From the Bookshelf of Nothing But Reading Challenges…

Transcendent Kingdom

Yaa Gyasi

Start date: January 1, 2021

Finish date: January 31, 2021

Discussion: Books of the Month

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Books of the Month

* The Names by Florence Knapp - Sep 25 Adult / Non-Fiction BOM (starts 16 Sep)
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last updated Sep 24, 2025 01:40AM

* The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese - Sep 25 Theme BOM - South and South East Asia (Starts 5 September)
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last updated Sep 22, 2025 08:30AM

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What Members Thought

Jun 29, 2021 Charlene rated it did not like it

Shelves: started-but-didn-t-finish, own

I had to DNF this because I was losing the will to live. Incredibly dull. It reads like a cliched memoir. Emotionless. I couldn't relate to Gifty who kept reminding everyone how smart she is, and the infuriating thing is, it deals with interesting ideas yet it sent me to snooze-ville every time I forced myself to read another chapter. Massive disappointment. ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Apr 12, 2021 Lindsay rated it really liked it

Shelves: fic-lit, audiobook, 4stars, read-in-2021, cloudlibrary

3.5 stars

4 likes · Like · see review

Jan 15, 2023 Juliana Philippa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 4-to-5-stars, 0-reviewed, 4-stars, first-person-narrator, book-of-the-month-options, book-of-the-month-selections, published-2020, published-2020-sept, source-goodreads-list, african-american-fiction

4 stars

It took me many years to realize that it's hard to live in this world. I don't mean the mechanics of living, because for most of us, our hearts will beat, our lungs will take in oxygen, without us doing anything at all to tell them to. For most of us, mechanically, physically, it's harder to die than it is to live. But still we try to die. We drive too fast down winding roads, we have sex with strangers without wearing protection, we drink, we use drugs. We try to squeeze a little more

4 stars

It took me many years to realize that it's hard to live in this world. I don't mean the mechanics of living, because for most of us, our hearts will beat, our lungs will take in oxygen, without us doing anything at all to tell them to. For most of us, mechanically, physically, it's harder to die than it is to live. But still we try to die. We drive too fast down winding roads, we have sex with strangers without wearing protection, we drink, we use drugs. We try to squeeze a little more life out of our lives. It's natural to want to do that. But to be alive in the world, every day, as we are given more and more and more, as the nature of "what we can handle" changes and our methods for how we handle it change, too, that's something of a miracle."

A quiet book in many ways and very different than her first book, Homegoing (my favorite read of 2022), which had a broad cast of characters and brief (though insightful) portrayals of each. Here, we have a deep portrayal of one woman, through her childhood years and up into her late twenties, as well as a vivid portrait of her brother and especially mother. I found Gifty's relationship with and portrayal of her mother very poignant and emotional; her mother is a difficult, tough woman and it's challenging to see such an independent, strong woman brought low by depression twice—once after her son, Nana, dies of a heroin overdose and a second time in what is the present day in the book, with Gifty in graduate school pursuing her PhD.

This book tackles the issues of addiction and depression with an empathic approach and shows us the very real struggles that come with these two mental illnesses—both for the people suffering from them and for those who love and support them. It was interesting seeing the flashbacks of her brother's addiction and present day (and also flashbacks) of her mother's depression contrasted against the science research that Gifty is undertaking to study addiction and reward-seeking behavior.

I felt for Gifty, who has had to deal with her father's abandonment, her brother's addiction and subsequent death, and what must have felt like her mother's abandonment during her mother's depressive episode when she was 11. Gifty is closed off and a strong tendency towards perfectionism allows her no room to really breathe. She's cordoned herself off from human connection as a form of self-protection and that loneliness is stark when facing her mother's current debilitating illness.

And it wasn't fair. That was the thing that was at the heart of my reluctance and my resentment. Some people make it out of their stories unscathed, thriving. Some people don't.

...more

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Jun 08, 2021 Haizle The Princess rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audiobook, book-club, 2021-challenge, wpf21

This book was good. I'm giving it 5 stars, even though I thought the ending was rushed. Definitely a good read for me, as I grew up in religion and had to come to my own terms with it as an adult. ...more

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