The Book of Two Ways is my new favorite Picoult book.

Yes, it is heavy at times, full of references that can be tough to get through, full of theory and history that makes it feel like you're reading a text book.
But it all ties back together into this beautiful story of life and love. And all the references and theory are fully part of the story that wouldn't make be as beautiful if it weren't for all of those.

The book mainly exists in two parts- Dawn's life with Brian, and Dawn's life on another pathway with Wyatt. The catalyst of these two lives split is an airplane crash. So we spend almost the entirety of the book shuffling between these two time lines, waiting to see how they play out in the end.

Everything in this book plays out- without saying too much, there was a portion of this book that I thought was never going to come up again. But it did. And the way it plays out really punched me in the gut.


I think, like all people, there are certain people or times in our life we look back on, and wonder "What if I had gone left instead of right? What if I had stayed instead of gone?" And this book plays out that premise so beautifully.

If you can get through the heavy textbook reference parts, you will highly enjoy this book.

Wow...until I got to the last page of this book, I was sure that I was going to write a glowing review about a story of two alternative universes, and the very different ways that Dawn's life could have gone.

The two stories are very well told and are both compelling. I went back and forth all through the book about which life I hoped she chose in the end. I loved the information about Dawn's job as a death doula, and being something of a history "freak," I also enjoyed all the Egyptology.

BUT...I have an adverse reaction to any book with an open-ended, make up your own mind sort of "ending." Because of this, I can't give this one any more than three stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Jodi Picoult and Random House Ballantine for this ARC.

All of Jodi Picoult's books are fabulous, and this one is no exception. I loved how informative this book was. I learned a lot about Egyptology, and at the end of the book I couldn't decide if I wanted to be an Egyptologist or a death doula. ( I actually googled death doula certifications.) I absolutely loved Win's character, and would love to have a Win origin story, detailing her journey as an artist and her relationship with Thane to how she met Felix.

I really enjoyed the last half of the book, since the story ramped up considerably. The only thing I didn't like about this story was the ending. We spent so much time with Dawn, Brian and Wyatt that I felt we deserved a more definitive ending. Who does she pick? What happens?

Another winner from the talented Jodi Picoult.

Let me start by saying I'm a longtime & enthusiastic Jodi Picoult fan. This book is definitely different from her others. While her usual gifted voice was still present it was more challenging to hear buried under so many different themes. I wrestled with how to structure my review, and practiced by first sharing the extensive outline of the book with several friends verbally. As other early reviewers have pointed out, clearly the author did extensive research into her subject--unfortunately, at times that research & extensive detail threaten to overshadow the story. Initially I even shelved the book, leaving it since I found it so tough to connect with the actual story. Eventually I made my way back, and I'm glad that I did. The story is beautifully written & crafted and will stay with me as her books do. With great thanks to Random House Publishers & NetGalley for granting me this early reading copy!

This book was a little slow and really to hard to into, but it being Jodi Picoult I kept going. It was worth it! It's not your usual Jodi Picoult book where it pulls you in from start to finish, but still a good book.

What would you do if you could change the course of your life to what could have been? What a path would you choose?
In, The Book of Two Ways, Jodi Picoult sends her readers on a journey through past and present. She asks her characters to make maybe the most difficult decisions of their lives. What questions do we ask ourselves in the early sleepless hours? What do we dream about during sleep. What in our past do we hide from our loved ones and even ourselves? A very intriguing read. Definitely one of the best books of Jodi Picoult.

How do you live your best life so you can have a good death? What happens after you die? How do you want those around you to remember you? What do you want to be remembered for? Before her mother passed Dawn was a budding Egyptologist. After her mother’s death she becomes a death doula and mother. But what would her life be like if she had gone back to Egypt? If her mother hadn’t died? A touching story about life, love, the choices we make and the choices that pass us by. Spectacular imaging of ancient tombs and how they are unearthed. The Book of Two Ways is a wonderful read full of many dimensions

Thank you NetGalley, Jodi Picoult and Ballantine Books for this edition and hearing my honest review. Looking forward to reading more with you
#partner

I was blown away with this novel's complexity, attention to detail, fluid storylines, and realistic characters. I must admit I'm a Picoult lover from way back... but this novel was beyond!
Main character, Dawn, raised by a superstitious Irish mother, searches for life through many facets of death, whether that be in Egypt, as a PhD student sifting through ancient hieroglyphics & the coffins of kings, or in Boston, as a death doula sifting through the lives of her dying clients. Although she appears to be grounded by her daughter and husband, Dawn questions her own mortality as reflected in her current life choices -- especially after catching the scent of roses recently emanating from her husband, Brian, and in the memories being shared by her newest client, Win.

