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

Find A Copy At

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 163 topics — 23,393 comments total

Books of the Month

* The Names by Florence Knapp - Sep 25 Adult / Non-Fiction BOM (starts 16 Sep)
By Moderators of… , Challenger-in-Chief · 19 posts · 106 views

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)
By Moderators of… , Challenger-in-Chief · 44 posts · 83 views

last updated Sep 22, 2025 08:30AM

showing 10 of 12 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Sep 11, 2020 Melike rated it it was amazing

Shelves: botm

Poignant and lyrical writing with a lot to reflect on. I loved it.

13 likes · Like · see review

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: audiobook, 4stars, fic-lit, 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-stars, 2023-reads, 4-to-5-stars, 0-reviewed, first-person-narrator, book-of-the-month-options, book-of-the-month-selections, published-2020, published-2020-sept, source-goodreads-list

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

1 like · Like · see review

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

1 like · Like · see review

Apr 29, 2022 Bonnie rated it really liked it

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, 2020-books

A contemplation on race and religion and science and addiction and culture and family. Like memory, this book is not linear. It circles and swoops, getting closer and edging away from the defining tragedy of Gifty's life: the death of her brother. The child of Ghanian immigrants, raised in the American South, Gifty is now an Ivy League graduate and addiction researcher. Much of this book is about child Gifty - especially her relationship with her mother and her brother. There's also present Gift A contemplation on race and religion and science and addiction and culture and family. Like memory, this book is not linear. It circles and swoops, getting closer and edging away from the defining tragedy of Gifty's life: the death of her brother. The child of Ghanian immigrants, raised in the American South, Gifty is now an Ivy League graduate and addiction researcher. Much of this book is about child Gifty - especially her relationship with her mother and her brother. There's also present Gifty, who has shut herself away from everyone and runs from anyone who gets too close. She becomes the caretaker to her depressed mother, and this leads her to reflect on her past.

Gyasi's exploration of a variety of heavy topics is thoughtful. Her portrayal of Gifty and how trauma has shaped her life is complex and deft. Gyasi's use of language is precise. And yet, for a book that is under 300 pages, I had problems finishing it. My attention was often pulled elsewhere. This is a book that I think would benefit from being taught in a class. It whispers to the reader to take the time to slow down and contemplate and dissect it. There is great value in these kinds of books and I do not regret reading it. But I cannot say that it pulled me in (and there is a debate there, surely, about what the purpose of reading is. Is it to grant us an escape from our own lives or is it to educate and encourage reflection? I do prefer both in my fiction, but I find myself more drawn to escape than education if I had to choose one, outside of a classroom).

The one weak point of this book is the ending. I honestly thought I had missed something. Gifty, for all her time spent reflecting on her past, does not grow much as a character over the course of the novel. And that is fine, this book did not appear to be about Gifty's personal growth so much as how things came to be. But then, in the last couple pages, with no bridge or transition, it suddenly jumps to a (near?) future where Gifty is in a healthy, happy romantic relationship. Gifty, who has refused closeness with anyone outside her family. Gifty, who stonewalled and ghosted past lovers. How did Gifty develop into someone who could be so open and happy with someone? It feels like 100 pages were cut from this book, the pages where Gifty breaks out of her shell and lets her guard down (there were cracks, yes, but that was it). The Gifty in the last pages is not the same Gifty we had for the first 200-odd pages and I'm not sure how she got there. ...more

Like · see review