Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide.

Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But when he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is a memoir and treatise on abolition. It was written by impassioned abolitionist, brilliant writer, newspaper editor, eloquent orator, and former enslaved African, Frederick Douglas (1818–1895), whose speeches fired the abolitionist cause.Douglass led an impressive life, during which he endured years of physical abuse, deprivation and tragedy early in life. However, through sheer force of character, he was able to overcome these obstacles to become a leading spokesman for his people. In this book, the first and most frequently read of his three autobiographies, Douglass provides graphic descriptions of his childhood and horrifying experiences as an enslaved African, as well as a harrowing record of his dramatic escape to the North and eventual freedom.