Book #3: The Book Of Two Ways, Jodi Picoult
About the book:
Everything changes in a single moment for Dawn Edelstein. She’s on a plane when the flight attendant makes an announcement: prepare for a crash landing. She braces herself as thoughts flash through her mind. The shocking thing is, the thoughts are not of her husband, but a man she last saw fifteen years ago: Wyatt Armstrong.
Dawn, miraculously, survives the crash, but so do all the doubts that have suddenly been raised. She has led a good life. Back in Boston, there is her husband, Brian, her beloved daughter, and her work as a death doula, where she helps ease the transition between life and death for her clients .
But somewhere in Egypt is Wyatt Armstrong, who works as an archaeologist unearthing ancient burial sites, a job she once studied for, but was forced to abandon when life suddenly intervened. And now, when it seems that fate is offering her second chances, she is not as sure of the choice she once made.
After the crash landing, the airline ensures the survivors are seen by a doctor, then offers transportation wherever they want to go. The obvious option for Dawn is to continue down the path she is on and go home to her family. The other is to return to the archaeological site she left years before, reconnect with Wyatt and their unresolved history, and maybe even complete her research on The Book of Two Ways--the first known map of the afterlife.
As the story unfolds, Dawn’s two possible futures unspool side by side, as do the secrets and doubts long buried beside them. Dawn must confront the questions she’s never truly asked: What does a life well-lived look like? When we leave this earth, what do we leave behind? Do we make choices...or do our choices make us? And who would you be, if you hadn’t turned out to be the person you are right now?
Group Discussion Questions:
- Have you ever had a death defying accident and what choices did you make differently or do different after?
- What in your life matters most? Will you be happy at the end of your life?
- If your life flashed before your eyes, what would you see?
- If you had a second chance at life what would you do differently?
- What would life look like if you chose a different life? How would you spend your free time and who with? Where would you live? How would you spend your time?
- Who would you be if you hadn't turned out to be the person you are right now? If you had to pinpoint the one person or thing that you left behind, what would it be? Where would you be?
- Do you ever wonder what if?
- Had you ever heard of a death doula before reading The book of two ways? And what did you think of this practice and the way it's incorporated into the novel?
- Do you have any last wishes or requests you hope are carried out?
- Both Egyptian mythology and quantum physics are explored in this book, and they are often presented as two opposites in Dawn's life. Do you think they are as different as she perceives them to be or are there ways in which they overlap?
- Dawn and her daughter, Meret have a close but challenging relationship. What do you think casques them to cash so often? What did they learn from each other by the end of the book?
- Picoult plays with the idea of a parallel universe and alternate timelines as we see Dawn's narrative unravel in both Boston and Egypt. Where you surprised when it became clear which timeline of Dawn's truly exists?
- What responsibility do you think Brian and Wyatt each hold for how Dawn's path in life progressed?
- Could you forgive Brian for holding on to the letters that Wyatt sent?
-Do you think it's possible to experience multiple loves, as Dawn and both Win describe?
-What did you think of Dawn's decision to deliver Win's painting to Thane Bernard?
- The novel also explores the concept of fate verses free will. Do you think we determine our won destiny through our choices, or are we always heading toward the same fate no matter which path we take to get there? (the book of two ways being the example).
- If you were in Dawn's shoes, would you choose to stay with Brian or pursue a life with Wyatt? Or is there another path you would have taken instead?
- What do you think makes for a good legacy? What constitutes a good life?
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