Letter to My Daughter is the first of Maya Angelou's books that I've read and I was slightly disappointed. It's made up of a collection of essays that contain life lessons, advice and wisdom for the women across the globe that Angelou describes as her daughters, based on her personal experiences and reflections. Some of the chapters were powerful and inspiring with strong core messages, but most of them were quite "meh" and it didn't resonate with me. Compilations are always going to feel slightly disjointed, but this book felt very incomplete and incoherent. It was clear that this book was the result of Angelou sorting through a bunch of her writings and letters and throwing them together. There wasn't a clear central message or theme, and as it progressed felt more and more like a bunch of diary entries about random topics.

Unfortunately, the book was also very exlusionary, which ironically, was the opposite intent of Angelou in writing this book. Angelou attempts to address different types of women across the globe, however, if you're not an American Christian woman, you're probably not going to connect to a lot of what she speaks about. Since I'm British and non-religious, I struggled to relate to many of the messages and experiences discussed. The Christian aspects felt particularly preachy and disconnected me from the stories.

Generally, it felt like Letter to my Daughter was misrepresented by its title and summary. I went into it expecting life advice from Angelou on specific issues that women face in education, the workplace, family and relationships, but it just wasn't. I'm sure for many women this book will be a valuable read which gives voice to their own thoughts, feelings and experiences, but for many other women, they won't connect to it. Sadly, I'm in the latter crowd and as inspirational as Maya Angelou is, this book wasn't for me. However, I'd definitely read more of Angelou's works and I'm looking forward to reading I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

Audiobook: I listened to the audiobook via Libby narrated by Maya Angelou.