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What a memoir! From extreme poverty and child abuse and eventually becoming a star. One thing for absolute certainty was her desire to make something of herself. This book had my heartfelt sympathy for any child living in a “dirt poor” situation. 4.5⭐️

In light of recent developments, I decided to lean into Black History Month for the month of February. My remaining book club and #authoramonth selections are already poised in that direction. While looking at my TBR list, I remembered something from my year end stats that I forgot to post at the time.

On both Goodreads and StoryGraph, Finding Me was the highest rated of the books I read in 2024. Isn‘t that interesting?

“Forgiveness is giving up all hope of a different past.”
― Viola Davis, Finding Me

Wine needed to help through this, it‘s a tough read, as a teacher I find the ignorance of obvious child neglect heartbreaking.

Holy Moly! To say Viola Davis had a hard life growing up is such an understatement! From poverty, sexual abuse, and growing up with an alcoholic father, which I know personally is very hard, bullying and being ashamed to becoming a wonderful actress, she overcame a lot. Very few times did I laugh when listening to this memoir. That was when she talked about her mom protecting them from Bull Frogs Eyes kids. Most of the time, I was stunned or ⬇️

In my book, you will meet a little girl named Viola who ran from her past until she made a life-changing decision to stop running forever.

This is my story, from a crumbling apartment in Central Falls, Rhode Island, to the stage in New York City, and beyond. This is the path I took to finding my purpose but also my voice in a world that didn‘t always see me.”

YA author Brandy Colbert suggested I move this book to the top of my TBR. 💕 So good. Give this woman her flowers. 💐 May Viola experience so much joy in her life & may she continue to share her talents.

Excellent. Definitely a must read about Viola Davis‘ life and work. Truly inspirational and well written/ spoke. Loved this one.

This was every bit as good as I thought it would be 🖤 I absolutely love her on How to Get Away with Murder and the little insights into how she wanted to play that character were great. I was gripped by her story and how she told it. Inspiring, vulnerable and raw. #nonfiction2024 (I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings)

Viola can sure rock that warrior fuel in every role she plays! A tough yet inspiring read from a fearless and empowering woman.🙌🏻
Thank you @PurpleyPumpkin for the gift of this powerful book. Looking forward to seeing your review.
#BookSpin
@TheAromaofBooks

What an amazing memoir. And her narration is ❤️!

This was phenomenal.
The best memoir I have ever read. Imagine me crying while listening to this in the middle of the gym. My heart aches for younger Viola. But man, has she worked her butt off and persevered. Julian sounds like such a delight. 🩷
I absolutely recommend the audiobook.
Create the life you want to live. Create a life you are proud of living.
10 stars

01.25.2024

#NewYearNewBooks

When I search for authors my age, J.K. Rowling & Nicholas Sparks pop up first, but I‘m going with Viola Davis for today‘s #ByAuthorYourAge prompt. She‘s an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) winner & her memoir (tagged) is in my Audible TBR (hopefully #Roll100 will push me to read it this year) & she has a children‘s book spinoff of Corduroy the bear.

Second finish from my #AuldLangSpine list. So fortuitous to have read these two books back to back. Viola‘s memoir adds a huge level of humanity to the nonfiction facts and figures described in Poverty, by America. What an amazing woman. Her story is brutal and riveting. 5 🌟.

Davis suffered childhood poverty, trauma and abuse followed by an extraordinary rise to stardom. Her outstanding memoir is extremely personal, inspirational and wise. I highly recommend the Grammy Award winning audiobook that she narrated — which made her an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) winner! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

First prompt completed for #readyourTBR challenge
#2024challenge @melissajayne

Also combined my #Auldlangspine with this book.

@melissajayne
@peaKnit
@monalyisha

Good. A rich and powerful story, full of sadness and joy that made me feel a rollercoaster of emotions . Even though I enjoyed it I felt that her childhood dominated most of the book and her rise to fame was rushed through the last couple of chapters.

#Coronet
#HodderandStoughton
#Auldlangspine
@peaKnit
@monalyisha

My favourite book for May was Finding Me by Viola Davis. #12booksof2023

1. How do I pick? Finding Me by Viola Davis & Daughters of the Deer by Danielle Daniel
2. Sleepless Nights by Elizabeth Hardwick (DNF)
3. I'll be in the Miami area, so maybe some dancing?
4. Nope
5. It was a bright, green, warm Christmas.

#WinterGames #TeamEvergreen
@clwojick

I already admired her work and thought she was a great actress. I also watched one of these home improvement shows where she gave a childhood friend a renovation, but I had no idea about her life until I read this book. I listened to the audiobook and just found out that she won a Grammy for it. It was so good I couldn‘t stop listening. I devoured it. It was so authentic, honest, inspiring and moving. A must read or better yet listen.

This is a tough read. I love Viola Davis and I didn't realize the extreme poverty she was raised in. Her family life was a struggle, and reading about it was hard. The way we as a society allow children to live, no one helped them and it is so frustrating. Luckily for Davis through so much hard work she has a happy ending. This book gave me so much more respect for her and her craft.

