Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

Finding Me by Viola Davis

8 reviews

pagesandpixels's review

Go to review page

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

So poetically written. I listened on audiobook and it was beautiful and engaging. What a life Viola lived and what an honor to listen. Another great book that reminds us why we need to buy/listen to women voices and stories.  



Expand filter menu Content Warnings

lea's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.75

Amazing audiobook. Her childhood was unfortunately so relatable and hit me hard. I don't watch TV or movies much so I didn't know her but I'm definitely a big fan now. This was beautiful written.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

inthemoonforcheese's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

4.5


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

kcbas1's review

Go to review page

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

4.25


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

eni_iilorak's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad

5.0

This is not a typical celebrity memoir. It's a story about survival and finding a voice.

Listen to the audiobook! It is outstanding, and hearing the story told in Viola Davis' own, expressive voice adds a lot to the book.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

nebraskanwriter's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional inspiring fast-paced

5.0

This is one of the best memoirs I have ever read/listened to. Viola Davis is an incredible person. Her strength and all the things she went through is unimaginable. This was a hard book to listen to at times, Viola does not shy away from taking you through memories of her childhood. Her dad’s abuse towards her mom, sibling abuse from her older brother, poverty so intense most of the time they didn’t have electricity, food or a working toilet. How she overcame so many obstacles and horrible things that happened to her growing up to then go on to graduate from Juilliard, then go on to act with Denzel Washington and then Meryl Streep until her big break out in How to Get Away with Murder is truly incredible. She is an amazing individual and a true inspiration.

This book is one that I know will stick with me. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

coreyarch9's review

Go to review page

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

3.5

"Every January, we had our Martin Luther King celebration, a variety show [...] it was our rebellion. We were told it would ruin our instrument. Well, our soul was our instrument, too."

I love Annalise MF Keating, but I didn't know too much about Viola Davis. In Finding Me, Viola talks less about her career as an actress and more about the systemic poverty and racism and the coinciding internalized struggles that she had to overcome to be the woman we know today. And she doesn't hold anything back.

She talks a lot about what society deems beautiful, worthy, or correct. During her time at Juiliard, students were discouraged from hosting an MLK Day program or anything that might highlight their differences from their white counterparts. She talks about the typecast roles that she would be cast in or invited to audition for. She talks about what it was like to be called beautiful for the first time. She talks about therapy. 

In the end, she talks about finding herself, writing, "I am no longer ashamed of me."

I will never know firsthand what it's like to experience the abject poverty and racism that Viola grew up with. And that's why it's so important to read about. When she talked about being called beautiful for the first time, I started to wonder, when was the last time I told somebody they were pretty? When was the last time I told a woman of color that she was beautiful? When was the last time I supported a black-owned café instead of just picking up a latte at my local Tim Hortons? When did I last show kindness to a stranger?

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

lucyduller's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

If you’re fed up of discussions about the royal family and the books coming out recently, please please pick up this one. It is simply fantastic. 
*Please check trigger warnings before reading this book*

This is hands down the best audiobook I’ve listened to. I can imagine it was a fantastic book to read, but having it performed to you by an Emmy, Tony and Oscar winning actress, was an unmatchable experience. Viola Davis has such a fantastic voice, and the way she told her story was so moving. 
In this book she recounts her life, from growing up in poverty, battling food insecurity and in a household filled with domestic violence of her mother from her father and the sexual abuse she received from her brother. She describes the reality of sexual abuse that she faced as a child, and as an adult and how she was able to overcome some of the behaviours she had accepted. 

I was entranced for the whole 9 hours. I usually listen to audiobooks at 1.2x speed, as a lot of the readers are quite slow. But this book I listened to at normal speed and I savoured every minute of it. 
Viola Davis recounts her experiences becoming an actress and how her upbringing informed how she went about achieving her dreams, going to Julliard and becoming an award-winning actress. She details the battles she faced in finding roles that were deemed suitable for a dark-skinned black woman, often those being best friend characters or addict mothers. 
 
Most poignant was her discussions about her relationship with herself, the way from the age of 8 years old she thought she was worth nothing. She resented being black and this she carried with her into her adulthood. But after years of therapy and life experience, she learnt how to embrace herself, at 8 years old and at 57. 
It was incredibly moving and one of the best books I’ve read, instant 5 stars. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
More...