With Maya Angelou, you either buy her or you don't--she's one of those writers that have a cult following in mainstream America. America could do much worse--and honestly I can see why. Angelou has the BEST reading voice in America, with words trickling like honey. However this isn't her reading, it's just a book--being such, I can say it's ABOUT something (which Angelou can have a habit of not having any real plot at times), her trip to Africa. It's really difficult to take the work away from the personality, but as a sort of literary comfort food (and I'm sure that's the way she intends most of her writing)--it does its job.