the next good book

Transcendent Kingdom

By Yaa Gyasi

9/10
(9/10)

264 pages

What’s it about? Gifty is sixth-year PhD candidate at Stanford University School of Medicine studying neuroscience.  Her interest is in reward seeking behavior and addiction.  Alternating between the past and the present this is a story of a family grappling with the many facets of mental health.
What did it make me think about? I loved Gifty!  What a great character.  She was so complicated, and yet so refreshing.   “He smiled at me, and I wanted to slap the smile off his face, but I wanted other things more.”
Should I read it? I highly recommend this book.  It is a family story first- but it also sheds light on addiction, depression, religion, and being an immigrant in the Deep South.  What a combination…
Quote- “But this tension, this idea that one must necessarily choose between science and religion, is false.  I used to see the world thought a God lens, and when that lens clouded, I turned to science.  Both became, for me, valuable ways of seeing, but ultimately both have failed to fully satisfy in their aim: to make clear, to make meaning.”
What’s it about?
Gifty is sixth-year PhD candidate at Stanford University School of Medicine studying neuroscience.  Her interest is in reward seeking behavior and addiction.  Alternating between the past and the present this is a story of a family grappling with the many facets of mental health.
What did it make me think about?
I loved Gifty!  What a great character.  She was so complicated, and yet so refreshing.   “He smiled at me, and I wanted to slap the smile off his face, but I wanted other things more.”
Should I read it?
I highly recommend this book.  It is a family story first- but it also sheds light on addiction, depression, religion, and being an immigrant in the Deep South.  What a combination…
Quote-
“But this tension, this idea that one must necessarily choose between science and religion, is false.  I used to see the world thought a God lens, and when that lens clouded, I turned to science.  Both became, for me, valuable ways of seeing, but ultimately both have failed to fully satisfy in their aim: to make clear, to make meaning.”

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