Reviews tagging 'Abortion'

Finding Me: A Memoir by Viola Davis

207 reviews

mdavis26's review against another edition

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4.25


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bookish_den's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

This was a stellar memoir, as you would have expected from such an acclaimed actor, ofc it won a Grammy đź‘Ź 

I’ve always admired Viola's impressive acting skills, her powerful award speeches, her funny and kind personality in interviews, her IG acc focused on spreading love and positive stories, but I had no idea about her life and where she came from and how she got to where she is.

With a traumatic past rooted in poverty, racism and abuse, in this book she self reflects on her life and makes amends with the child she once was and who endured so much to be where her adult self is today.

Later on the book touches on some industry insights, I loved how passionately she talked about theatre specifically, it also addresses howprivilege and luck are big factors in making it in Hollywood, the struggles for women in the business and specially black women, the impact of colorism and sexism in role casting and payment, the problem of health insurance and affordable housing without fair living wages (reading it in the context of the Sag Aftra strike made it specially impactful), but above all “Finding Me” is a very vulnerable story of pain and forgiveness and finding joy and love and healing generational trauma.

Memoirs are hard to criticize cause who are we to dissect and debate someone else’s life? this one was flawless and Viola being the great actor she is did a masterful voice work, how matter of factly she sounded at times, or how mad or happy or sad, the accents, the different cadences of speech for different people, all excellent.

Im not gonna lie, at times it was too much for me, too sad, too raw, too distressing, but the hope for her kept me going, knowing where she’d eventually end did help me walk alongside her through all the hard places she went through before. 

Im proud of her and the success and acclaim she has achieved but im marveled and wowed at her soul, her unbreakable spirit, her empathy and kindness, her ability to understand and forgive and heal and choose love.

Everyone should read this.

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emily_koopmann's review against another edition

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alexlily's review against another edition

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5.0


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amalas_bookstop's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

Viola gets all of the flowers for this autobiography.

She was completely open and unfiltered. I love that we are reading how she finds herself and her voice is so powerful in this book. I love that she took the power to write this about her life. I cannot imagine the courage it must have taken to write something so vulnerable.

She had me in tears by the 3rd chapter and laughing at the end.

I recommend you do the full experience of having her voice in the audiobook read this to you as you follow along with a physical copy. It will completely grip you.  This without a doubt is my favorite read of the year. I wish I could give it more than 5 stars.

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ilariachillea's review against another edition

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5.0


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kcbas1's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

4.25


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jessicastephenson's review against another edition

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challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

I will admit I mostly knew Viola Davis from How To Get Away With Murder, but after reading this book I want to consume every bit of media she's been a part of. She is incredibly vulnerable and emotional throughout this book, unveiling traumatic experiences from her childhood to present life and how they shaped her. It was difficult to listen to her tell her stories. At times I became deeply upset hearing her recount things, specifically those that I could relate to and knew the pain of all too well. This immediately became one of my favourite books ever just a few minutes in - Viola's narration is beautiful and adds another layer to the stories. 

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twalton1's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

Veruly insightful 

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stephanieheld's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

4.0


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