These past six months have seen me do a lot of reading. I read some superbly written books by a bunch of new writers on the block, to name one of them, Nadeem Aslam. The other fascinating writer, she is a very well established  Black American writer who is not a stranger to many English Literature students out there, is  Maya Angelou. Her writing really warms you, makes you pause and think about why she writes what she writes. Some of her thoughts that I read in her books actually made me stop, think and wonder. She opens your mind to the many facets and nuances associated with being black and living in a once racially consumed American society. Her books are largely about the life of a Black person and how the protagonist and his/her fellow black characters triumph over the struggles of being black in a society which once, and probably still does to some extent,  never really gave them the respect they so truly deserved. Not once in her writing does one get the feeling that she is shameful about her skin color or that she is belittling herself for being black. Maya Angelou is an embodiment  of what Black Americans today have and are still achieving,be it in any field. They have indeed come a long way.