Hi everyone I'm Rincey and this is Rincey
Reads.
Today I'm going to be doing a book review
on "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya
Angelou.
I read this book for Banned Books Week and
oh my gosh I loved it.
If you didn't know this is the autobiography
of Maya Angelou and this is actually volume
1.
I believe there are four volumes out and they
just chronicle different periods of her life.
And this one is basically from birth to about
16 or 17 years old.
[sigh]
This book.
Man.
Like I'm not really going to do a plot synopsis
cause you don't really need to know much more
than it's a story about Maya Angelou's life,
but holy cow has she been through a lot.And
even just covering the first like 17 years
like... what?
She speaks with such openness and honesty
and just really truthful about the things
that have happened in her life and the way
that they have affected her.
The writing in this book is just so beautiful.
I have posted so many quotes from this book
onto my Tumblr.
It was getting a little bit excessive.
But I also don't apologize for that because
I believe that it is completely worth it.
I feel like she just has such good insight
into just society, the way that we live, the
way that we think, the way other people view
us and how that affects us.
This story mainly takes places in the 1930s
in the South, which was a really interesting
perspective because she touches upon how like
the depression affected people differently,
especially like white people versus black
people.
And I feel like this is just such an interesting
insight into the way of life and the way things
were during this time.
I really enjoyed reading this, especially
since I just finished reading "Brown Girl
Dreaming" by Jacquiline Woodson and just having
just that fuller perspective on being a person
of color in the South during this time period.
Although, obviously, "Brown Girl Dreaming"takes
places about 20 or 30 years after this book
takes place.
But just having that fuller perspective and
that fuller idea.
I also just like the idea of just covering
what people of color were doing during this
time period.
Like I feel like you hear about black people
during the time of like slavery and then the
Civil War happens, and then it sort of just
like stops being a topic until about the 1960s
when the Civil Rights Movement takes place.
Like that's how I feel like American history
is covered.
And so there is this whole time period like
at the end of the 1800s and at the beginning
of the 1900s, so there's like a good like
100 years [laughs] or 50 years that doesn't
get covered really.
And so I feel like this is a really good insights
into that world and into that time period.
This is a book that is frequently banned in
schools.
Like the reasons why I picked it up is because
I always like to pick one of the books that
are like so highly banned according to the
American Library Association's website.
And this is in like the top 5 all the time,
in terms of being banned from schools and
I kind of understand it in the sense of like
this book is like raw.
It does not hold back.
Maya Angelou does not hold back.
She tells you the truth about things.
Like she is honest about the violence and
the assault and like sexual assault and just
everything that happens to her in this book.
Like she is honest, and she is forthright
and stuff like that freaks people out.
And I completely understand why it would freak
people out because, even me reading it, there
was one chapter where I read it and I had
to like just put the book down and just like
take a break from it because it affected me.
But I think that that's important.
Like it's supposed to affect you.
Like topics like that are supposed to be disturbing,
like you shouldn't read about someone's sexual
assault and be OK.
That's sort of why, like, I hate it when books
get banned because a lot of times it's because
just like parents being scared of what their
kids are going to be exposed to, but at the
same time, I read this and I was like "you
know what, if you're in high school, you probably
should read it and know exactly what it's
like."
You know, it could help prevent people from
doing this to someone else or it could help
people deal with it if it has happened to
them, you know?
So, I don't know.
That's just my two cents.
I'm not here to parent anyone's kids because
I don't even have children, so who am I to
say anything?
But I will say this: if you haven't read anything
by Maya Angelou, pick it up.
Get something by her, start reading her.
This is, again, like I said, the first of
four.
I will be continuing on because I want to
know so much more about her life.
Like I know like bits and pieces about Maya
Angelou's life because, you know, she is a
famous writer and I've done research or read
about her in the past, but I'm really excited
to just see things from her point of view
and just to see where her journey takes her.
So yeah, those are my quick thoughts on "I
Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou.
If you've read this book or if you've read
Maya Angelou's other books, feel free to leave
a comment down below letting me know what
you guys thought of it.
Or if you have any questions about the book,
obviously leave that down in the comment section
as well.
So yeah, that's all I have for now and thanks
for watching.
