Maya Angelou (1928–2014)

Join the Brown Bag Book Group in September as we read and discuss I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. This group of readers meet from 12-1 PM at Taylor Books in downtown Charleston, WV.

Books are available at Taylor Books (mention the Brown Bag Book Group to receive a small discount).

Grab your lunch and a favorite beverage from the Taylor Books Cafe. (BookDivasReads)… (more)

SUN, AUGUST 10 at 4PM

Remember those books that you were required to read in school? Required Reading Revisited is your chance to take a second (or first) look at some of those books. We meet the second Sunday of every month at 4pm. This month we’ll discuss I know why the caged bird sings by Maya Angelou.

Location: Street: 603 N Lamar Blvd City: Austin, Province: Texas Postal Code: 78703-5413 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

George Bishop holds an MFA from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, where he won the department’s Award of Excellence for a collection of stories. He has spent most of the past decade living and teaching overseas in Slovakia, Turkey, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, India, and Japan. He now lives in New Orleans.

George Bishop, author Letter to My Daughter and Night of the Comet (rhbouchard)… (more)

Description

“We saw the lightning and that was the guns; and then we heard the thunder and that was the big guns; and then we heard the rain falling and that was the blood falling; and when we came to get in the crops, it was dead men that we reaped.” —Harriet Tubman

In five years, Jesmyn Ward lost five young men in her life—to drugs, accidents, suicide, and the bad luck that can follow people who live in poverty, particularly black men. Dealing with these losses, one after another, made Jesmyn ask the question: Why? And as she began to write about the experience of living through all the dying, she realized the truth—and it took her breath away. Her brother and her friends all died because of who they were and where they were from, because they lived with a history of racism and economic struggle that fostered drug addiction and the dissolution of family and relationships. Jesmyn says the answer was so obvious she felt stupid for not seeing it. But it nagged at her until she knew she had to write about her community, to write their stories and her own.

Jesmyn grew up in poverty in rural Mississippi. She writes powerfully about the pressures this brings, on the men who can do no right and the women who stand in for family in a society where the men are often absent. She bravely tells her story, revisiting the agonizing losses of her only brother and her friends. As the sole member of her family to leave home and pursue higher education, she writes about this parallel American universe with the objectivity distance provides and the intimacy of utter familiarity. A brutal world rendered beautifully, Jesmyn Ward’s memoir will sit comfortably alongside Edwidge Danticat’s Brother, I'm Dying, Tobias Wolff's This Boy’s Life, and Maya Angelou’s I know why the caged bird sings. About the Author

Jesmyn Ward grew up in DeLisle, Mississippi. She received her MFA from the Univ. of Michigan and has been a Stegner Fellow at Stanford and a Grisham Visiting Writer in Residence at the Univ. of Mississippi. She is currently an assistant professor of creative writing at the Univ. of South Alabama. She is the author of the novels Where the Line Bleeds and Salvage the bones, for which she won the 2011 National Book Award, and was a finalist for the NYPL Young Lions Literary Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, as well as a nominee for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

Location: Street: 160 Courthouse Sq City: Oxford, Province: Mississippi Postal Code: 38655-3914 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Motherhood by the Book is led by Claire, VB staffer, mother of a toddler, and stepmother of an adolescent.

The book group meets on the second Sunday of every month at 2pm on the mezzanine level, next to our poetry section and near the Book Fare Cafe, for an hour of spirited discussion of books that celebrate the trials, tribulations, and rewards of motherhood, and what it means to be a mother. This group is by no means exclusive to moms with kids still at home, but much of the selection may be geared toward issues that those moms face. We will read fiction, non-fiction, and parenting books.

Sun, Sep 8, 2pm

Letter to My Daughter by Maya Angelou Dedicated to the daughter she never had but sees all around her, Letter to My Daughter reveals Maya Angelou’s path to living well and living a life with meaning. Here in short spellbinding essays are glimpses of the tumultuous life that taught Angelou lessons in compassion and fortitude.

Location: Street: 1200 11th St City: Bellingham, Province: Washington Postal Code: 98225-7015 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Join us for the Reading Rainbow Book Club for lesbians and their friends as they discuss Maya Angelou's new book: Mom & Me & Mom. The story of Maya Angelou’s extraordinary life has been chronicled in her multiple bestselling autobiographies. But now, at last, the legendary author shares the deepest personal story of her life: her relationship with her mother.If you've never attended the book club this is a great month to start. Join us for laid back fun, conversation, and refreshments. All are welcome to discuss this month's book and you don't have to have read the entire book to attend. All books are chosen by Reading Rainbow club members and members receive 10% off the book club pick from Charis Books and More. Stop in to the store to get your copy today! This event is co-sponsored by Charis Circle's From Margin to Center Literary Program. The suggested donation is $5.

Location: Street: 1189 Euclid Ave NE City: Atlanta, Province: Georgia Postal Code: 30307-1509 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Maya Angelou (All God's children need traveling shoes, Amazing Peace, And Still I Rise, A Song Flung Up to Heaven, Celebrations, Even the stars look lonesome, Gather together in my name, Great food, all day long, Hallelujah! the Welcome Table, I know why the caged bird sings, I Shall Not Be Moved, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie, Letter to My Daughter, Maya's World: Angelina of Italy, Maya's World: Izak of Lapland)

Poet, writer, performer, teacher, and director Maya Angelou was raised in Stamps, Arkansas, and then moved to San Francisco. In addition to her bestselling autobiographies, beginning with I know why the caged bird sings, she has also written a cookbook, Hallelujah! the Welcome Table, and five poetry collections, including I Shall Not Be Moved and Shaker, Why Don’t You Sing? (added from Random House)… (more)

Maya Angelou (All God's children need traveling shoes, Amazing Peace, And Still I Rise, A Song Flung Up to Heaven, Celebrations, Even the stars look lonesome, Gather together in my name, Great food, all day long, Hallelujah! the Welcome Table, I know why the caged bird sings, I Shall Not Be Moved, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie, Letter to My Daughter, Maya's World: Angelina of Italy, Maya's World: Izak of Lapland)

Poet, writer, performer, teacher, and director Maya Angelou was raised in Stamps, Arkansas, and then moved to San Francisco. In addition to her bestselling autobiographies, beginning with I know why the caged bird sings, she has also written a cookbook, Hallelujah! the Welcome Table, and five poetry collections, including I Shall Not Be Moved and Shaker, Why Don’t You Sing? (added from Random House)… (more)