two roads diverged at an airport

The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult

Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)

Genre: fiction

Review: Sometimes, when I'm reading a book, I start writing the reivew before I finish reading.  I only had a few sentences put down for this book by the time I got close to the end, which is good, because I had to scrap them.  In other words, this book is not what it seems.  It's even better.

After surviving a plane crash, the airline offers to fly Dawn wherever she wants to go.  Does she choose to return to her daughter and husband of fifteen years, or does she choose to find her lost love, the man she thought of as the plane was going down?

Thus we are introduced to the theory of parallel universes, and so, the chapters alternate, beginning with Dawn choosing to return to Egypt to explore the what-if she left behind.  In the other chapters, Dawn returns to her home in Boston, and the familiar struggles of marriage and motherhood.  Or is that what's going on?  There's a twist (don't expect me to give it away!) and in typical Picoult fashion, there are no clear right answers.

Picoult is not coy about what she's setting up.  Dawn's husband is a physicist who explores just that topic.  As a graduate student in Egyptology, Dawn's thesis was on The Book of Two Ways, an ancient Egyptian text that essentially posited that, after death, one's soul can take one of two routes, but will end up in the same place, feasting with Osiris.  But sometimes, Picoult gets a little heavy-handed, such as having one of Dawn's clients face a very similar dilemma, and having Dawn learn a lot about her own life as she works things through with her client.

In Picoult's hands, even this last doesn't seem like much of a flaw, and if it is one, it's easily forgiven for the pleasure of the rest of the book.  This is the kind of book that you want to read again as soon as you've finished it, that will make you want to go out and learn all about hieroglyphics, and that you'll recommend to everyone you know.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

the spirit of the original

Meg & Jo by Virigina Kantra
Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)
Genre: fiction
Review: I suspect many Louisa May Alcott aficionados get nervous every time they hear about a remake of Little Women, or a "contemporary retelling," like Virginia Kantra's Meg & Jo.  I know I do, and I almost didn't pick up this book because I was concerned about the damage it would do to my favorite book.  I need not have worried.  On the contrary, Kantra got it just right.  I can easily imagine that this is the book Louisa May Alcott would have written if she lived in the 21st century.

Which means, of course, that it's a really good book, in addition to preserving the spirit of Little Women.  The characters, their struggles and triumphs, and their family bond (since this is still the March family) spring off the page.  I felt so connected to the characters that I was a little bereft when the book ended, and I was thrilled to see that Kantra has a sequel, Beth & Amy, coming soon.

I would recommend Meg & Jo to anyone who was looking for a good story, whether or not they've read Little Women.  Many kudos to Kantra for this wonderful book.  Jo March (the original) would be proud.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

save the best for last

Songs of Love and Death by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois, eds.

Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)

Genre: anthology

Challenge: 100 Book Challenge 2011

Review: The problem with reading collections of short stories by many different authors is that there's likely to be a lot of inconsistency. Such was definitely the case here. Some of the stories were absolute dreck, some were ok, some were actually pretty good, and at least one was excellent. Unfortunately, the excellent one was the last one in the book, and it was only barely worth it to read all the stories that came before it to get to that one.

not your father's Richard III

A Rose for the Crown by Anne Easter Smith
Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)
Genre: historical fiction
Review: Anne Easter Smith is known for the extent of the research that she does in writing her books. Unfortunately, she is not quite so talented with dialog as she with her historical facts and descriptions. But that does not take away much from this large and graceful novel.

too much other stuff

The Worst Thing I've Done by Ursula Hegi
Rating: 3.5 stars (out of 5)
Genre: fiction
Review: I found parts of this book to be a bit vague and confusing. What exactly was the worst thing? And who is the I? Perhaps both of those questions are meant to be left unanswered, which is fine.

But there's a lot of other distracting stuff in this book, including the commentary of radio psychologists and the fact that the confession (for lack of a better word) of one of the characters is cut off in the middle of a sentence every time. Some of these narrative devices take away from the story, which is, overall, a good one. I definitely wanted more of the story, and less of the fancy writing.

teenage love

That Night by Alice McDermott
Genre: fiction
Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)
Review: I've enjoyed other books my McDermott, especially Child of My Heart. And I have no problem with a future narrator; in fact, I thought McDermott did a great job alternating the voice of the narrator as a 10-year old and as an adult. But this book lacked something, I'm not quite sure what. It's a nicely told story, but I was left asking the question, "Why was I told this story?" It sort of felt like someone started telling me a story, but lost their train of thought in the middle, or forgot why they were telling me.

disappointing

The Good Husband by Gail Godwin
Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)
Genre: Fiction
Challenge: A-Z (author), TBR
Review: I can't quite put my finger on why I was so disappointed in this book. The characters were well-drawn, and fairly sympathetic, each in their own way. The plot moved along relatively briskly. I just don't know. Maybe it was Godwin's habit of "foreshadowing" an event in the past. Several times we hear about a life-changing event in a characters life before we are taken back to find out what happened. Just tell us already and stop playing games! Perhaps it was that certain parts of it seemed contrived, not plot-wise, just writing-wise, as though Godwin said to herself "Ah, there's a clever thought, I must find a way to write it into my next book." And then she did, in the guise of writing about writers and thinkers. It became very annoying to have these things we were obviously supposed to regard as "gems" littering an otherwise good scene.