Book+Reviews+-+June+2014

Book Reviews June 2013

= Previous Book Reviews  =

Interested in reviewing books for // Women in Libraries // ? Check out our list of new and available books and review guidelines. If you would like to review, please contact Mary Jinglewski, Book Editor with a brief statement of your qualifications as a reviewer and your reason for interest in the particular item(s). toc

=//Ella Baker: Community Organizer of the Civil Rights Movement//=
 * J. Todd Moye, Rowman & Littlefield, 2013.**

Reviewed by Kate Conerton

Ella Baker was a civil rights activist who prioritized helping ordinary people organize to accomplish their specific goals. This new biography is a thorough introduction to her contributions to the US civil rights movement. Baker worked with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) along with other, smaller organizations to advance her goals. She was involved in organizing the Freedom Rides, voter registration efforts, and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party's efforts to have black delegates sent to the National Democratic Convention. Along with her many accomplishments, the book discusses Baker's frustrations within the civil rights movement because of both sexism and the popularity of a top-down approach to organizing. On several occasions Baker was pushed out of events she had made possible, including a precursor to the Freedom Rides and the Montgomery bus integration efforts, as more high profile male activists got involved. Baker believed grassroots organizing was more effective than movements steered by a few charismatic leaders. Her practical approach to activism was due in part to her experience with black Baptist women's organizations growing up in North Carolina. Activists who worked with Baker were deeply influenced by her ideas about the importance of community organization.

Moye frequently strays from Baker to discuss other players in the civil rights movement. While this provides context for Baker's views and actions - especially useful for readers unfamiliar with the movement - the book sometimes reads more like an account of the civil rights movement with an emphasis on Baker than a biography. In interviews Baker herself wanted to keep the focus on what she was trying to accomplish rather than her personal life, which helps explain this approach.

The author draws on oral history interviews with Baker and people she worked with along with a number of other interesting sources. The Note on Sources at the end of the book discusses the significance of these within scholarship on Ella Baker and the civil rights movement more generally. More discussion of conflicting sources within the text would be useful for scholars. Clearly marked sections in the Note on Sources would also benefit readers. The book's index is fairly thorough but has room for improvement; for example, the subentries under Ella Baker would be more useful as separate entries. Despite these drawbacks //Ella Baker: Community Organizer of the Civil Rights Movement// is a solid introduction to a remarkable activist, appropriate for college students and other readers interested in the topic.

//Kate Conerton is the Distance Research & Instruction Librarian at the University of Wyoming. kconerto@uwyo.edu//

=//Mom & Me & Mom//=
 * Maya Angelou, Random House, 2013.**

Reviewed by Delia Tash

In her latest work, Maya Angelou focuses on her relationship with her mother, Vivian Baxter. For the avid reader of Maya Angelou it is an opportunity to come to know better. While this book is not without new insights it is disappointing to discover upon reading //Mom & Me & Mom// that so much of the material in the book is recycled, word for word, from Angelou’s //Letter to My Daughter//. Unlike the vignette style of //Letter to My Daughter//, //Mom & Me & Mom// has a more cohesive feel while filling in some of the storyline that is missing from the earlier essays in //Letter to My Daughter//. The //About the Author// section lists other works of Angelou’s but it omits //Letter to My Daughter//.

The black and white photographs included in Angelou’s latest work provide a nice backdrop for the text. They are an addition to //Mom & Me & Mom// that is not included in //Letter to My Daughter.// There is, however, a disjointed feeling in regard to the photographic materials. For example, Angelou’s nephew who is featured in one of the family photographs is not mentioned in the text. The lack of discussion of Angelou’s nephew is surprising to me as she paints a vivid picture of her close relationship with her brother Bailey, his father. She writes that her brother “always was the most precious person to me in my life.” In this departure from the discussion of her relationship with her mother she circles back and examines her mother’s relationship with Bailey. Despite his drug use, her description of her brother portrays a stability that was missing from her early mother daughter relationship. Angelous’ mother expresses anger at Maya’s marriage to a white man exposing aspects of race relations in the generation gap that informs readers of the differing mindset of mother and daughter providing yet another obstacle to harmony between the two.

Throughout much of her story Angelou calls her mother “lady,” a nickname she coined as a young girl. Angelou later refers to Baxter as “mom,” as her trust in her mother is restored. Towards the end of the book Angelou slips back into using “lady” when discussing her mother. There is no explicit explanation for the departure from the word “mom.” As her mother weakens in health Angelou reverts to calling her mother. This little dance with dialect illuminates Maya’s intimacy level with her mother as she distances herself with the term “lady” and express perhaps more comfort when calling her “mother” or “mom.” Without spelling it out for you, the reader may experience something of a poetic turn.

//Mom & Me & Mom// is definitely an interesting read and would be a fine addition to both academic and public libraries, especially if //Letter to My Daughter// is not already in the collection. There are few books that so thoroughly dissect the relationship of an African American mother and daughter in contemporary America. Yet another book to consider on this topic is the more religious “My Story, My Song: Mother-Daughter Reflections on Life and Faith” by Lucimarian Roberts.

//Delia Tash currently works for the Penn State Great Valley Library. She received her M.S. in Library Science from Drexel University and a B.A. from Temple University where she studied Fine Arts and Art History. //