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brands200's review against another edition
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
LOVED this book, but I don’t think I’d recommend it! I listened to it as an audiobook which made it easier to get through the in depth passages on Egyptology and quantum physics. This book made me feel, I gained knowledge, and it felt very relevant for someone who is in their midlife and juggling all the things. Not the most popular on Goodreads, but I throughly enjoyed it and will be thinking about it for days.
katykelly's review against another edition
3.0
'Sliding Doors' of alternating life (and death paths). Overlong, but did hit a nerve.
I've read a lot of negative reviews of this, just glancing at the Amazon page. And yes, it's not perfect. At 15 hours, the audiobook felt like it could have ended several times over, and I actually spent most of my listening time thinking it would have made a fabulous novella. I couldn't tell you now what needed to take so long that I was kept at it for days and days, points felt laboured and repetitive.
I've only read a couple by this author before. It was the subject that intrigued me - the idea of different paths in life explored, a death doula, and Ancient Egypt.
Dawn is the victim of an airplane crash, one of a few survivors, and instead of heading home soon after escaping unscathed, finds herself wanting to know what her life would have been like if she hadn't chosen husband, child and family. If she'd stuck with her plans to study Egyptology and the man she fell for.
So we see both paths - she returns home, she travels to Egypt. But this also becomes confusing, certainly on the audiobook, as we also watch Dawn's past as she met, hated then came to be attracted to Wyatt, but additionally, later on, scientist husband Brian. I couldn't quite keep track which timeline I was in.
On top of this, Dawn works with Wynn as her doula, a woman dying but determined to sort out her own regrets before this, so an additional storyline about romantic regrets floods the plot. It felt overfull and overdone.
I enjoyed Dawn's relationship with her daughter (also with issues, of course), and was very interested how the author chose to bring things to a close with husband/lover/present/past. I wasn't actually quite sure when it ended, what had happened, but it wasn't the conventional ending I'd been dreading at least.
Personally, I enjoyed the Egypt sections, I love history, I loved the idea of The Book of Two Ways and exploring paths not trodden. But there was so much repetition to wade through, the insightful parts got a little lost in there.
I would recommended this be read on paper/Kindle as it is confusing when listened to as an audiobook, though the narrator was engaging and voiced both genders well.
Needed to be much, much tighter. But a great idea with sparks of perception regarding marriage, infidelity, love and family.
With thanks to Nudge Books for providing a sample Audible copy.
I've read a lot of negative reviews of this, just glancing at the Amazon page. And yes, it's not perfect. At 15 hours, the audiobook felt like it could have ended several times over, and I actually spent most of my listening time thinking it would have made a fabulous novella. I couldn't tell you now what needed to take so long that I was kept at it for days and days, points felt laboured and repetitive.
I've only read a couple by this author before. It was the subject that intrigued me - the idea of different paths in life explored, a death doula, and Ancient Egypt.
Dawn is the victim of an airplane crash, one of a few survivors, and instead of heading home soon after escaping unscathed, finds herself wanting to know what her life would have been like if she hadn't chosen husband, child and family. If she'd stuck with her plans to study Egyptology and the man she fell for.
So we see both paths - she returns home, she travels to Egypt. But this also becomes confusing, certainly on the audiobook, as we also watch Dawn's past as she met, hated then came to be attracted to Wyatt, but additionally, later on, scientist husband Brian. I couldn't quite keep track which timeline I was in.
On top of this, Dawn works with Wynn as her doula, a woman dying but determined to sort out her own regrets before this, so an additional storyline about romantic regrets floods the plot. It felt overfull and overdone.
I enjoyed Dawn's relationship with her daughter (also with issues, of course), and was very interested how the author chose to bring things to a close with husband/lover/present/past. I wasn't actually quite sure when it ended, what had happened, but it wasn't the conventional ending I'd been dreading at least.
Personally, I enjoyed the Egypt sections, I love history, I loved the idea of The Book of Two Ways and exploring paths not trodden. But there was so much repetition to wade through, the insightful parts got a little lost in there.
I would recommended this be read on paper/Kindle as it is confusing when listened to as an audiobook, though the narrator was engaging and voiced both genders well.
Needed to be much, much tighter. But a great idea with sparks of perception regarding marriage, infidelity, love and family.
With thanks to Nudge Books for providing a sample Audible copy.
duarte_l's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
76juliane67's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
4.25
pam2375's review against another edition
2.0
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.
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.
mskibba's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
donnagillies's review
adventurous
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
rballenger's review against another edition
2.0
Type of read: Commuter (listened to and from work)
What made me pick it up: Picoult is a regular on my TBR list.
Overall rating: I wanted to like this book more but there was just SO. FREAKING. MUCH. OF. IT. I love being able to take the author's words and create the picture in my mind but The Book of Two Ways just had an exorbitant about of information about Egypt...and information that wasn't necessarily needed (in my opinion) to further the story. It felt like when you're writing a college paper and have to meet a specific source count so you just throw everything in there.
I got about halfway through and seriously debated stopping but underneath all of the excessive Egyptian information the underlying ideas and interpretation of the real Book of Two Ways made for an interesting story (one that ultimately kept my attention and allowed me to finish the book). I'm not mad that I read The Book of Two Ways, but I don't think it'll be high on my list of recommendations.
Reader's Note: I read (listened) to this book at 1.5 speed as I found the regular 1x speed painstakingly slow.
What made me pick it up: Picoult is a regular on my TBR list.
Overall rating: I wanted to like this book more but there was just SO. FREAKING. MUCH. OF. IT. I love being able to take the author's words and create the picture in my mind but The Book of Two Ways just had an exorbitant about of information about Egypt...and information that wasn't necessarily needed (in my opinion) to further the story. It felt like when you're writing a college paper and have to meet a specific source count so you just throw everything in there.
I got about halfway through and seriously debated stopping but underneath all of the excessive Egyptian information the underlying ideas and interpretation of the real Book of Two Ways made for an interesting story (one that ultimately kept my attention and allowed me to finish the book). I'm not mad that I read The Book of Two Ways, but I don't think it'll be high on my list of recommendations.
Reader's Note: I read (listened) to this book at 1.5 speed as I found the regular 1x speed painstakingly slow.
motherofladybirds's review
4.0
Enjoyed the mix of Egyptology and quantum physics. Dealing with the business of dying and getting on with living our best lives.
jesslolsen's review
4.0
As many reviews have said before, there is a lot of information to process in this story, however I was so totally invested in the characters (not just Brian, Wyatt but even the stories of her clients) that if it got a bit too much I just skim read over a part - I still felt like I got the gist enough to grasp the meaning if I did this in a section.
The multiple timelines threw me a little and it wasn’t until halfway that I figure out how they were running concurrently.
The multiple timelines threw me a little and it wasn’t until halfway that I figure out how they were running concurrently.