August 2017: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

[Lisamarie]

It's time for us to "go back to school" with our second quarterly classic of 2017. Maya Angelou's I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings has been on my Classics To Read List for years and I can't wait to read it together this month and hear your thoughts!

[Zephyr]

I read it many years ago (but I will be re-reading it). It was great! So is the sequel, Gather Together in My Name. What I would like to do is just read all seven books in a row.

[Stacy]

When you do live streaming can anyone from the book club go live or do a certain group do the live with you. I enjoyed the live viewing, but I had just the book that day. I ordered it the first of July. But I already have Aug read and I'm excited to hear everyone thoughts about it.

[Leslie]

To be honest, I would have never picked this up to read on my own. I'm 100 pages in and am loving it. There are just so many things she says that resonate with me. Really glad I started it!

[xoRenée]

I'm glad this has given me the opportunity to reread such a classic. I last read IKWTCBS as a child, but now as an adult and new mother, it's taken on an entirely new meaning and has weighed much heavier on my psyche than I ever remember it doing in the past. Nonetheless, I'm looking forward to reading other's thoughts.

[Tanelle]

I had never read any of Maya Angelou's books prior to this one being assigned and I loved it. I do wonder how much of it is considered biography and how much of it is fictional biography.

[Sarah]

I wanted to love this book. I really did ... but I just couldn't.

I don't know if it's my inability to relate to an African American girl growing up in the 1930s & '40s ... but I just don't see the praise everyone else gives this book.

That being said I didn't hate it. I think there was a lot of great insight into the struggles of life for African Americans in that era ... especially a young girl that was rapped, lived in a junkyard and later became a mother at 16 after struggling with questions of being a lesbian.

I enjoyed it and I am very glad I can mark it off my list of books that I wanted "to read before I die" ... but I just can't say it was amazing like I'd hoped I could.

Looking forward to Thursday to hear everyone else's thoughts ... and maybe increase my appreciation for the book ... I really wanted to love it.