The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult will be a big hit for readers with a strong interest in the ancient civilization of Egypt. For me, the book was too heavy in detail about that aspect. I had to drill down to the story of Dawn Edelstein who was shaken to the very core when she survived a plane crash that made her question if her choices in life had been the right ones.

Was her choice to marry Brian, have a daughter, live in Boston, and become a death doula the right decision? Or should she have stuck with her education to be an archaeologist and work with Wyatt in Egypt to complete her research about The Book of Two Ways, a map of the afterlife?

Within the story are these BIG questions: what does a well-lived life look like, what do we leave behind when we die, do we make choices or do that make us, and who would you be if you had picked another path when you were making life choices?

The book is well researched and well written as one comes to expect with a Jodi Picoult book. Picoult has always been one of my go-to authors. I especially have enjoyed the twists she gives in her conclusions to her books. My favorite book was My Sister’s Keeper. Picoult lives with her family in New Hampshire.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting July 31, 2020. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50265329-the-book-of-two-ways

I’d like to thank Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.

This is the first book I have read by Jodi Picoult. She always comes highly recommended and I appreciate the opportunity given to me by Ballantine Books, the Author and Netgalley to review this ARC.

Let me start with the positive. Jodi Picoult is a poet. Her words are beautiful, mesmerizing and make you fall in love with her story. The relationships Dawn has are real, complicated and pull you in. Her relationship with Meret, her daughter is somewhat typical of most Mother's relationships with their 16yo daughter. There is very little they can do right. I loved seeing how their relationship grew in the book. Her relationships with Brian and Wyatt are both complicated yet delicious. You don't know who to root for and in the end you don't get to decide. but my favorite relationship is with Wyn. I loved every moment we got to spend with Wyn and Dawn. I wish there was more of that.

Dawn is a very complex character. As a reader, I didn't quite understand the choices she made. One being deciding to leave her daughter for six weeks without saying goodbye with no thought to how this might affect Meret, who is struggling. She seems to put Wyatt above everything else, including her job and her family. She made a lot of selfish choices that I couldn't understand.

Now the Elephant in the room: Egyptology. Egyptology was at least 60% of the book. This almost made me put down the book in the first 50 pages. I would understand it as a backdrop to introduce us to Wyatt but the descriptions and detail were just too much for the reader. It felt like a textbook of a subject you really didn't want to take in College but needed to. I would have given this book 5 stars if the Author had focused more on the relationships and Dawn's job as a Death Doula, which is fascinating. I gave it four stars because Jodi Picoult clearly knows her stuff and is a beautiful writer.

This book had a lot of information in the story. The author did a great job imparting some highly intelligent subject matter while keeping you intwinned in the drama of the main character. I feel smarter for having read this book.

This is a book about the choices we make and whether it's possible to revisit an early decision and take a different path to the life we could have lived. Dawn is a happily married death doula with a teenage daughter living in Boston, but when she was 24 she was an Egyptologist, a PhD candidate on a dig. Also part of that group was Wyatt, a fellow student and Dawn's soulmate, the love of her life. A family crisis forces Dawn to leave Egypt suddenly, and her life veers onto a completely different path. 15 years later she's given the opportunity to return to her original passions but is it too late?

The book has a complex plot and it's further complicated by all of the information Picoult throws at the reader. At times the book almost becomes a textbook about hieroglyphics and how to interpret and translate them with detailed explanations that do nothing to aid character development or advance the plot. For the majority of readers who do not share Picoult's passion for egyptology these digressions are boring and confusing. If that weren't enough, Dawn's husband is a physicist and the reader is also treated to discussions of quantum physics complete with equations to solve, and Dawn's profession leads to detailed clinical descriptions of the human body at the end of life.

The threads of the plot braid together in the last third of the book, but the story is lost within the science and I found the ambiguous ending very frustrating.

