Jodi Picoult's The Book Of Two Ways Random House Happy Hour

In ‘The Book of Two Ways,’ Jodi Picoult delivers another powerful story about heart-wrenching moral choices.

In the mood to contemplate your own mortality? Then Jodi Picoult has the book for you.

This is an homage to an ancient Egyptian coffin text also called “The Book of Two Ways,” which contains one of the first known maps of the underworld. While the ancient Egyptians believed that one could get to the afterlife either by land or water, Picoult’s book is not “choose your own adventure.” Instead, timelines occur simultaneously. 

When we’re introduced to Dawn, she boards a plane that soon begins to “fall out of the sky.” As it goes vertical, she contemplates that “Ancient Egyptians believed that to get to the afterlife, they had to be deemed innocent in the Judgement Hall. Their hearts were weighed against the feather of Ma’at, of truth.” She’s not sure her heart will pass the test. Her guilt stems from her thinking not of her steady quantum mechanics professor husband, Brian, but of Wyatt Armstrong, a British Egyptologist whom she hasn’t seen in 15 years. In what could be her final moment, she’s grasping for another man, for the Egypt she left behind and the dissertation she never finished.

That’s when the path breaks into two.

Option 1: Dawn is a brilliant graduate student at Yale, an expert in “The Book of Two Ways.” All is going as planned, including taking part in a dig in Egypt with Wyatt, when news that her mother is dying puts everything on hold. Turns out, that hold is going to be a long one. Stateside, Dawn meets Brian and soon after, Dawn and Brian meet marriage and a baby. Dawn pivots from the long dead to the dying, becoming a death doula, a job she’s devoted to, especially with new patient Win, who is trying to answer what-might-have-beens before she passes. Win’s journey inspires Dawn to question her own lost loves: Wyatt and Egypt.

Option 2: When the airline offers up their mea culpa to survivors of the crash in the form of a plane ticket, Dawn asks not for a one-way home, but a ticket to Cairo, knowing Wyatt is in Egypt, still digging, now making a name for himself, and perhaps still thinking about her.

 

Jodi's books always take us down a path to learn something new and she really dives in to the world and gives us a sense of something we may have never explored ourselves...

During this pandemic may be the perfect time for questions like this...We had an incredibly thought provoking discussion during this Random House Happy Hour book discussion. The women brought up some brilliant points and insightful questions.

Who would you be if you weren't who you are now? 

What if you had a second chance for the one that go away?

 Is there one for you that got away? 

What in your life matters the most? 

Would/will you be happy at the end of your life? 

If you had a second chance what would YOU do differently? Why are you waiting...

Have you had a death defying accident and what choices did you make differently after?

Does anyone know what a death doula is? We dove deeper in our chat... https://doulagivers.com/positive-passings/death-doula/

Do you know what you want when you die as your last wishes? Who will enact your last wishes and help your loved ones after you go? 

If your life flashed before your eyes, what would you see?

What makes a good legacy to leave behind? What will make you satisfied at the end of your life? 

What of the book, left the biggest impression on you? What's the biggest takeaway or what did you take away if you dove into this book?

New to Jodi and the book, here is the trailer here:

How did you feel about Jodi's new novel? Leave your thoughts and any you may have had on the discussion that was had in the comments. We would love to hear from you as well....and here are some drinks you might want to try. Are you land or water? 

Posted by book lover: Brittany P.