The Book Vipers discussion

March group read discussion thread. No spoilers please until everyone's read it!

Really looking forward to reading this!

Got it out from the library on the way home

Yes, this should be an nice antidote following the gripping-but-unpleasant Gone Girl...!

I'm pleased as I was given this last year off my wish list, but still haven't read it. (For shame!)

I am about to start listening to this as I clean my kitchen , narrated by the woman herself

That sounds good Nikki. I'm a new fan of audio books. I think I'll see if our library has this. Would be nice to hear Maya Angelou read it herself.

She reads rather fast and is, surprisingly at points quite monotone. The audio version is also slightly abridged as I was cross referencing with my kindle earlier and little bits are missing .

I have just finished , what a wonderful, inspirational book.

I'm so pleased that you enjoyed it Nikki, it is one of the most inspirational books I have read. I read it 10 years ago and it has stayed with me

Just started :)

I loved this book when I read it the first time and more so when I read it the second. The following five are also very interesting and can be read one after the other or stand alone.

Finished last night, agree with Gillian and Nikki, it's a very inspirational memoir. I liked her writing style as well: her intelligence just bounces off the page, just shows that cleverness needn't go hand in hand with a university education.

I did have to put it down every so often, as parts were hard to read emotionally. I don't think this is a spoiler: the part where she needs a dentist made me want to smash something!

Chantal wrote: "Finished last night, agree with Gillian and Nikki, it's a very inspirational memoir. I liked her writing style as well: her intelligence just bounces off the page, just shows that cleverness needn'..."

Oh, forewarned! I've just read the bit with the stepfather. She had a tough childhood. Reading on, this evening.

I started this last night although it may take me a while as have another assignment due ... why do I leave them 'til last minute!

Have four books to finish this week, and then it will be next...

I have just started this - I have read it before but it was a long time ago and I can't remember much.

For the first pages it is clear what a great writer she is and I am looking forward to the rest

I've just finished reading it this evening. Definitely worth its 5 stars! I'm keen to continue reading Maya Angelou's other autobiography books, but sadly they will have to wait until later in the year, or next year.

(view spoiler)[ The episode with the dentist made me livid too. Especially when Dentist Lincoln said he would rather put his hand in a dog's mouth. The dignity of her grandmother in that situation was incredible. I'd have punched him. (hide spoiler)]

How's everybody else's reading of this book coming along?

I finished it over the weekend. I really enjoyed the book and would like to read her other memoirs.

I have finished this now, really enjoyed it. Very easy to read, very evocative style of writing. Its interesting to read some of the other Goodreads reviews, lots of people saying how graphic and explicit it was and how unsuitable it was for teenagers to read (I believe it is a school literature book for teenagers in the states). I didnt find it graphic or explicit at all, just honest and candid. I wouldnt see aproblem with teenagers reading it - I think it gives a good insight into a strong woman, triumph over adversity etc?

I read some of those criticisms of the book on here too.

I seem to remember Alice Walker's novel The Color Purple was banned in schools too (or at least they tried to ban it), and that novel covers some very strong story lines - incest, rape etc too. I'm not sure I'd want my daughter to read them too early, but I'd say from about 15/16 onwards I wouldn't have a problem.

I finished this earlier in the week. I think she is a great writer and I really like her writing style. I have also read some of the reviews on here. I think she handled the difficult situations well, giving details about how she felt at the time but also through the eyes of the adult she was at the time of writing.

I think I would be happy for my daughter to read it when she is 14-15 (but she is only 2 at the moment so it is difficult to imagine her ever being so old).

It would be interest to read about the childhood of someone from a similar area but more recently to see how thing have changed since the end of segregation.

Finished it last night. Here is my review:

Whilst I have a wide range of reading tastes, this is one that I would not normally consider. It is an autobiography of Maya, a black girl growing up in the depression era of America with the dreadful prejudice that was considered normal at that time in America.

She is brought up mainly by her grandmother, and gets to meet her mum properly around the age of eight. She suffers from beatings for the slightest infraction, is raped as a child and understandably is scared because of these things.

And yet her character is tenacious, she is unwilling to give up, seeking to be the first black employee on the San Francisco streetcars, which she achieves, and her life which had been full of despair has hope at last.

Angelou writes about issues that are grim; the poverty, the abuse, the culture at the time, and she does it with an eloquence that gives you faith in humanity

I found it shocking that her grandmother was so ready to beat her for any tiny perceived misdemeanour. Particularly shocking, I thought, was the time when she innocently said "by the way", as everyone does, not realising her grandmother saw that as blasphemous and gave her a beating for it.

She is an amazing person, to have come through it all and not to have been beaten down by it.

I was prepared for there to be a lot of racism and prejudice so the thing that I found most surprising was the relationship between maya and her brother and their parents. Their parents seemed to regard them, at best, as minor inconveniences and did not show them much love or pay much attention to them.
They may have got beatings from their grandmother but she did seem to genuinely care for them and probably believed that the beatings were the best way to bring up children.

The trip to Mexico with her father was a bad one, wasn't it?

I enjoyed reading this book, shocked at how they were treated, even though I knew it happened it still hits you when you're reading an account like that.

I finished last night. I was amazed by the family relationships too. I just can't imagine sending my children to live with grandparents so young. they really did seem to view them as inconvenient.

Radio Four's book of the week is by Maya Angelou. This is the link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qftk

Thanks for the link, Paul. I listened to the first two on i-player yesterday.

From what I've heard so far, it does appear to be a reworking of I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, from the angle of her relationship with her mother. Still enjoyable though.

The narrator, Adjoa Andoh's very good. I listened to her reading A Cupboard Full of Coats recently.