Once again, Jodi knocks it out of the ballpark! I was VERY confused at the beginning, and thought "I'm finally going to find a Picoult book I can't get into......." but nevertheless she persisted........ and YES!!! Man when this starts to come together, it REALLY comes together!! Another knockout by Jodi, and a bestseller without needed the name! She's amazing!

While I have read and enjoyed most of Picoult’s work, I have to say, I struggled to finish this book.

From the very start, I felt the story was bogged down with too many minute details about Egypt and hieroglyphs, etc. While I understand that the purpose was to give credibility to the characters’ backgrounds, I found myself skipping through paragraphs at a time to get back to the story.

The protagonist was very unlikeable from the start, but once the twist happens, I really found myself loathing her. The choices she made were unrealistic and selfish. The ending felt both rushed and unfinished at the same time.

I am a huge fan of Jodi picoult and have read every book she’s written. I was excited to read an ARC of The Book of Two Ways. Jodi Picoult always does a great job of tackling a heavy issue and that’s exactly what happened in this book. I struggled a bit when she goes in to detail with Egyptian history and found myself skimming over parts. It’s a good book, just not one of my favorites.

I am a HUGE fan of Jodi Picoult, but this book really missed the mark for me! I loved her last book and I am very interested in Egyptology. However, this book just did not captivate me like her last book. I like the typical format of her books where a big event happens and then we travel back in time to see what led to that event. However, this book did not follow that format and I found it lacking.

It’s always a pleasure to read a new Jodi Piccoult as she never writes the same book twice, and I enjoyed all the Egyptology research and the story of what happens to the road not taken, and what f scenario.

The characters are fully-rendered as always and the pages fly, it’s another winner.

This is not my personal favorite book. A great solid book. It has, as always an amazing twist. I was up well past 3am.

The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult Reviewed June 15, 2020
I am a BIG ~ BIG : Jodi Picoult fan! This is novel 22 for me. I have been looking forward this is her most recent novel. I love this author!! Although the last book I read was a bit too controversial for my reading pleasure. I know Ms. Picoult is an awesome writer and loves to address controversial issues. She does do her research!

The description got my attention….described as a bit of sliding doors, second chance, and hmmm yes archeology & Egyptology. I have enjoyed other fictional stories with sliding doors.so thought I would enjoy this story.
There is a real book of two ways but doesn’t state two ways but black and blue… thus the chapters listed as Earth and Water …
The Book of Two Ways is the first known map of the afterlife. It shows two roads, a land route ~ black, and
water route ~blue; they are separated by a lake of fire. Both ways wind up in the same place.
Ms. Picoult is known to do her research. On her web site (link included) she shows pictures of her trip to Egypt.
https://www.jodipicoult.com/
Her acknowledgements offer a lot of information into her research which I totally enjoyed reading especially what is fiction and what is actual. Her Bibliography is pages long!!!
I am sure some Jodi fans will love this novel especially if one likes hieroglyphics and Egyptology.
However many of us long time readers who have enjoyed her earlier novels are finding find this and the last novel has taken a different direction. We know she likes to presents us with complicated intense topics. However, this one is a bit too much on Egypt and not enough on the characters.

Want to thank NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine Books for this early release granted to me in exchange for an honest professional review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Publishing Release Date scheduled for September 22, 2020

A hidden meaning within a hidden meaning within a hidden meaning. The title of the book "The Book of Two Ways" is also a hidden meaning. Jodi Picoult delves deep into history while keeping her readers engaged in the present. She always educates her readers in an entertaining and heartfelt matter and this book is no exception.

"My calendar is full of dead people," begins Jodi Picoult's impeccable new novel.

The Book of Two Ways is actually a map of directions to help the ancient Egyptian dead find their way to the home of Osiris in the afterlife, where they will feast forever. Dawn is a Yale doctoral student in Egyptology in 2005, already known for a paper on the Book of Two Ways when she joins a dig that will lead to one of her Ways. She is also a death doula, a mother, married to a physicist., her other Way.

