Finding Me: An Oprah's Book Club Pick

Product Information

It’s no accident that Time Magazine named Viola Davis one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Unfortunately, I shared the same idea with many people in my area so the wait list for this was quite long at my library. Feeling like I was in the room listening to her story made me want to reach out and hug her and let her know that she is worthy and how her light shines through in the world.

Davis also explores the complexity of the entertainment industry and how so few actually make it to high levels of fame. To have gotten away in any semblance of life and still be so strong, put so much of herself into others, and be so caring and kind. Taking off the wig in How to Get Away With Murder was my duty to honor black women by not showing any image that is palatable to the oppressor, to people who have tarnished, punished the image of black womanhood for so long. Can we all exude a bit more kindness and compassion and freaking assistance when someone is struggling? The racial segregation and black codes caused by these laws made it difficult for African Americans to access public transportation, schools, cast votes, and even gain economic independence.She wants to connect and communicate to the reader what’s it’s like to come from poverty, to live in fear, to fight for your life. I’m guessing every reader will continue thinking about this book long after finishing it - certain sections more than others (all for varied reasons)…. There are conversations related to misogyny, racism, and colorism; things that I knew existed in Hollywood, but were still heartbreaking to hear via Davis' experiences. For a year after graduating from Rhode Island College, Viola participated in various theater programs and did miscellaneous odd jobs to support herself. Every painful memory, every mentor, every friend and foe serves as a chisel, a leap pad that has shaped “ME!

I felt that so intensely because my 3rd grade teacher said that Black people couldn't be doctors or lawyers, so we should focus on trades. The level of courage and bravery needed to overcome some of the things Viola has experienced is extremely high.Viola also details the events of her rise to where she is now and like her childhood, it is extremely upsetting but also very inspiring. I see people—the way they walk, talk, laugh, and grieve, and their silence—in a way that is hyperfocused because of my past. Davis begins at the beginning: born on a South Carolina plantation (truly), she shortly moved with her mother and alcoholic father to Central Falls, Rhode Island, where she grew up in dire poverty.

Career-wise, after Viola got a role in the 1998 HBO movie 'The Pentagon Wars', there was a domino effect, and more television work came along. Finding Me is Viola Davis’ story, in her own words, and spans her incredible, inspiring life, from her coming-of-age in Rhode Island to her present day.

This is one of those stories to teach white people/people of any other race how hard some black people have had it. Toward the end of the book, the intersection of her writing about her career and her writing about the evolution of her family dynamic sometimes merged in a way that didn’t always work for me.