2010 Reading #88: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Books 1-10.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
Books 61-70.
Books 71-80.
81. The Dakota Indian Internment at Fort Snelling, 1862-1864 by Corinne L. Monjeau-Marz.
82. A Life on Paper: Selected Stories by Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud, translated by Edward Gauvin.
83. The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith.
84. Best American Fantasy, edited by Ann Vandermeer, Jeff Vandermeer, and Matthew Cheney.
85. It Walks in Beauty: Selected Prose of Chandler Davis, Edited and with an Introduction by Josh Lukin.
86. All Flesh Is Grass by Clifford D. Simak.
87. The Word for World Is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin.

88. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. This is one of those books that I feel sort of silly commenting on, given how influential and important it is. But here we go. There are some moving episodes here, but I felt the book as a whole lacked structure, which tempered my appreciation of it; if it had been presented as a series of essays (and a few sections had been edited out) I think I would have liked it more. But that's where I start to feel silly, so I'll just shut up now.

2010 Reading #89: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Books 1-10.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
Books 61-70.
Books 71-80.
81. The Dakota Indian Internment at Fort Snelling, 1862-1864 by Corinne L. Monjeau-Marz.
82. A Life on Paper: Selected Stories by Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud, translated by Edward Gauvin.
83. The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith.
84. Best American Fantasy, edited by Ann Vandermeer, Jeff Vandermeer, and Matthew Cheney.
85. It Walks in Beauty: Selected Prose of Chandler Davis, Edited and with an Introduction by Josh Lukin.
86. All Flesh Is Grass by Clifford D. Simak.
87. The Word for World Is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin.
88. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou.

89. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. I was remembering, when I picked this book up, that the first time I ever read Sherman Alexie was in one of the Datlow/Windling (later Datlow/Link/Grant) Year's Best Fantasy and Horror anthologies. I am still heartsick about the loss of that annual hunk of great fiction. Anyway, this is Alexie's award-winning first stab at YA literature. I liked that it was a mix of comedy and horrific tragedy, but it didn't blow me away. It falls short of the giddy defeatist absurdity of Reservation Blues, f'r instance, but then it's trying to accomplish something rather different. And, y'know, I'm not the target audience, which I sometimes have to remind myself of when I'm reading YA. I hope that some kids read this along with all the other lit poseurs like me who just have a Pavlovian reaction to anything with Alexie's name on it.