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beckyyreadss's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
medium-paced
4.0
I decided to read this book because I brought a poster with 100 books to read in your lifetime. I read the first book in the series and wanted to hug Maya so much. Once I learned this was a series, I had to read more.
This book is the second of seven volumes of Maya Angelou’s autobiography. It is a testament to the talents and resilience of this writer. She loves this world, but she also knows its cruelty. As a black woman she has known the discrimination and extreme poverty, but she also knows of hope and joy, achievement and celebration. In this first volume, Maya describes her teenage years and her being a single mother and trying to find her way in the world.
Usually I struggle with non-fiction books, I find them slow, boring and can just never really dig into them and thoroughly enjoy it. Even though this book is heart breaking, discuss heavy topics and is brutal, it was a book I managed to get into and I think this was due to Maya’s writing, it was almost as if she was writing about a fiction character in a storyline that I had to remind myself several times that she was the main character and she’s talking about her life. She was talking about the struggles of a woman in 1944 to 1948. The fact that people constantly doubt her and use her, just broke my heart.
I wouldn’t say this book has any weakness, but I think the last few chapters were very rushed. She went from slowly describing everything to the events of: she needed to get a job, she ran a brothel, she became a sex worker for a short time to help her pimp, she lost her job, she lost and then found her son and then the last chapter was a shock to the system about using heroin. I would have loved to read more about those few bits of her life. I think she did it for a “gripping” factor to get you to read the next book . . . to be fair, it worked because I want to read the next book.
This book is the second of seven volumes of Maya Angelou’s autobiography. It is a testament to the talents and resilience of this writer. She loves this world, but she also knows its cruelty. As a black woman she has known the discrimination and extreme poverty, but she also knows of hope and joy, achievement and celebration. In this first volume, Maya describes her teenage years and her being a single mother and trying to find her way in the world.
Usually I struggle with non-fiction books, I find them slow, boring and can just never really dig into them and thoroughly enjoy it. Even though this book is heart breaking, discuss heavy topics and is brutal, it was a book I managed to get into and I think this was due to Maya’s writing, it was almost as if she was writing about a fiction character in a storyline that I had to remind myself several times that she was the main character and she’s talking about her life. She was talking about the struggles of a woman in 1944 to 1948. The fact that people constantly doubt her and use her, just broke my heart.
I wouldn’t say this book has any weakness, but I think the last few chapters were very rushed. She went from slowly describing everything to the events of: she needed to get a job, she ran a brothel, she became a sex worker for a short time to help her pimp, she lost her job, she lost and then found her son and then the last chapter was a shock to the system about using heroin. I would have loved to read more about those few bits of her life. I think she did it for a “gripping” factor to get you to read the next book . . . to be fair, it worked because I want to read the next book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Adult/minor relationship, and Death
Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, and Sexual assault
Minor: Grief, Kidnapping, War, Rape, and Drug abuse
alicia_c's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia and Death
Minor: Drug abuse and Grief
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