Member Reviews

Thank you Penguin Random House Library Resources! I love the author interview included with questions for discussion.

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This was a kit for my book club, thanks so much for providing this eARC! The prompts were very thought provoking.

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The information given (especially the author interview) is super interesting and the questions are very engaging & thought provoking! I wish there were a few more fun things included (e.g. a bookmark or a recipe), this just felt a little short. Would still recommend though!

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I liked the discussion in the author's interview about addiction and depression. These topics are quite important in our society but often times they are not talked about or they are stigmatized. Opening a discussion about them in a bookclub setting could prove quite useful and engaging for all readers. I really enjoyed the inclusion of questions about religion and Gifty's connection with the church and god.

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This Book Club Kit would make the perfect companion to any book club meeting about Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi. Both the author's Q and A as well as the book club questions would make for fascinating conversation and this is enough content to fill a meeting. I liked that suggested reading is included in the back. My favourite thing about this kit is the design and formatting as it is beautiful and makes this kit so easy to read and engage with.

I do wish that this kit was slightly longer and included more interactive activities such as playlists or recipes. This would make a book club meeting more entertaining than just discussions.

Overall this is a great kit and I love the design and colours used!

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The *Transcendent Kingdom Book Kit* significantly enhanced my understanding and appreciation of the novel. The additional materials and guided questions provided in the kit deepened my engagement with the story, allowing me to explore themes and characters on a more profound level. This kit is an excellent resource for anyone looking to enrich their reading experience and gain more insight into the novel’s intricate layers.

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Fantastic kit for use in book club meetings. We struggle with discussing the book (we usually say a few worked about it and then start chatting about anything in general) and this will help us to stay on track.

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This gives a great idea of the questions you can use for your book club and there are interesting bits of infprmation too. A great book companion.

Thanks to Yaa Gyasi and Penguin Random House for the book club kit in exchange for an honest and voluntary review.

5 stars

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The formatting wasn't good on my Kindle. The questions were good but would have loved more content for a bookclub.

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I love this book club kit! It's both aestetically pleasing and comprehensive. Gorgeous layout, which includes: an author interview, recommendations for upcoming reads, games, a playlist, recipes and discussion questions. I wish there was a kit like this for all books. I'd be more apt to pick up certain books for my book club. The work is done and looks like the making of a good time.

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Super helpful questions for a rich and complex book club discussion. Material like this enables a whole different level of conversations.

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This Book Club Kit for Transcendent Kingdom has questions perfect for use in your club. Anything that makes club prep easier is a win-win in my book!

Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC.

Opinions are mine.

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Yaa Gyasi is one of my favorite authors after reading Homegoing. I was amazed how much I loved that book. It was so meaningful to read. I was so excited when I found out about Transcendent Kingdom and I knew that I would have to read it. I really enjoyed reading Transcendent Kingdom with my book club and I didn't have to make the discussion questions since I had this Book Club Kit. I highly recommend reading anything written by Yaa Gyasi.

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This book club guide was very very short. It included info from the author, and suggested reading, but that was it. I would have liked to see more activities to help make a book club meeting more of an overall event.

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This is a REVIEW ONLY of The BOOK CLUB KIT for “Transcendent Kingdom,” a powerful literary fiction by Yaa Gyasi about a Ghanaian family living in Alabama dealing with conflicts in their evangelical faith and the dichotomy of addiction. This five-page e-book is dense with discussion questions to stimulate insightful two-way conversations among reading groups, yet it is blatantly lacking in visual appeal because of its drab color scheme and lack of art and bold, eye-catching graphics. Nonetheless, these Q & As will be useful for Book Club Leaders, Librarians, as well as readers themselves who want extra insight into the background of the book and author. ❇️ As complex and intriguing as the topics covered in the book, it would be nice to see bold, colorful graphics, art, songs, maps, recipes, clothing, research statistics, bookmarks and other visual effects to depict Alabama, Ghana, the family-life, etc. in a virtual legend to accompany the messages Gyasi presents in her book. ❇️

TheBookMaven graciously thanks NetGalley, Author Yaa Gyasi, and Publisher Penguin Random House Library Resources for this Advanced Reader’s Copy (ARC) for review.

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Yaa Gyasi is one of my favorite authors after reading Homegoing. I was amazed how much I loved that book. It was so meaningful to read. I was so excited when I found out about Transcendent Kingdom and I knew that I would have to read it. I really enjoyed reading Transcendent Kingdom with my book club and I didn't have to make the discussion questions since I had this Book Club Kit. I highly recommend reading anything written by Yaa Gyasi.

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Deeply ruminative, relentlessly searching and immensely moving, Transcendent Kingdom is the story of a young woman and her quest to find her way back to herself, and to her mother, through a thicket of ghosts crowding both their lives. Not to be missed! This story is heartbreaking. But I feel like the main character is developed in such a way as if to tell whatever hardships come, you have to face them head-on. I love her character. She isn't perfect; she isn't your outspoken female character but what she's what she is - single handedly took care of her career and her difficult mother till the end. Trigger warnings for drug misuse, addiction, suicidal tendency and self-harm, domestic violence. Beautifully written I think the ending could have been a bit better.

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Well written does not even begin to cover this novel. I related a lot to Giftys balance of God and Science growing up. It really had me thinking the whole time. The story was so interesting and so much more moving than I ever expected. There were a lot of feelings that arose with this book but the epilogue really touched my heart and solidified it. I was kind of disappointed as far as the book club kit went because there were so little questions to go over. Once again more comprehension based for the book club kit.

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The book club kit was short before this read. But the questions were dead on. Great discussion over wine to deep dive into what was a really good read.

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I enjoyed this book, but the Book ClubKit was shorter than I expected or shorter than others I have used for my own personal book club.

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