“Quantum orgasms!!” Now that we’ve got your attention with that exact quote from this book, we can get to our review. Whether or not we have free will is an important topic that Sapolsky explores to the fullest extent.

Readers be advised: this book is BIG, dense, and filled with enough references to show tunes and Xenu's paradoxes to make both Philip K. Dick and Lin-Manuel Miranda proud. It takes determination to get through, particularly in the middle where it gets veeeeeerrrrrrrrryyyyyyy scientific for several chapters but, if you are into intensely thorough arguments that span racism, murder, power and privilege to epilepsy, schizophrenia, obesity, and strippers then this is the book for you. If you aren’t, we urge you to listen to a long form podcast with the author.

There is a lot of good, thought provoking, content in here but select your delivery method wisely. If you do want to read this but need an abridged version, read the first few chapters, and then skip the to last few. If you want more you can always tackle the middle.

This is a defining philosophical and scientific argument for determinism but the real message of this book is that we should all be more compassionate, empathetic and understanding towards one another. This book also sparked some of the best conversation in the history of our book club. For what it’s worth, whether you read this or not, finish it or not, it’s not your fault. We’re sorry, you’re welcome, you should probably read this.. But then again, it was never a choice for you or anyone else. So strap in and ride those turtles all the way down motherfucker!

BUY THIS BOOK