By Rosa Johnson Butler, Richard A. Long, Marcia Ann Gillespie
208 pages; Doubleday

For decades we have been reading her, hearing the honeyed richness of her voice. Now Maya Angelou: A Glorious Celebration (Doubleday) ushers this iconic writer and civil rights activist (not to mention onetime dancer and calypso singer) into her ninth decade with a bouquet of portraits, letters, and family photographs. As Oprah notes in her foreword, she was a young reporter when she first met the legendary Maya Angelou, who smiled and asked her, "Who are you, girl?" May the legend live on!

— Cathleen Medwick