel was prodigious. The explanations of the Egyptians and their death practices and how the hieroglyphics are deciphered had my head spinning. In addition, the physics theories expounded are very difficult to follow. The novel alternates with the present digs in Egyptian tombs and the prior one thirteen years ago. Of course there is sex and romance and the relationships are complicated.. more like a romance novel. Perhaps because we are suffering a pandemic and death is in the news twenty four seven, I found the subject matter very depressing. The culture of the ancient Egyptians focused on the afterlife but their death preparations are so detailed by Picoult that they become overwhelming. The concurrent plot of ministering to dying patients by Dawn is hard to witness. I recognize the brilliance of the author’s premise and her literary expertise, but I had to put the novel down several times to avoid the difficult themes. In addition, the romance highlights marriage stresses and adds yet another storyline. Did I like it? Yes.. could I recommend it? Not sure at all.. many of my friends would eschew the book because it is very dense and intellectually challenging. Sadly, that is a usual recommendation for me. I love intellectually challenging novels. It is anything but dull, but Picoult could have done with the maxim “ less is more”. This one will be challenging book to movie adaptation... very noir.

I am a huge Jodi Picoult fan. Have read 15 of her books and rated most of them 4 or 5 stars...but not this time. I force myself through one-third of the book before giving up. The beginning was great, but the rest was slow, confusing and dominated by extraneous details rather than the core story. Felt like this one came from a ghostwriter (and not a very good one) rather than the author, herself. The best part of this experience was giving up and not forcing myself to read to the end.

OMGooodness!!! I have read a good handful of Jodi Picoult's books, but hands down, this has to be my most favorite. In all aspects, such a wonderful story... And learning so much about the Egyptians and their culture and such!!! And then the characters and their lives intertwining!!! And I never heard of a "death doula", but I want to know more now more than ever!!! This story will hauntingly stay in my memory for a long time!!!

I really enjoyed this story of a woman looking back at what might have been, haven't we all been there? I enjoyed the relationship between all these characters and the writing was magnificent as always. Dawn miraculously survives a serious plane crash, and in the aftermath thinks back to the life she led before her mother's sickness called her away from an archeology site in Egypt where she worked with Wyatt, her first love. Dawn is now married to Brian, and they have a teenage daughter, Merit, who has her own series of angst, and Dawn is also a death doula, caring for those who have not got long to live. Dawn finds out about her husband's close friendship with a female at the college where he teaches, and decides to run off to Egypt to see what her life might have been had she stayed. I certainly learned a lot about ancient Egypt, at times more than I really needed to know, but I skimmed through that to enjoy the real heart of the story.

Typically, I completely enjoy Jodi Picoult's books but this one fell short for me. The research was spot on. You can tell she spent a lot of time on this, but it wasn't a subject that interested me. I felt the story was so bogged down by details, that it took away from the actual plot of the book.

Not up to par with Ms. Picoult’s other books. Too much Egyptology and not enough storyline to draw in the reader.

I am so confused by The book of Two Ways.
I love Jodi Picoult, but I hated this story and couldn't get very far into it.
I am still shocked.

Dawn is on a plane and survives it crashing. In what could have been her last thought she doesn't think of her husband, Brian, and daughter, Meret, but of her first love Wyatt. When the airline offers her a ticket to go anywhere she needs to go she flies to Egypt instead of going home. Fifteen years ago she was a grad student in Egyptology working with Wyatt when they fell in love. When her mother calls to say she is dying of cancer she leaves Wyatt abruptly to take care of her mother and her younger brother and never returns.

I had problems with the time lines. There were flashbacks of her early time with Wyatt and then the story of them coming back together but was it after the plane crash or did she go back at a different time? Maybe she didn't go back at all and it was her imagination. Did she really just walk out on her family after the crash to go back to Wyatt? Sometimes when the story was about her and Wyatt it was hard to tell if it was in the before or after.

Wyatt and Brian were so different. She has to decide does she go with Wyatt and become an Egyptologist like she was meant to be and make exciting discoveries or does she stay with the man who is comfortable and has loved her and built a life with her for 15 years. In reading I felt like the relationship with Brian was forced. Brian loves me and we have a daughter so I must love him and appreciate him because he takes care of me. But even knowing that Wyatt is supposed to be the love of her life I just didn't feel this all consuming connection between them. Why was it so easy for her to leave him 15 years ago and then never stay in touch?

