Books by Maya Angelou
MOM & ME & MOM by Maya Angelou
by Maya Angelou
BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR
Released: April 2, 2013
"A tightly strung, finely tuned memoir about life with her mother."
Angelou (Letters to My Daughter, 2008, etc.) has given us the opportunity to read much of her life, but here she unveils her relationship with her mother for the first time. Read full book review >
LETTER TO MY DAUGHTER by Maya Angelou
by Maya Angelou
BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR
Released: Sept. 30, 2008
"A slim volume packed with nourishing nuggets of wisdom."
Life lessons from the celebrated poet. Read full book review >
AMAZING PEACE by Maya Angelou
by Maya Angelou, illustrated by Steve Johnson, Lou Fancher
POETRY
Released: Sept. 23, 2008

Angelou's poem considers peace as a joyous concept that rises up during the Christmas season, drawing in and including those of all faiths, sweeping everyone along with its power. Read full book review >

A SONG FLUNG UP TO HEAVEN by Maya Angelou
Kirkus Star
by Maya Angelou
BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR
Released: April 9, 2002
"Alternately elegiac, meditative, and humorous, a book to savor and remember. "
The distinguished poet and playwright brings her six-volume cycle of memoirs to a close. Read full book review >
EVEN THE STARS LOOK LONESOME by Maya Angelou
Kirkus Star
by Maya Angelou
RELIGION
Released: Sept. 1, 1997

Angelou's (All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes, 1986, etc.) sixth work of autobiographical reflection again treads ballerina-like on the fine line dividing saying too much and not enough on a variety of heartfelt subjects. Read full book review >

MY PAINTED HOUSE, MY FRIENDLY CHICKEN, AND ME by Maya Angelou
Kirkus Star
by Maya Angelou, photographed by Margaret Courtney-Clarke
Released: Oct. 3, 1994

A beguiling collaboration between the renowned poet (All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes, 1986, etc.) and a Namibian-born photojournalist. Read full book review >

ALL GOD'S CHILDREN NEED TRAVELING SHOES by Maya Angelou
Kirkus Star
by Maya Angelou
Released: April 8, 1986
"In sum, the human heart of Africa reaching out to one of its displaced children, deepening that child's understanding of herself and her heritage."
The hauntingly evocative and poetic continuation of the autobiography that began with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970). Read full book review >
THE HEART OF A WOMAN by Maya Angelou
Kirkus Star
by Maya Angelou
Released: Oct. 9, 1981
Another installment in Angelou's remarkable autobiography—beginning with would-be singer Maya in 1957 California: trying commune life; moving to L.A. with teenage son Guy; playing uneasy hostess to dying Billie Holliday—a "lonely sick woman, with a waterfront mouth" who both cursed and lullabied Guy . . . and interrupted Maya's nightclub act with a mini-review ("Stop that bitch. Read full book review >
AND STILL I RISE by Maya Angelou
by Maya Angelou
Released: Oct. 2, 1978
"However, through her use of music and direct, uninhibited statement, she has written a distinctive and energetic volume."
In her third volume of poems, Maya Angelou proves once again that audacity can pay off. Read full book review >
SINGIN' AND SWINGIN' AND GETTIN' MERRY LIKE CHRISTMAS by Maya Angelou
by Maya Angelou
Released: Oct. 1, 1976
"Like found money, she makes you feel richer for the discovery."
The prolific, resilient Maya Angelou continues her autobiography in this sunny tour of her twenties, covering her first positive contact with whites, a short-lived marriage to a Greek sailor, and the snowballing of her theatrical career. Read full book review >
OH PRAY MY WINGS ARE GONNA FIT ME WELL by Maya Angelou
by Maya Angelou
Released: Oct. 10, 1975
"It's all so damned artless, there's just no accounting for how strong she is, except to say Maya's got the gift."
This is Maya Angelou's second volume of poems and her poetry is just as much a part of her autobiography as I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Gather Together in My Name. Read full book review >
GATHER TOGETHER IN MY NAME by Maya Angelou
Kirkus Star
by Maya Angelou
Released: May 17, 1974
"Her own thing on her own terms — worlds removed from Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man carrying his patron's letter, "keep this nigger running" — and because of it, Angelou's stature, as a writer, a woman, a black, grows, walks tall."
Continuing from the deeply affecting first volume of her autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970), Angelou, sixteen, has given birth to her illegitimate son Guy, WW II has just ended, there's optimism in the land and racism, blacks are telling themselves, was only a temporary aberration (didn't we, after all, work together for the defense effort?). Read full book review >
JUST GIVE ME A COOL DRINK OF WATER 'FORE I DIIIE by Maya Angelou
by Maya Angelou
Released: Sept. 21, 1971
"Times-Square-Shoe-Shine-Composition" (in a "Dozens" cadence) and "The Calling of Names" flash among the serious but less well realized pieces of the second group — but nothing in either is a match for Miss Angelou's prose, where her real poetry flows without restraint."
The natural feeling that made I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings such a special reminiscence gives these verses their claim to poetry. Read full book review >
I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS by Maya Angelou
Kirkus Star
by Maya Angelou
Released: Feb. 1, 1969
"However charily one should apply the word, a beautiful book, an unconditionally involving memoir for our time or any time."
Maya Angelou is a natural writer with an inordinate sense of life and she has written an exceptional autobiographical narrative which retrieves her first sixteen years from "the general darkness just beyond the great blinkers of childhood." Read full book review >