Picoult structures the novel to maximize tension and risk in such a way that I had to put the book down even as I longed to keep going. It is so deep and rich, so skilled and masterful that I can't recommend it enough. "The Book of Two Ways" is tough, painful, and exhilarating. It's the best book I've read this year.

Many, many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for permission to read this title.

~~Candace Siegle, Greedy Reader

I genuinely loved this book! As someone who grew up in love with Egypt and learning about the history, this book was perfect for me.
Admittedly the beginning of the book was very information heavy with Egypt and Quantum Physics, and death. This is a book you really need to devote time and focus to so you don't miss anything important. It might not be for everyone, but for those it is, they will love it.
Dawn is a death doula with a husband and 14 year old daughter. She grew up with plans to be an Egyptologist, but those plans came to and end when her mother goes into hospice and dies. She stays to care for her younger brother and ends up pregnant and married. She doesn't think of her life before often, but when she does she always wonders what her life would have been.
The way the story was written, broken into Dawn's 'book of two ways' after a plane crash and what different lives she ends up with. In one life she goes to Egypt to find herself, and to answer questions she didn't know she had. In her other life she goes back home, to her husband and a recently strained marriage, and a daughter who seems to not be able to find happiness in herself.
I loved the uniqueness of this story and all the facts I learned while reading it. The ending was not what I was expecting at all! I enjoyed that it was more than a blurb and done, it felt like it was actually addressing that decisions are not that easy and it is hard to know what choice is the right choice.
Thank you Netgalley, Random House Publishing, and Jodi Picoult for an advanced reader edition of this wonderful book for an honest review.

Just as a heads up, there are some spots that come off feeling more like academic reading instead of pleasure reading. The nerd in me enjoyed the Egyptian stories, etc. and I understood how that fit with Dawn's love of Egypt, Wyatt, and that part of her life. However, I would reach sections about some physics concept and definitely struggled to get through it as my brain has a hard time understanding these theoretical cases.

I get WHY Jodi Picoult ended the book the way she did, but I still feel somewhat dissatisfied. I thought I saw this book taking a certain Picoult-like twist after a big reveal but I was (pleasantly) surprised that it did not go down the path I was expecting.

Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Net Galley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. I’m not going to lie, I struggled a bit initially. While I learned a lot about Egyptology and even Physics, sometimes the material was just a lot to process. That being said, the author did an amazing amount of research in writing this story.
I liked all of the characters. I thought that they were fleshed out well and had both good and bad qualities to make them relatable in different ways.
Just like Picoult’s previous novels, there were some twists and turns, but sometimes they timeline of events was a little confusing.
All in all, I thought the story was really good. I mean, who hasn’t thought about how different our lives would be if we made different choices?
Don’t hesitate to grab this thought provoking book in September. It will definitely give your some food for thought.

Wow. This book was just fantastic. I finished it in TWO days because I just had to know what was going to happen! The idea of a "do over" is what pulled me into this book, and I was hooked by the rich storylines and Jodi Picoult's savage attention to detail (which we all know she is the queen of). Dawn Edelstein is a graduate student at Yale with a promising career as an Egyptologist when her life is unexpectedly derailed. She leaves her colleague, Wyatt Armstrong, and career in Egypt. The rest of her life follows a different path: becoming a "death doula," marrying another man, and having a daughter. Until Dawn is in a plane crash...and her last thoughts are of Wyatt.

It is at this point that Picoult takes us on two journeys of Land and Water as Dawn experiences two very different futures. The stories are woven through Egyptian stories and mythology with quantum mechanics sprinkled in to "prove" the idea of multi-universes. (I mean, really, just how amazing and talented is Jodi Picoult that she makes me feel like an expert?!) To top it off, there is a twist that made me gasp out loud.

I know some readers are feeling as though it is rather academic, but isn't that what we've come to expect from Jodi Picoult? She will give us the entire story without sparing any details. I wonder if some of that is due to "Covid brain?" I had to refocus a few times (I'm so distracted by everything going on!), but it was precisely those details that bring the story to life.

Don't let anything keep you from reading this book! It's truly magic.