The most interesting part of the book for me was her job as a death doula and how she helped people with their end of life care. She identifies with her client, Win, because they share a birthday and have a similar background in that Win also left her great love and found a comfortable life.

There could have been a lot less explanations about Egyptian gods and hieroglyphics and Brian's talk of physics and a multiverse.

All in all though I did like the book. The description of Egypt and the camaraderie with the others working at the dig made me wish this was something I could see. The struggles she had with her daughter were heartbreaking. Trying to do and say the right things to build up Meret's confidence and never feeling like you hit the mark, wanting so much to be able to fix things for your child.

The end just ended and left a lot of questions unanswered. I think with this author the premise of her stories are if you are faced with two impossible choices which way do you go. In the end I was left feeling the same.

Having not read a Jodi Picoult book in a while, I was excited by the premise and this new book, as most people have often wondered about the road not taken in life.

I liked how the chapters went between Dawn's time in Egypt and her life in Boston. I did feel like the book really dragged and just had too much history and information. I wanted to finish the story, but I was scanning pages to get past some of it.
The two plane crashes with altered endings was a bit over my head as well.
This book just missed the mark for me, sadly.

Jodi Picoult’s newest book was really different from anything that I have read by her before. Instead of being a fiction book with a little bit of background history if needed, this one was more like a study of Egyptology with a story as the background. I was mired deeply into all of the facts about tombs, long names of Egyptian rulers and how to read hieroglyphics. And that wasn’t in a good way! Sometimes, I felt lost in the tombs of ancient Egypt and was ready for the story to move along. The plot was about Dawn, a death doula, and her relationship with her husband Brian and her former lover Wyatt. Most of the plot was entertaining, but again, the endless repetitive details! And the subconscious of Dawn when a plane crashes was also hard to follow what was happening. If you are a fan of Picoult, you may enjoy this book, but it wasn’t my favorite by a long shot. It seemed to be promoting her son’s interest in Egyptology instead of her readers’ interest in her usually fascinating stories. I did enjoy reading about Dawn’s occupation and how she helped people slip from life into death in the most comfortable way possible. This book is not exactly historical fiction, but it has a lot of history in it so I’m not sure how to classify it.
Disclaimer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”

4.5 Stars

I have yet to pick up my jaw off the floor having only just finished this book moments ago. To say that ENDING punched me in the gut is an understatement. I am a long time JP fan and used to having my heart ripped out of my chest and shredded into a million pieces while reading her brilliant novels and The Book of Two Ways is no exception. What a beautiful, heartbreaking, luminous love story. This is one I will be talking about for awhile.

Possibly my favorite element of any JP novel is the depth of her characters that exist on her pages. The characters here are magnificently far from perfect, making them relatable and compelling. Also magnificent in this book is the breadth of knowledge in both Egyptology and quantum physics (read the book to find out how the two are related here!). Yes, at times it reads like a history or science lesson which is mainly why I rated it 4.5 instead of 5 stars (at times the knowledge can feel like an information dump). However, I have come to have a vast appreciation for how deeply JP dives into her subject matter, becoming just shy of an expert herself, to deliver a whopper of a novel. I have the utmost respect for that kind of commitment and it shines through The Book of Two Ways in multiple facets.

The characters are fantastic and deeply flawed, the history is rich and seductive, the science is thought provoking and the ending is so perfect it’s infuriating. Highly recommend!!!

This was a totally frustrating book for me. Way too much detail about Egyptology, hieroglyphics, mummies, et.al. Not to mention several pages of detailed discussions about quantum physics. Holy Moly! There were several different time lines which made the reading even more difficult. My biggest headache involved two seemingly different end results of the same plane crash. It was as though the author lost track of the story, but I’m sure that’s not the case. Was she trying to portray the idea that different life decisions can alter your course one way or another; e.g. the book of two ways? I’m not sure, but everything was admittedly over my head.

I did enjoy the concept of a death doula ... one who is available to meet a dying person’s every need or whim. Or, even to just be there to talk and spend time. Dawn’s conversations with dying Win were my favorite parts of the book. And Brian, Dawn’s husband, was a saint she didn’t deserve.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review.

The Book of Two Ways was everything I have come to expect from Jodi Picoult. It was well researched and full of information, while still being an engaging story, I loved the concept of the death doula and loved the parallel timelines. While the Egyptology could be a little confusing for me at times, I loved the book as a whole.