The Book Every Woman of Color should read...My review of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

I can not believe that I had not read I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings before just a few weeks ago. I understand now why so many women of color have such a special connection with this book. At 32, I consider myself pretty well read. However, never had I read such a book as this one. Maya Angelou's story is deeply personal and some of her life experiences seem so close to my own. I can imagine another brown skinned, awkward young girl running around outside with friends. Enjoying summer church picnics and reading books by Dickens and Bronte. Like Angelou I was raised by my grandmother; who was also a strict woman. But was not very religious. If it had not been for my stepmother and a friend in high school I would not have been introduced to Christianity. (Even though I said prayers daily and could recite The Lord's Prayer). Another thing that Maya and I did not have in common: the surroundings in which we grew up and the era in which we grew up.
Maya Angelou grew up in rural Stamps, Arkansas; a small town, the area that she lived in was segregated and she attended a segregated school. Her upbringing was closer to my own Grandmothers. My gran grew up in a small, one stoplight town in Maryland named Greensboro. I on the other hand...did not have to deal with a segregated school or deal with the challenges of living in a small rural area. (Mind you I don't live in a bustling metro area either.) One of the things about Angelou's book that really resonated with me was the way that she always seemed to be conscious of her blackness. Her "otherness". However, her response to it was different from anyway that I have ever read it described. She was taught to have pride in her color. She saw nothing wrong with being colored. She was not aware that there was really anything different about her. However, "white folks" where different. They behaved, dressed and ate differently then she and her family. This was comical to me and understandable.
I can think back to a time when I was never aware of my difference from anyone else. However, that changed at about age 9 or 10 when I was called the N word by a classmate during summer break. That was the first time I was aware that there was a difference; it was the first time I had to have "the talk" with my grandmother. In this book Angelou has a similar incident with a dentist; while suffering with a toothache her grandmother took her to the only dentist in the area. The man flat out refused to help young Maya; he even went so far as to say he would never put his hands in a dogs mouth than that of a nigger. Of course, Mayas's grandmother will not be disrespected and sends Maya off the porch to wait as she goes into the office to deal with the mans disrespect. The was my favorite scene in the book because Maya, with her childhood imagination, imagines her grandmother as a superhero. Defending her honor and telling that man what's what. Especially since the man was to good to help them but was not to good to come to Maya's grandmother (who owned the general store in Stamps) for a loan. Like Maya, I was always a bit amazed by my grandmother. She was my superhero. Of course, it was not until I was older and wiser that I saw her humanity; however, she will never really come all the way down to my level. She will always be a woman of wisdom in which to learn from - flaws and all.
Angelou's book is one that I hope to return to a few years from now. And a book I hope to share with other young women and even some young men. There is so much in this book that we could all learn from. There is a wealth of knowledge and wisdom in this tomes pages.
I gave I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings 5/5 stars on goodreads.com

Here are a few quotes that I loved:

"Words mean more that what us set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them wit the shades of deeper meaning."

"The Black woman in the south who raises sons, grandsons and nephews had her heartstrings tied to a hanging noose"

"It was awful to be Negro and have no control over my life. It was brutal to be young and already trained to sit quietly and listen to charges brought against my color with no chance of defense."

"Sympathy is next to shit in the dictionary, and I can't even read."

"All knowledge is spendable currency, depending on the market"

Martin Luther King, Jr Day

Today the U.S. honors civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. King was a man that used his power as a minister to bring about social change. He organized marches, sit ins, and boycotts. The most famous being the Montgomery Bus Boycott - which started with Rosa Parks and lasted for while over a year. King was champion for voting rights and helped to wage war on income inequality. He was a man that was killed way to young and left so much work unfinished. Some of his dreams where realized - desegregation happened during his lifetime. And voting rights were expanded to African Americans.
Of course some of the things King fought for still need work; still gets push back. We are seeing restrictions on voting and income inequality looms larger than ever. So in King's memory I want to dedicate my year to working harder on social justice issues that mean a lot to me - voting, education and, access to healthcare. We are all better people when we are helping to uplift one another Dr. King is proof of that.

^ this last photo is probably my favorite; it is of Dr. King with minister Malcolm X.

Power, Beauty and Cleopatra: Bookbabe Review of Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff

Sometimes I really want to read something challenging; different from the fiction that I usually read. However, maybe biographies by Stacy Schiff should be avoided. Over the past year I have attempted to read Cleopatra: A Life and found myself finally jumping ship. While the book was interesting and painted Cleopatra in a very glorious and flawed light it failed to hold my interest. I felt like the book was disorganized. I felt like it jumped all over the place; though sometimes the prose was wonderful and well written the book simply fell flat. 

I will say that I do not regret reading the book. It was a good read; I learned some very interesting things about a woman that history often paints as a home wrecker. Cleopatra was well read, a women of great intellect. She was well spoken and could hold her own, she was a woman of great strength. Also, she took no shit. I think women living in our time could learn a thing or two from this queen of ancient Egypt. 

Here are some of the quotes I loved:

"Friends often turn into enemies in time of disaster, he conceded (Caesar). He might equally well have noted that at times of disaster enemies reinvent themselves as friends."

"Herodotus: "Egyptian women ventured into the markets while the men sat at home tending their looms...women urinate standing up, the men sitting down"

"Cleopatra had every reason to believe she hailed from a superior world. No one in Rome had a pedigree to rival hers. It bothered Cicero that she seemed to know as much."

"Sometimes It seemed as if there were only ten women in Rome...and Mark Antony has slept with every one of them."

"If one prefers not to be perceived as a King, one is ill advised, for starters, to spend one's time consorting with a queen."

And just for fun; here are some photos found on Pinterest....sharing because they are just awesome..

Book Show Case....

Each week I am going to post photos/quotes from some of the many books that mean the most to me. This weeks post comes from Memoirs of A Geisha by Arthur Golden. This book is deeply moving and so beautifully written! 

Here is a synopsis of the book:

In this literary tour de force, novelist Arthur Golden enters a remote and shimmeringly exotic world. For the protagonist of this peerlessly observant first novel is Sayuri, one of Japan's most celebrated geisha, a woman who is both performer and courtesan, slave and goddess.

We follow Sayuri from her childhood in an impoverished fishing village, where in 1929, she is sold to a representative of a geisha house, who is drawn by the child's unusual blue-grey eyes. From there she is taken to Gion, the pleasure district of Kyoto. She is nine years old. In the years that follow, as she works to pay back the price of her purchase, Sayuri will be schooled in music and dance, learn to apply the geisha's elaborate makeup, wear elaborate kimono, and care for a coiffure so fragile that it requires a special pillow. She will also acquire a magnanimous tutor and a venomous rival. Surviving the intrigues of her trade and the upheavals of war, the resourceful Sayuri is a romantic heroine on the order of Jane Eyre and Scarlett O'Hara. And Memoirs of a Geishais a triumphant work - suspenseful, and utterly persuasive.