#BookBinge Day 2: Among the #CelebMemoir(s) I have yet to add to my groaning bookshelves. Here are 16 more for this year: https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/best-celebrity-memoirs

Raw, moving, gritty, inspiring. Great read.

This book should be a requirement in schools/colleges. The representativity that this biography carries is intangible but in some many ways solid, physical and strong. Viola Davis told her story but she tells the story of so many others “Violas” out there.

My hold finally came through! At one point, I was 990th in line…read that again.

#libraryhold

So very good. What a difficult upbringing but she prevailed in every way possible. She is a force. Her narration is beautiful, she won a Grammy for it!

Imagine being a young black girl growing up in abject poverty in Rhode Island. Imagine witnessing domestic violence every day. Imagine having to go to school smelling like urine because there‘s no water or electricity or heat in your home. Can you imagine going from this to being an Oscar-winning actress? You don‘t have to imagine it - because Viola Davis experienced it all, and wrote an amazing memoir about her life journey.

#Nonfiction2023

Wow.... that was tough and fantastic. Highly recommend audio read by Viola.

1) The tagged book. I only listened to the book because I had heard really great things about the audiobook.

2) Lots. The radiation treatments from a year ago are still wearing me out, especially when I do a number of things in a day.

#two4tuesday

I couldn‘t get enough of her story. I‘m not a fan of memoirs because they seem to have the same storyline. Grew up poor blah blah blah. Viola said she wasn‘t poor she was “Po”. That hit different. She was right she grew up poorer than poor, po.

This memoir is amazing, as so many others have already emphasized in reviews, with awards, and other accolades heaped upon this book. Viola Davis is a national treasure and I want to see all of her work. I listened to the audiobook (which is currently on hoopla) and it‘s 100% the way to go!

Thank you so much @MicrobeMom for this recommendation ( #YouPickTBR23 ). Listening to Viola talk about her struggles and acknowledging her strength … just wow.

What a gut-wrenching memoir from Viola Davis, who was born into crippling poverty, lived in the most deplorable homes, watched the most horrific abuse, was abused herself, but clawed her way to success! This hit me in the most unexpected places but she's such an inspiration! Plus, I love her portrayal of Amanda Waller so much. 😁

This is my #YouPickTBR23 pick this month. I am doing the audio because of course it‘s read by the author.

I listened to the audio of this because Viola Davis reads it herself and it won the Grammy, naturally. My absolute only complaint is that I have to read it again on Kindle so that I can save numerous notes and highlights.

She goes so deep, with such openness and grace. Just beyond. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Losing a pet is hard, but it's even harder when that pet is filling a deficit of loneliness with love.

I‘m in charge of collecting suggestions and creating the reading slate for my IRL book club. So far I‘ve received 15 recommendations for ten slots! I think this is one that will make the cut.

#temptingtitles #withme

Nothing better than puttering outside listening to an audio book ❤️❤️❤️ Finding Me is stellar! What a life Ms Davis has had, survived and is thriving in!!

We are having CRAZY awesome warm weather 🙏🏻🙏🏻 so I have been racing home to move my raised garden beds across my patio. The awful part will be recreating the interlocking brick back on the other side 🤣🤣 my tomatoes are going to be contenders this year 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🍅🥬🥒🌶️

3/5. I wouldn't have read this book if it wasn't for my book club. I'm not a fan of celebrity autobiographies, hence the rating.
That being said, I found value in her sharing her life story, sharing the reality of making it as an actress (the amount of luck involved), sharing candidly with the readers the traumas she had to endure growing up. The negative point to me was the lengthy parts about the theater/cinema that I wasn't much interested in.

Jan-Feb 😏non-fiction.
It wasn‘t hard to choose, she deserves that Grammy award🥹.
EGOT

Viola takes us on her journey of the rediscovery of herself. She shows us the value of finding and having compassion for your younger self.

This certainly lived up to every bit of the hype for me. Loved it from start to finish. She is amazing, and I had no idea how amazing given everything she's endured. Loved the Grammy-winning audio but am wondering if there are pictures in the print copy? If so I must see them. (I also watched The Woman King this past weekend and thought that was amazing, too.)

Davis absolutely deserves the Grammy she was awarded for this. Five stars.

What a marvel she is! Not simply because she is one of the greatest actors of my lifetime, but because this little girl endured decades of racism, domestic violence, sexual assault, extreme poverty, addiction, etc. in her family and not only survived, she is thriving. My only quibble is I would have liked more meat on her most recent successes but that wasn‘t really the point of this. Brava, Queen!

I guess I‘m reading this next! #EGOT 👑

Pearls pick for the month of February has us read Viola Davis‘s Finding Me. It‘s filled with joy, sorrow and all that‘s in between her written word. She‘s narrating her audio in a way that has you seeing her life played out as if your watching a play on Broadway.
#violadavis #findingme #pearlspick