Reader’s Corner

[Songbird76]

I finished The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult. I really liked it. It was interesting with all the Egyptology. Sometimes I feel like I missed my calling. I feel like I would have loved something like Athropology or Archeology, but I wasn't really introduced to that kind of thing when I was younger. I love all the series from National Geographic about lost worlds and ancient cultures, so this book was right up my alley with that kind of thing. I'm not really sure I "got" the ending, though, but I liked it anyway.
It's basically centered around the Egyptian belief in the afterlife and how there are two ways to get to the final destination: water or land. Both bring you to the same place, but the journey, the people, and the obstacles will be different. The main character was a grad student studying the book of two ways when her mother got sick and she left the dig to go take care of her. That decision changes her life completely. And then she has to make a decision about whether to return to her old life or to continue on the path she's on.

There's a lot of discussion of different fields of science...a lot of Physics, some biology, but it's all explained. A lot of the concepts are things my daughter has already explained to me because of her major. She has learned a lot of the ideas that were talked about, so I already had a bit of a foundation for some of it, but I don't think it's necessary to understanding the book. It's just background info. But if sceince bores you, it's probably not your thing. I'm fascinated by it, I'm just not particularly good at it, but I really liked what was explained in the book. Mostly concepts of parallel timelines/universes.

Anyway, if you love Egyptian history, it's pretty interesting, and I'd recommend it.

 

[Songbird76]

I finished An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green. It was really good, but kind of leaves some things unknown, so now I'm reading the sequel: A beautifully Foolish Endeavor. I just started it last night, so I'm not very far yet, but I like it so far.

The first book is basically a sci-fi lite book...it's sci-fi, but not heavy on the sci-fi elements. Out of the blue, 64 statues appear in cities all over the world. No one knows where they came from, how they got there, what the purpose is. They are just there. But they don't seem to be made from elements that occur naturally on earth. Are they from another planet? Are they a message? Is it a threat or a peace offering? No one knows. And then people all start having the exact same dream. People all over the world work together to solve puzzles, trying to figure out what these statues are and why they appeared, and the is the main character somehow chosen as a sort of liason? Was she given powers or is she just a regular person who happened to be the first person to take interest in the statues? Is she a traitor to the world? Or are these statues non-threatening beings just observing?

And of course, people are divided. Some think the statues, if they were sent by aliens, must be trying to conquer earth and must therefore be destroyed. But so far, the statues haven't done anything, so other people think that if they wanted to hurt people, they would have already done it. They must be peaceful. Now there's a race to complete all the puzzles in the dream and prove who was right about these strange statues.

Book 2 starts where book 1 leaves off, but I don't want to spoil it in case anyone wants to read it.

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (The Carls, #1)

"In his much-anticipated debut novel, Hank Green--cocre…

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