Not my favorite Jodi Picoult. My biggest issues with the book are also huge spoilers, so sorry for the vagueness but I don’t want to spoil it for others who will enjoy it!

I did get invested in the characters as I usually do, however, I didn’t like some of the decisions Dawn made (especially as it neared the end); one plot thread in particular was completely left hanging and I didn’t understand at all why Dawn didn’t see it through. And the end itself was very open ended and anticlimactic and left the reader wondering how exactly it was going to work out. But honestly my biggest issue was the alternating chapters that had you believing one format for like the whole book and then boom - reveal - not the format you thought it was. Ugh. I wish she’d committed to what she alluded to, as I think it could’ve come out really cool.

Not my favorite book from Jodi. I had to read almost half the book before I couldn't put it down. Even then still not my favorite book from Jodi.

I was so excited to get an ARC of this book because Jodi Picoult is one of my all-time favorite authors. However, this book was pretty disappointing. I felt like I was reading an Egyptian history textbook and not a novel for enjoyment. There were so many words and phrases that I had to google like Djehutyhotep and epigraphy. If you put all of the ancient Egyptian history aside, the overall story was pretty good but unfortunately it was overpowered by all of the history. I think some of the history was definitely needed to give the story some background; but it was definitely overkill. If you are a big fan of Egyptian history, this book may be better suited for you.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It was a unique premise and an incredibly intelligent way of telling the story which is classic Jodi Picoult. However, I did feel like I was in an interesting position of continually turning pages because I couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen for two-thirds of the book until I finally realize that there wasn't much of anything happening. It felt like a story always on the verge of tipping into something incredible, but never quite gave you the payoff. I enjoyed the book and would still recommend, but I think it fell short of what it could have been.

Wow, I'm not sure what hurts more after reading this one, my brain or my heart. This was not the Jodi Picoult novel that I was expecting. There was so much packed into this story, Dawn is revealed to us through two timelines in two relationships; one where she is an Egyptologist and one where she helps dying people find peace. I'll admit, initially I was way more invested in one version of Dawn than the other but as the truth of the story reveals itself everything made sense.

I will say that there is a ton to swallow intellectually in this novel. I now know more about the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, particle physics and death rituals than I could have ever imagined. This is not your light touch rom com where the characters happen to be scientists and you get a slight toe dip into their worlds, this is a deep dive to the Marianas trench of their lives. I enjoyed that immensely but I can imagine for some readers it will be overwhelming.

Also, I feel like ever love story these days has infidelity or potential infidelity as a story line, I'm not sure when that became so normalized and something to swoon over but I suppose I have to get over the fact and stop ranking stories based on my feelings about those story lines. I adored the characters and really hated all the pain they were feeling but it all felt authentic.

Here's another winner from Jodi Picoult, who has the ability to examine a topic from all possible sides. The Book of Two Ways is not to be missed.

This was not your typical Jodi Picoult book. It is clear that Picoult spent countless hours researching as she has done for every novel but sadly this one failed to draw me in and I found myself thinking that I had signed up to take a class on Egypt. I missed Picoult's storyline that she had become known for. I was unable to finish this book.

Wyatt: "I wrapped myself around him, the source of the flame, and set myself on fire."

Brian: "That giddy feeling of falling, I realized, was rivaled by the discovery of a soft place to land."

Dawn Edelstein is a death doula. There's nothing she won't do for a client. Being present for the deaths of so many, she figures she has a good grasp of what constitutes a life well lived. But Dawn is heading towards a crossroads, and this book explores the ripples and waves of her choices in two possibilities.
I am a devout Jodi Picoult fan. She creates real characters and family dynamics better than anyone. In this book, I especially enjoyed learning all about Egypt and ancient customs when we explore things with Wyatt, and quantam mechanics and complicated physics when we are in Boston with Brian. The quotes I included above are taken from Dawn, sharing her intimacy with both men, and I believe they clearly indicate the differences between the two. This book is about a reckoning for Dawn, and although we get to see two possible paths for her life, the ending feels inevitable. The Book of Two Ways is tender and deep, honest and beautiful. Another winner for Jodi Picoult.
4 stars

I received a review copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Thank you to Ballantine Books and Netgalley.