Mom and Me and Mom

Sadly, Maya Angelou isn´t really popular in Germany. Few books of her were translated into German and while her books are some of the most-read books of all time in America, just a few even know her name here in Germany. We should definetely change this! I wanted to read "Mom & Me & Mom" after Emma Watson announced, it would be the book of the months November & December for Our Shared Shelf, a Feminist book club I am a member of. Emmas choices of books are always inspiring and so it was just a matter of time til I read it. And the time came sooner than I thought, cause the moment, the book waited on my shelf, I couldn´t get it out of my head. So I started it right after I finished my last fantasy book. "Mom & Me & Mom" is the last autobiography of Maya Angelou, published just a year before her death. I didn´t knew her other autobiographies, I didn´t even knew her poetries or other stories, but this was no problem. I had no troubles to follow the story and it was just great to meet Maya Angelou for the very first time. And after this book I will defintely read the other 6 autobiographies and as well her poetries and whatever I can find of her. She is such an important person and fought so hard for the rights of women and blacks - it´s really sad she´s so unknown in this country. „Love heals. Heals and liberates. I use the word love, not meaning sentimentality, but a condition so strong that it may be that which holds the stars in their heavenly positions and that which causes the blood to flow orderly in our veins. This book has been written to examine some of the ways love heals and helps a person to climb impossible heights and rise from immeasurable depths." In her last autobiography Maya Angelou shares her personal relationship between her and her mother. This relationship was filled with abandonment, sadness, but as well love and hope and confidence. Maya Angelou talks about her life without denying anything. She held nothing back. And she was not ashamed of her life. It was a life - full of highs and lows and this was okay. The writing of Maya Angelou is really comfortable to read and I can highly recommend to read it in English! Even if you can´t speak perfectly English, you can still mentioned to read this book. It´s not translated in German, yet. This book is a wonderful, inspiring autobiography full of reconciliation, forgiveness and survival. A book of the love between mother and daughter. A blunt and sometimes even funny type of writing which makes you laugh and cry a lot. This story will not let you go until you finished it - and even then it will haunt you forever. Surely in a good way. It made me thought a lot about myself and my future. About the life, we women can now have - we are blessed, we can be who we are. About the things we still need to fight for - real equality, safety and recognition. We still have a lot to do, but strong women like Maya Angelou made it possible that we have such a good base to fight on. Together we can make a change. Together we can fight for our rights and for the rights of women all over the world. We can fight for their safety and the right of education. We can fight for equality. Together we can do it. Thanks to all those strong women who fought so hard to change the lives of others. Thanks to Maya Angelou. A strong and inspiring autobiography of a strong and inspiring woman. A must-read for every woman and every man and a glimmer of hope for our future. She made it through such traumatic experiences and still continued to fight. We can continue to fight as well. We can make the change, the world needs the most.