| Mom & Me & Mom Author: Maya Angelou Genre: Memoir Publisher: Random House Audio Release Date: April 2, 2013 Audiobook: 4 hours and 1 minute Narrator: Maya Angelou Source: Free from e-Library  |
Book Description
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.
For the first time, Angelou reveals the triumphs and struggles of being the daughter of Vivian Baxter, an indomitable spirit whose petite size belied her larger-than-life presence—a presence absent during much of Angelou’s early life. When her marriage began to crumble, Vivian famously sent three-year-old Maya and her older brother away from their California home to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. The subsequent feelings of abandonment stayed with Angelou for years, but their reunion, a decade later, began a story that has never before been told. In Mom & Me & Mom, Angelou dramatizes her years reconciling with the mother she preferred to simply call “Lady,” revealing the profound moments that shifted the balance of love and respect between them.
Delving into one of her life’s most rich, rewarding, and fraught relationships, Mom & Me & Mom explores the healing and love that evolved between the two women over the course of their lives, the love that fostered Maya Angelou’s rise from immeasurable depths to reach impossible heights.
For the first time, Angelou reveals the triumphs and struggles of being the daughter of Vivian Baxter, an indomitable spirit whose petite size belied her larger-than-life presence—a presence absent during much of Angelou’s early life. When her marriage began to crumble, Vivian famously sent three-year-old Maya and her older brother away from their California home to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. The subsequent feelings of abandonment stayed with Angelou for years, but their reunion, a decade later, began a story that has never before been told. In Mom & Me & Mom, Angelou dramatizes her years reconciling with the mother she preferred to simply call “Lady,” revealing the profound moments that shifted the balance of love and respect between them.
Delving into one of her life’s most rich, rewarding, and fraught relationships, Mom & Me & Mom explores the healing and love that evolved between the two women over the course of their lives, the love that fostered Maya Angelou’s rise from immeasurable depths to reach impossible heights.
Review
I have been wanting to read this book the minute it came out but for some reason other books seemed to come up first. Why was I looking forward to this book? Because Maya Angelou is an author that makes the reader (me) sentimental, inspired and just...*sigh* happy I read her work.In Mom & Me & Mom, Maya tells the story of her relationship with her mom. Maya's mom was a strong woman who was ahead of her time. She was a strong woman who sent her children to their grandmothers when she felt she couldn't take care of them. But when her situation changed she had her children brought back from Stamps, AK to her in San Francisco, CA. As Maya Angelou says of her mother "She was not a good parent for a small child but she was a wonderful mother to her adult child." (Not exact quote) Vivian Baxter was not mentioned much in Maya Angelou's other memoir and so this is solely about her and her relationship to her mother.
The author has a wonderful ability to tell a story by pulling the readers into the story as if she was talking to a friend.
The best part of the story, where Vivian Baxter shined the most is when Maya told her she was pregnant. Now most mothers of a 17 year old girl fresh out of high school would flip out if she finds her daughter is 5 weeks from giving birth. Not Vivian. She never, ever made Maya feel like she was a disappointment or a burden to the family. She always provided Maya with space for her independence, support and love till her last day of her life. An amazing woman begot an amazing woman.
This is a must read for all parents of all aged children.
Reviews by Other Bloggers
Recommendations
I recommend this book to readers teens due to some mild violence.
Challenges
This book is number 4 in my Diversity on the Shelf Reading ChallengeThis book is number 2 in my What's in a Name? Reading Challenge
This book is number 4 in my Audiobook Reading Challenge
This book is number 8 in my Goodreads Reading Challenge
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