The Book of Two Ways: A stunning novel about life, death and missed opportunities

Having read everything Jodi Picoult has written, I was so excited when this arrived. I was actually even more excited when I saw that it contained elements of Egypt too.However. There are substantial sections of the long chapters that are taken up with information you would learn on a course about Egyptology. Reading the authors notes it is clear that this book was written for her son, who has studied Egyptology in depth, so nice touch.The thing is I totally understand the need to show that you have done your research, but this element of the book comes across as too educational and moves away from the story. It can feel a bit lazy when an author does this too. "I have a story, it needs some meat on the bones, what can I do...ooh I know I will educate my readers with a history lesson and some cool pictures" It doesn't work.The story in this book is actually fascinating, I really bought into the the two story lines, I liked the relationship that the man character has for the two men in her life, with the twists and turns that go with it. The overdoes of history just distracts too much.Dial it back a bit on the history and just give us the amazing stories covering the great subjects moving forward.

I love Jodis books but I could not get into this one. I haven't finished it yet but im not really bothered if I do. I don't want to read about ancient Egypt by the blurb it was misleading I thought it was about her life as a death doula prominently.

What a disappointment.It felt as if was reading a history book not a novel by Jodi Pucoult.To say that I was so looking forward to this book is an understatement as Jodi Picoult is one of my favourite authors.I honestly thought that I was going to be reading another one of her master pieces in where I would be lost and devouring another one of her books within days but let me say this was not a page turner at all for me.Sadly this book is bogged down Egyptian style textbook, so much so it felt and it really did feel that I was back at school.I hope this is the last time Jodi writes like this and goes back to her usual page turner writing.I will buy her next book as I will not let one bad book put me off this author.Sadly this book imho was a total waste of time and money.The next book by Jodi will certainty be a improvement as imho it can't be any worse.

As always, Jodie Picoult writes fantastic novels and this is another good one indeed.Set mostly in Egypt, the book is filled with wonderful descriptions of Ancient Egyptian artifacts, with many historical facts about that era and the tombs that tell the stories of it's Mummified Pharaohs.You can tell that an awful lot of work has gone into researching this subject and it does get very technical, to the point that I found myself stopping and starting, trying to digest the information overload, rather than diving in and reading from cover to cover as I usually do with one of Jodie Picoult's books.Personally I found the ending left me hanging, with too many unanswered questions and it didn't feel like the end at all, more like the last chapter was missing!However, I loved the characters and the events that led them down their different paths.Overall it's a great book and well worth a read plus you'll even learn more about the Ancient Dead, than you probably ever wanted to!!

Like many other reviewers, I am a staunch Jodie Picoult fan. Like many others I was initially disappointed by this book. I agree that the first pages read very much like a text book. I love history but ironically, have never felt drawn to Egyptian history. I couldn't be bothered with the hieroglyphs, I couldn't pronounce the names and I began to let all of this get in the way of trying to understand the story! Ultimately, I did enjoy the book but I also found that at times I became confused with it - which time slot was I in? Was this the present or the past? Sometimes I found it just slipped from one time to another with no clear delineation. Perhaps that was just me! I thought long and hard about the rating to give. I couldn't score it 2 or 3 stars because the writing is so good. I couldn't justify 5 stars - it certainly isn't up there with the best of JP. so I settled for a generous 4 stars. I can confidently state that it won't be a re-read in the near future.