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4.28 AVERAGE
4.28 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Extremely good. Incredible writing but not pretentious. Excited to read more of her work
Read along with a friend.
Enjoyed it but it was another coming of age story which I have read a lot recently. Got a little boring for me at times. Loved the writing but probs wont pick up the next couple of books.
Enjoyed it but it was another coming of age story which I have read a lot recently. Got a little boring for me at times. Loved the writing but probs wont pick up the next couple of books.
✒︎4 stars
Originally published in 1969, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings follows Angelou's life as girl until the age of 16. Angelou has long been regarded as one of the greatest poets of all time, and an writer who I have always looked up to. Reading her memoir was a natural next-step.
I didn't necessarily "read" this as I listened to the audiobook narrated by Angelou herself. Her narration itself was great. Each word was laced with emotion. It felt as though I was listening to stories from an older family member. The writing itself was (obviously) poetic with many different literary devices and descriptive imagery throughout. Angelou tackles the racism and sexism, among other things, she faced as a black girl, born in 1928 and growing up in Arkansas and later, St. Louis and California. In Angelou's writing she displays courage, humanity, honesty, and wisdom. It is easy to connect to her story, no matter your background. Regarded as a classic, it's easy to see why.
Despite this, I felt that some chapters in this book were uninteresting and at times, the book dragged and even felt convoluted due to how Angelou chose to format the chapters. While I appreciated her thoughtful writing, listening to it in a spoken format instead of written made it hard for me to understand what was occurring at times. I felt that the book overall could have benefited from being a bit shorter.
That being said, this is a memoir and each story was clearly included for a reason that was deemed necessary to Angelou, and I don't want to undercut the importance of the novel itself and its success. I just found myself having a hard time connecting to certain chapters and her writing style.
Originally published in 1969, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings follows Angelou's life as girl until the age of 16. Angelou has long been regarded as one of the greatest poets of all time, and an writer who I have always looked up to. Reading her memoir was a natural next-step.
I didn't necessarily "read" this as I listened to the audiobook narrated by Angelou herself. Her narration itself was great. Each word was laced with emotion. It felt as though I was listening to stories from an older family member. The writing itself was (obviously) poetic with many different literary devices and descriptive imagery throughout. Angelou tackles the racism and sexism, among other things, she faced as a black girl, born in 1928 and growing up in Arkansas and later, St. Louis and California. In Angelou's writing she displays courage, humanity, honesty, and wisdom. It is easy to connect to her story, no matter your background. Regarded as a classic, it's easy to see why.
Despite this, I felt that some chapters in this book were uninteresting and at times, the book dragged and even felt convoluted due to how Angelou chose to format the chapters. While I appreciated her thoughtful writing, listening to it in a spoken format instead of written made it hard for me to understand what was occurring at times. I felt that the book overall could have benefited from being a bit shorter.
That being said, this is a memoir and each story was clearly included for a reason that was deemed necessary to Angelou, and I don't want to undercut the importance of the novel itself and its success. I just found myself having a hard time connecting to certain chapters and her writing style.
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
reflective
slow-paced
emotional
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual violence, Violence
slow-paced
dark
inspiring
medium-paced
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced