I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (Autobiographies 1-7) A Book Review by Rebecca Moll

Before reading, I Know why the Caged Bird Sings, I thought I had an idea of the person known as Maya Angelou. A well regarded public figure, her 1st autobiography printed around the world, I was familiar with the title and author's name, as well as, a few of the more notable events of her life.

In finishing all seven of her autobiographies, I can now see how little I understood.

There is a saying that when a person dies, somewhere, a library burns down.

In Maya Angelou's passing, it was one filled with hundreds of thousands of books, a full spectrum of genres, dangerous and mysterious, fact-filled and certain, crazy and emotional, full of hatred, lined with love.

A building courageously erected, its shelves were lined with the trappings and bounties bought through risk, its foundation firm upon fortitude, hallowed halls filled with the inhalations and exhalations of the breath of life - wisdom.

As you enter, it pulls at the senses, aromatic and spellbinding. Volumes with pages that fly, multi-colored pictorials of Cairo and Accra, the splendor of sunny San Francisco, the danger of Watts, the stormy unrest in the streets of NYC. Heavy leaden bindings bring ancient stories and song carried on the backs of African slaves, sung across tempestuous oceans, burned into emotional scars and wreckage of human bondage. Poetry, plays, music and dance filled with the joy of love and passion, motherhood, sisterhood, friendship and family beckon, enticing, compelling. Testimonies fueled by anger and resentment, born from discrimination and cold, calculated oppression, and the resulting self-loathing at the hands of lies masked as truth give witness to a real history. It's walls are adorned with wide-open vistas and portraits in-miniature, the sun and the moon, sky and earth, morning to night are told in prose, painting the life, one singular life, of a woman, who, through thought and word, pen and paper, has changed the world - Maya Angelou.

Luckily for us, not all is lost. A small section of the building did not burn. Thirty-six books (including seven autobiographies), 167 poems, four plays, a book of essays, a screenplay, a cookbook, and more than enough words of wisdom to chart with certainty.

"History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again."

"Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope."

"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."

"If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude."

"Nothing will work unless you do."

"You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lines. You may trod me in the very dirt, but still, like dust, I'll rise."

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

I am thankful she shared her stories and her soul. I may forget the events, may, on occasion, misquote her words, but I will always carry the color and feeling of the great woman who LIVED - Maya.