As I began to read this lengthy novel, I found myself trying to reckon with whether I was seeing two alternative pathways, two alternatives of a life well-lived with only one that was real. I won't spoil that for you, but allow me to say that this is my book of the year from my favorite author who somehow always manages to take on the hot potato conundrums of human existence and show us clarity. I'm fortunate to have shared some of my own life with Picoult and begged her to tackle my some of my own questions at some point in a novel that; like all of hers, enlightens the reader as to how to look at things we've yet to encounter but read about in news and tabloids. She has taken that on and is consulting with another author who has lived one of those pathways and found peace. I can hardly wait to see where that journey takes me. My own journey included exactly the type of lost love that this takes us on, and I did find myself crying before I was done, with both joy and heartbreak. I lost my love after twenty-six years, and despite the anguish know that I've never really been able to come to terms with the emotional remains of that. Are we best to face the known, or revisit the love we never saw to the end?

Mummies and quantum physics and plane crashes! Oh my! There is a lot going on in this book. Maybe almost too much?

We know that our lives are defined by the choices we make, and every choice leads to another one, and so on. But what if you got the opportunity to explore the other path? What if you were able to go down the road not taken? What if? That is the premise behind The Book of Two Ways. We find ourselves ping-ponging back and forth between Egypt and Boston as Dawn, an almost-Egyptologist turned "death doula", navigates her present and the past she left behind. In the present is her quantum physicist husband and daughter. In the past is Wyatt, a competitor turned lover, who happens to explore ancient graves for a living. As I said, there is a lot going on!

Since it's Jodi Picoult, you know she's done her research, so there's plenty of hieroglyphs and quantum theories. Sometimes there are nuggets of truth in those passages, but not always, so feel free to skim those parts. I got hung up on a few things in the book, especially when it came to Dawn's daughter. And the style of present-day scene that quickly turns into a flashback started to feel a little old after awhile, and was sometimes confusing. I frequently forgot if I was in the present or the past. Since my reaction to the book was just lukewarm, I feel that I have to give it three stars. Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy..

As Jodi Picoult has always been one of my very favorite authors I was so excited to have the opportunity to read an arc of her latest book, The Book of Two Ways. I absolutely loved the depiction of the family dynamics between Meret, Brian, and Dawn. So realistic given today’s world. I also loved Dawn’s job as a death doula. Such a wonderful concept to offer people at the end of their lives, as well as their families. Win was such a special soul with such a moral dilemma...love the way it played out. Also loved the backstory and the renewed relationship with Wyatt. Seemed like a situation that no one wants to find themself in.
The beginning reeled me in right away. As the story unfolded I found myself getting bogged down in the amount of quantum physics information that may? have been necessary to give a more complete picture of Brian and why he feels/acts the way he does. For me personally, I found myself rereading in order to make more sense and it ended up getting in the way of my enjoyment of the story. Although I have enjoyed reading nonfiction texts about Egypt, the pharaohs, and their tombs and seen the phenomenal exhibit of King Tut’s tomb at the Boston Museum of Science many years ago, I did find that the abundant information included in the story again got in the way of the storyline. Jodi obviously has learned an admirable wealth of knowledge about hieroglyphics and Egyptology, which is pivotal in developing the storyline with Dawn and Wyatt, but I think it would be much more powerful if some of it was scaled back.
The depiction of the relationship between Dawn and Wyatt was extremely powerful and I found myself loudly sobbing so many times when they reconnected. The last third of the book was Picoult at her finest...again presenting the reader with a moral dilemma-questioning what they would do if they were Dawn. So appreciated the tie in with the title! The end result is I have already had to do my own research of some of the
recent discoveries made, as well as more information on the Book of Two Ways. That is always a bonus for me.
Many thanks to Jodi Picoult, Ballantine, and NetGalley for affording me the opportunity to read The Book of Two Ways to be published in September.

I was given this book by NetGalley for an honest review -
Dawn, a death doula is injured when a plane has trouble. Her thoughts are not for her husband and daughter at home but for the man she used to spend time with - Wyatt. A thought provoking book that makes you question everything. Will she return to her husband and daughter or is her love for Wyatt more? With alot of information on archeology, which i found hard to read through, i still enjoyed the romance and delimia that Dawn faces. You will want to grab this book.

