On Monday the 13th, the Reading Across the Pond book group read Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. We were unanimously impressed with Angelou’s memoir, a narrative that beautifully weaves together episodes of devastation and joy. We discussed in depth the intricacies of the memoir and others like it, asking ourselves what and how authors opt to omit from their life stories, and what can be construed as fictional among the real. Our discussion included historical/cultural contexts, Angelou’s poetry, and her other autobiographical works, some of which we house in our collection. We give this book somewhere between 20 and 28 thumbs up.
