I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

She said that I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and even more intelligent than college professors. She encouraged me to listen carefully to what country people called mother wit. That in those homely sayings was couched the collective wisdom of generations.

I picked up I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings off of one of the "Summer Reading" tables at Barnes & Noble. It had a gorgeous cover and I recognized the name Maya Angelou from about a thousand different sources. I figured it was about time that I read something of hers that wasn't just a single poem I happened upon once in a library. Besides, I usually comb the "Summer Reading" tables at bookstores because I know I missed out on a lot of Teen Read classics that most kids read in their high school English classes and I try to make sure that I get the chance to check out as many of those as I can.

I wasn't aware until I was a good few chapters in that the book was autobiographical, but that merely added to the intrigue. I'm always hearing people say that real life is stranger than fiction and, looking at my soap opera of a life, I'm rarely surprised by it. However Maya Angelou has quite the story to tell and it's one that would seem quite insane and too crazy to be true, only it really did happen.

Maya Angelou grew up in the South at a time when slavery was a thing of the past, but racism was booming. She lived in a time where it was common for white men to kill black men for looking at their women and where a white woman could "rename" her maids because she felt like it and they had no say because they were black and lower class.

But Maya grew up in a time of change and, though she lived through more hardships than many might be able to stand, she stood. She pushed through everything that blocked her way and came out the stronger for it. Her story is a hard one, but it's a tale of triumph and never backing down in the face of fear.

I really enjoyed this book. There's just something about getting to hear about a person's life by looking through their eyes that really gets to me. This is especially true in the case of Maya Angelou. Getting to peer into her life through her eyes and see how she triumphed over evils that are much greater than the ones I am currently battling reminds me that there's always hope and there is always beauty to be found from the ashes.

The author is known for her stunning poetry and her prose is no less impressive. I cannot tell you how many times I had to go back and reread sentences and paragraphs just to inhale the beauty of her words a little more deeply. The ability to create such intense beauty in the span of a few sentences is a talent that will always impress me (as well as make me deeply jealous).

If you're looking for a good read, this is definitely a book to consider. It's worth your time, if only to remind you that, though life can be far darker than we ever hoped, there is always something beautiful just around the horizon if we choose to fight for it.

"Your grandmother says you read a lot. Every chance you get. That's good, but not good enough. Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with the shades of deeper meaning."