You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
It has been a long time since I've picked up a Jodi Picoult book, so I was excited to reacquaint myself with her beautiful prose and powerful storytelling.
THE BOOK OF TWO WAYS is a complex book: it is about love, loss, grief, change, life, and death. It is about the choices that we make and must live with. And it is also about WHAT IFs.
The story is told from the first-person perspective of Dawn Edelstein. She was an Egyptologist in her earlier life, and then when a tragedy struck her family, she left Egypt behind to become a Death Doula in the Boston area (basically an end-of-life caregiver).
The title of the novel is based on an Ancient Egyptian burial map that is meant to guide the deceased through the after life. There is a land route and a water route. And so Jodi Picoult takes that and splits this novel into a LAND/EGYPT storyline and a WATER/BOSTON storyline. It is an exploration of two different choices, throughout mixed and mashed timelines, that in the end unravels into one, linear story.
The book asks a lot of questions, and Picoult's prose is incandescent. What prevented this from getting the full five stars (It is a 4.5 in my book) is the last 100 pages or so felt a little bit forced. But I was engaged, and I enjoyed the exploration of all the problems that were exhumed.
This is a beautiful book. It features digital images of Egyptian art--and one of the coolest aspects of this novel is the amount of research that you can tell went into it. If you like Egyptian mythology and Ancient Egyptian history, this book weaves some of that into the narrative.
I will definitely be picking up another Jodi Picoult book this year. I have to catch up on some of her newer releases.
THE BOOK OF TWO WAYS is a complex book: it is about love, loss, grief, change, life, and death. It is about the choices that we make and must live with. And it is also about WHAT IFs.
The story is told from the first-person perspective of Dawn Edelstein. She was an Egyptologist in her earlier life, and then when a tragedy struck her family, she left Egypt behind to become a Death Doula in the Boston area (basically an end-of-life caregiver).
The title of the novel is based on an Ancient Egyptian burial map that is meant to guide the deceased through the after life. There is a land route and a water route. And so Jodi Picoult takes that and splits this novel into a LAND/EGYPT storyline and a WATER/BOSTON storyline. It is an exploration of two different choices, throughout mixed and mashed timelines, that in the end unravels into one, linear story.
The book asks a lot of questions, and Picoult's prose is incandescent. What prevented this from getting the full five stars (It is a 4.5 in my book) is the last 100 pages or so felt a little bit forced. But I was engaged, and I enjoyed the exploration of all the problems that were exhumed.
This is a beautiful book. It features digital images of Egyptian art--and one of the coolest aspects of this novel is the amount of research that you can tell went into it. If you like Egyptian mythology and Ancient Egyptian history, this book weaves some of that into the narrative.
I will definitely be picking up another Jodi Picoult book this year. I have to catch up on some of her newer releases.
Was not a favorite Picoult for me. Good story great read, but I wasn’t as connected with these characters as I normally am with her books.
I almost DNF after the first 50 pages. Man, I felt like I was reading a textbook in some 400 level Egyptology class! It definitely improved, but I often skimmed over the dense sections of Egypt history and hieroglyphs. I couldn’t keep track of it all and it felt like way too much energy to put into understanding a book. The core of the story was decent, but certainly not my favorite out of Jodi Piccoult’s books. I enjoyed the premise of two possible ways the main character’s life could have gone but wasn’t super invested in the book as a whole. Unless you’re really into Egyptology, I’d skip this one.
An interesting concept, I find Egyptology fascinating, but the book was a struggle to get through at times. Heavy on the academics, and the timeline jumps made the book hard to follow at times.
Spoiler
Also, I found it frustrating that the entire love triangle and paternity issue was Brian's fault but it was just glossed over in the book and not addressed by any character. He just pinned everything on Dawn when he was the one who hid Wyatt's letters to her when her mom died, had he given them to her she may have gone back to Egypt and/or realized Merit was Wyatt's child.
High recommend if you like Jodi Picoult’s style of writing!
Although this book was a bit long at times, I really enjoyed the twists and turns. Every time I thought I understood the story, another detail was revealed and I was so surprised! Truly enjoyed this one!
A surprise ending, as usual... it left me wanting more!
By two chapters in, I wasn’t interested and the culture shift had me more confused than drawn in.
This book was so original…and the whole concept of wondering what our lives would be like with different choices is both an intriguing and dangerous one. I really enjoyed it even though I was annoyed/angry with the protagonist most of the book. I won’t even discuss the ending.