Cary Neeper's Blog: Reviewing World-changing Nonfiction - Posts Tagged "inspiration"

Letter to My Daughter by Maya Angelou, New York, Random House, 2008.
In giving this book to my granddaughter to read, I felt, like author Maya Angelou, that I am "...giving to a person who is naturally generous...[reminding] me of a preacher passionately preaching to the already committed choir."

Nevertheless, I want to share this book. It's written in short chapters that resonate with deep tones. It's sentences are also short, and they are direct. Unmistakable in both fact and meaning. No guessing is needed to relate to her experience. Perhaps some will trigger a memory or inspire a thought.

Angelou speaks of truth, and she means it. She talks about people who "...allow their tongues to wag with vulgarity..", which really expresses their self-humiliation, "...but we are brought low by sharing in the obscenity."

In sharing her life experience so profoundly and so honestly, she provides an example for all of us to follow, especially in these times when our public figures ignore the values that made this country great