Mom & Me & Mom

For the first time in her series of autobiographies, Maya Angelou focuses on her mother, Vivian Baxter, in this seventh and final volume. When Baxter's marriage was falling apart, she sent her three-year-old daughter and the girl's older brother to their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas, away from their California home, and the feeling of abandonment stayed with Angelou for years. The book follows their reunion a decade later and the shift from resentment and distrust toward acceptance and love. Once Baxter sees her through her son's birth, Angelou stops calling her Lady and calls her Mom; the second part shows mutual support, with Baxter seeing Angelou through single parenthood, a failed marriage and a career of highs and lows.

Emma Watson picked it for Our Shared Shelf, her book club.