Rating: 
Summary: Historically accurate?
Review: I am dismayed at the error I read on page 8 of the book where it notes the Montgomery bus boycott as being in the year 1958. All historical accounts I have read previously indicate that the bus boycott occurred in 1955 - 1956. I am surprised that this error passed an editor's eyes.Saying this, I appreciate and admire Dr. Angelou greatly, and admire her place in history. I do recommend the book and purchased it myself when I noted how influential James Baldwin was in Dr. Angelou's life. Please, if I am wrong in either noting the error in date or my own recollection of the date, let me know.
Rating: 
Summary: A Song Flung Up to Heaven
Review: I greatly admire the skill with which Ms. Maya Angelou can put words together. She is a great poet. I enjoyed her book, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings". This current book, "A Song Flung Up to Heaven", is a fairly quick read if you can get into all the 'name dropping'. Many people are mentioned (Ossie Davis, Pete Seeger, Don Martin, Jimmy Truitt, Seymour Lazar....) that I had no clue who they were but felt that maybe I should know - sort of like an 'inside joke' that I was not privy to. So I just figured, "Oh well, apparently that person is supposed to be famous or important - at least in the circle of people involved". This is most likely due to my ignorance ( I will keep reading). Overall, this autobiographical book is pretty interesting and Ms. Angelou does make use of her poetic use of language beautifully in bits of it.
Rating:
Summary: NOT AS GOOD AS I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE
Review: I KNOW MAYA TO BE A VERY BRIGHT WOMAN, BUT I WAS DISAPPOINTED BY NOT ENOUGH POETRY AND TOO MUCH DETAIL IN THIS WORK. LISTENING TO THE BOOK ON TAPE WAS INTERESTING AT TIMES, BUT IT WAS ALMOST LIKE WADING THROUGH TOO MUCH MEDIOCRE STUFF TO GET TO THE GOOD STUFF. SHE ALSO REFERS TO "DRINKING" TOO MUCH THROUGHOUT THE BOOK. I HOPE HER OTHER STUFF IS BETTER.
Rating: 
Summary: Proof that she reamins PHENOMENAL
Review: I truly enjoyed this most recent addition to my Angelou library, "A Song Flung Up To Heaven". Dr. Angelou continues to grace us with her smooth as cream use of words. She is able to educate me, through her delicate choice of language, honesty, & humor, about an America that existed long before I was born. She stimulates thought about how much our attitudes and behaviours as people in this country have or have not changed over the decades. Dr Angelou shares some extremely painful and prolific life experiences -the contributions of true friends to her life and her successes, the loss of dear ones through violence, the ups and downs sometimes created by love interests, the rock strong relationship she shares with her family, her worries about her only child evolving into manhood, and the neverending shaping of her womanhood.
This is a story of hope.
As has been previously written by others, the ONLY negative about this book is that is was over way too soon. I read this in less than four hours. Dr. Angelou leaves me wishing for more of her knowledge and insight and guidance as an African American woman.
If a standing ovation could be heard by her - I would certainly give it.
Rating: 
Summary: Good thing it's 40% off, not much content
Review: I would never think of Maya Angelou as lazy, but this book seems like it was scribbled over a weekend. The book itself is small, the type is big, the margins are very wide. If it were printed like a normal hardcover, it would be about 85 pages long. How disappointing that the author of five remarkable and beautiful volumes of autobiography has done such a lightweight, impressionistic job on number 6. I wanted to know so much more. Here's hoping she sits down and really works hard on number 7.
Rating:
Summary: Nice
Review: If you are an Angelou fan, that is, you've read all of her autobiographical work and are familiar with a wide range of her poetry and essays, then you are bound to be torn by her latest autobiographical piece, "A Sung Flung Up To Heaven." Although the writing is vibrant and accessible as usual, her story seems to be missing any new insights, or wisdom. There is very little in this writing that she hasn't said in previous accounts. There were sections of the book that appeared to be reiterated from previous work, yet the author seems to hold back when writing about the death of Malcom X and Dr. M. L. King. I thought for sure that Angelou's memory of those events would be told with more vivid detail and personal reflection. Overall, the book is an easy and interesting read. As a huge fan, I'm always excited to devour any of Angelou's work. I'm usually fully satiated by the experience, in this case however; I'm not as full as I could be and another helping of Angelou is in order.
Rating:
Summary: CAPTIVATING
Review: If you thought I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was good then you will be equally satisfied with this newest piece in Maya Angelou's autobiographical collection. On this particular journey, we are taken to the turbulent years of Malcom X and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assasinations. The deaths of these two leaders deeply impacted the life of the author who had been engaged by them to do work. Her anguish over their deaths and their meaning for her life was a moving experience. We are also taken through the streets of Watts. Smell the pungent odor of wood and rubber as the city becomes an inferno. Maya is a witness and shares the sounds, smells and feel of what went on during the riot. With grace and dignity she manages to come through the chaos. She lets us in on her stuggles to find work and makes us laugh over the games of her estranged African lover. We also see how she deals with her rebellious teenage son who wants to be on his own. Certainly Ms. Angelou has written a captivating autobiography that is lyrical in its prose and accessible to any reader. I reading this portion of her life during the middle nineteen sixties. The major fault that I find with this work is its brevity and lack of depth. She doesn't go into any great detail describing her feelings about her fallen mentors. You keep wondering what more does she have to say about them. Her relationship with her parents, brother and son are also given a limited look. What is also missing are those parts of her life from the time of her publishing of Caged Bird and the present. I'm sure she has much more to tell but hasn't shared it with us. I wanted to know more about those years and wished she could have accommodated me and her readers. As such this is a good story although much more could have been told. This is a must buy book for those who are collectors of her work. It is also a good book for young people to look over the life of one who has stayed the course.
Rating:
Summary: Maya, Sings Your Song
Review: In book six of her autobiography series, "A Song Flung Up to Heaven",Maya Angelou vividly recounts the many memorable occurrences taking place between the years of 1964 through 1968. Angelou's first hand experience of the riot in Watts invokes images of the burning frustrations of the people of that area and time. The opportunities of working alongside historic figures such as Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were short lived and a sour subject of intense pain for her. Maya tells of her trip from Africa to Los Angeles and then to
New York. During this time she experiences the absence of her son, who stayed in Africa to continue his education, and the lost love of her African spouse. With the help of family and friends Maya gains the strength to rise again. The story ends at the beginning of her first book in this bio series. In this reader's opinion, a song flung up to heaven is a silent prayer for the strength to go on in this life, and the prayer always returns with the needed relief through the thoughtfulness of those around us. The joy of this book was listening to the author read it in her own voice through recorded books.
Rating:
Summary: Satisfied...
Review: Like I already predicted, the book was excellent, a page-turner, and excellent word-play.
Rating:
Summary: "A Song Flung Up To Heaven"
Review: Maya Angelou is not afraid to speak on her life experiences.She is not afraid to express her emotions at all.Very direct and sraight speaking she is.Very talented and gifted. Cassandra Dillon
Author of "Reality Poems".
| 