I wanted to love this book because it’s by one of my all time favorite authors. I didn’t hate this book because there were many things I did like especially the characters and the basic storyline. BUT there was way too many superfluous descriptions about Ancient Egypt. Talk about information overload...you had to flog through trying to pronounce all of the names of the various nomarchs from ancient Egypt to get to the bones of the story. Fortunately, the actual story was good and had some unexpected surprises. There was an impossible love triangle, a fascinating career choice and a bit of teen angst but it was buried in all of the extraneous details about Ancient Egypt. It did get a little confusing at times because it went back and forth between Egypt wand now and present and past.
Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy to read and review.

There are times that a book just seems to come at just the right moment. Perhaps it is because of a life situation, a death or birth, or just because one finds themselves at a junction in life where the subject matter hits home with multiple punches. I have a 94 year old mother who is frail and as I read this book my thoughts constantly drifted to her and the end of life choices she and I will eventually need to make. Death is an absolute. None of us escape death, none of us return from it, none of us know what awaits us.

Dawn Edelstein is studying to be an Egyptologist. She is a young woman on the cusp of fulfilling a dream when a phone call comes that changes forever the direction her life will take. Her mother is dying, and even though she has fallen in love with Wyatt Armstrong, another Egyptologist, she rushes home to be with her mother and her young brother at this stressful time. She will not return to Egypt to the land and the man she loves as duty to her mother and brother prevail.

Dawn meets a man, a quantum physicist, Brian, who is brilliant and explores the concept that we, as living things could in theory live in alternate universes where are choices are different, and our lives are not ones we are now experiencing. They have a child, a daughter, and eventually marry but there is always at the back of Dawn's thoughts the idea of Wyatt. Dawn loves her husband but with a love not equal to that she shared with Wyatt. Will her love for Brian win the day or is Wyatt the person she can't live without?

These are multiple themes explored in this story. The concept of ancient Egyptians's belief in an afterlife and preparation for it was fascinating. Dawn's eventual job as a death doula offered a unique and heart felt perspective into how we can prepare one for their demise. And ...what if we were able to live an alternate life? Would we have been with the person who first filled our life and our soul with his or her love? How many of us have thought back and wondered what road we would have traveled if our life followed the pathway of a first love? Where are these first loves now?

I found the book to be utterly fascinating and it touched my emotional core and made me think and wonder and reflect. Do we actually at the end of our days wonder what if? Do we come to terms with the life we lead or do we constantly think perhaps if only.

I absolutely loved this story, its message, its cautionary warning that life is fleeting and how we need to grab onto the moments that thrill us. There is much spoken of in this book of the ancient Egyptian stories and rituals of long ago with their plethora of gods, paths to follow, and rituals. I was fortunate in understanding this section, since I taught a unit on Egypt for many years to the many classes that passed through my teaching life. It fascinated me drew me back to the wonder and joy my students and I experienced exploring and learning of what came before us.

I most definitely recommend this book for all the ways it might conjure up your thoughts, make you see a reality that perhaps you didn't chose, and realize that all of us will eventually face a life that will come to an end. It's the road we travel that we see in the end, its joy, its sorrows and perhaps the people we left behind along the way.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book due out on September 22, 2020.

4 stars. The book of two ways is exquisitely written. The start of the book is gripping and immediately pulls you in.

It then explores Egyptian burial rituals (in detail), while allowing the reader to watch the romance between Dawn and Wyatt evolve.
After a brief illness and death of her mother, Dawn abandons her life and first love in Egypt where she was working towards her doctorate in Egyptology. It’s there that she falls in love with Brian. It is a steady love until she ventures back across the globe and is reunited with Wyatt. The book explores the what ifs we all grapple with. Dawn can stay in the life that’s she’s built with her husband and daughter or she can start again with her first love and rediscover the career that she walked away from. Dealing with death and ultimately being reborn, the store is multi dimensional, heartfelt and thought provoking. My only criticism is that the story is so descriptive it reads like a textbook or thesis during the early chapters.