I loved this book - it was funny, charming and original. A real Southern novel full of great characters and it kept me turning the pages.

Back Cover Blurb:
Big Stone Gap, Virginia, is the sort of sleepy hamlet where kids get married at eighteen, and stay forever. So thirty-five-year old Ave Maria Mulligan is something of an oddity. A self proclaimed spinster, as the local pharmacist she's been keeping the townsfolk's secrets for years.
Now Ave Maria is about to discover a scandal in her own family's past that will blow the lid right off her quiet, uneventful life. Soon she's juggling two unexpected marriage proposals and conducting a no-holds-barred family feud.

I LOVE this book, and is my favorite of Maya Angelou's autobiographies

A great writer, her sentences just flow. Her life story is told in a matter of fact sort of way - not invoking the compassion you're going to have for her. Overall, I am really glad I finally read this book!

Memoir of a young black woman, and the hardships she endures growing up. For some reason I had a hard time getting through this one; maybe I just wasn't in the mood for it at the time. It is beautifully written.

Ms. Angelou writes so clearly. Her story unfolded from my imagination. Often, she would put simple lines of poetry in the story and that made all the difference. It was descriptive, yet, interesting and most of all, easy to relate to.

"Maya" tells the story of a young girl who grew up in Arkansas. The story of Maurgarite "Maya" Johnson starts in Stamps, Arkansas where she lived with her grandmother and uncle Willy and older brother Bailey. The story follows her life as she grows up. It's full of all her trials, triumphs and tribulations. Her story ends with her beginning the next book in her life, just after high school and the birth of her son.

This book definitely opened my eyes to another culture and to racism. Although I cannot truly understand, I now see as I didn't before.

A memoir about Maya's growing up in the south and in California shuffling between mom, dad and grandmother. LOTS of discussion for my book club.

This book made me laugh pretty constantly until the end, when I cried. It paints a great picture of a crazy relationship in a crazy city. The antics of the "X" are mostly too funny to be believed. I plan on reading this book more than once.

A fascinating, simple book. Winner of the Orange Prize it is repeatedly lauded for being 'sparse' by various people praising it on the first two pages.

It is the story of a woman on a plantation in the South. Not exactly the most sympathetic heroine, she feels rather sorry for herself throughout much of the book for the dark, lonely life she leads. She despises her husband and resents her slaves. Yet it never occurs to her that if things are going to be better, perhaps the whole system has to change.

It sounds like a depressing book, and to some degree it is. But the taut writing and suspenseful style are a hook I read it in two days, unable to put it down. I was both repulsed and drawn in by the lead and the complex cast of characters who surround her, none of whom are exactly good, but none of whom are exactly evil.

I will definitely be looking for more from Valerie Martin - this book made me think harder than anything I've read in a while.