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Reading order

Maya Angelou's Autobiography reading order

Maya Angelou

  1. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings1969
  2. Gather Together in My Name1974
  3. Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas1976
  4. The Heart of a Woman1981
  5. All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes1986
  6. A Song Flung Up to Heaven2002
  7. Mom & Me & Mom2012
8.28.2 / 10
514 ratings
Score
7 volumes
Volumes
1969–2012
Published
about 30 h
Reading time
Completed
Status

Quick answer

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Start withI Know Why the Caged Bird Sings1969 · Volume 1 of 7
Open the volume →Buy the first volumeListen to the audiobook

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Publication order

7 volumes1969–2012Completed

  • Seven volumes of memoir.
  • I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), about Angelou’s childhood in Arkansas and California, is the one nearly everyone reads and stands on its own.
  • The later volumes follow her through motherhood, performing, activism and life in Ghana; read them in order if you go on.

A plan for the whole series

7 volumes, 1,683 pages, about 30 hours. At 45 min a day that is about 6 weeks.

Stages

2 stages, with 1 short book from outside the series between them. You finish around December 18, 2026, 9 days later than in one go.

  1. Stage 119 habout 4 weeksby November 24, 2026
  2. BreakMaus · Art Spiegelman · 295 pp. · score 9.05 h, by December 3, 2026. A short book from another shelf, so you come back to the series hungry.
  3. Stage 212 h15 daysby December 18, 2026
    • 5. All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes1986 · 218 pages · 4 h
    • 6. A Song Flung Up to Heaven2002 · 212 pages · 4 h
    • 7. Mom & Me & Mom2012 · 201 pages · 4 h
  4. The end of the series
    December 18, 2026
In one goDecember 9, 2026about 6 weeks
In stages, with breaksDecember 18, 2026about 7 weeks · +5 h of other books

We count 1.1 min per page, the pace of an average novel reader. Faster? Move the slider.

How this plan is calculated

The plan comes from the pages and ratings of each volume: we split the series into stages of about three weeks’ reading, size each break to the stage before it, and read the chance of finishing from how many readers rate the last volume compared with the first. How we work out the plan →

Every volume in order

Read: 0 of 7
  1. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
    I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings1969 · 514 ratingsStart here
    8.38.3 / 10
  2. Gather Together in My Name
    Gather Together in My Name1974 · Not ranked yetBuy
    –Not ranked yet
  3. Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas
    Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas1976 · Not ranked yetBuy
    –Not ranked yet
  4. The Heart of a Woman
    The Heart of a Woman1981 · 16 ratings · Not ranked yetBuy
    –Not ranked yet
  5. All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes
    All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes1986 · Not ranked yetBuy
    –Not ranked yet
  6. A Song Flung Up to Heaven
    A Song Flung Up to Heaven2002 · 7 ratings · Not ranked yetBuy
    –Not ranked yet
  7. Mom & Me & Mom
    Mom & Me & Mom2012 · Not ranked yetBuy
    –Not ranked yet

Order checked by hand · Order and years: Wikidata (CC0). Spotted an error? Tell us. · Data updated October 29, 2026

Frequently asked questions

Which Maya Angelou's Autobiography book is the longest?

“Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas” is the longest at 288 pages; the shortest is “Mom & Me & Mom” with 201 pages.