by Viola Davis
Winner of the 2023 Grammy for Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording!
Audie Award Winner for Audiobook of the Year!
Narrated by Viola Davis
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.
As I wrote Finding Me, my eyes were open to the truth of how our stories are often not given close examination. We are forced to reinvent them to fit into a crazy, competitive, judgmental world. So I wrote this for anyone running through life untethered, desperate and clawing their way through murky memories, trying to get to some form of self-love. For anyone who needs reminding that a life worth living can only be born from radical honesty and the courage to shed facades and be . . . you.
Finding Me is a deep reflection, a promise, and a love letter of sorts to self. My hope is that my story will inspire you to light up your own life with creative expression and rediscover who you were before the world put a label on you.
Winner of the 2023 Grammy for Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording!
Audie Award Winner for Audiobook of the Year!
Narrated by Viola Davis
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.
As I wrote Finding Me, my eyes were open to the truth of how our stories are often not given close examination. We are forced to reinvent them to fit into a crazy, competitive, judgmental world. So I wrote this for anyone running through life untethered, desperate and clawing their way through murky memories, trying to get to some form of self-love. For anyone who needs reminding that a life worth living can only be born from radical honesty and the courage to shed facades and be . . . you.
Finding Me is a deep reflection, a promise, and a love letter of sorts to self. My hope is that my story will inspire you to light up your own life with creative expression and rediscover who you were before the world put a label on you.
Reviews-
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Actor Viola Davis doesn't mince words. Her audiobook captures the voice of a woman with a fascinating, heartbreaking lived experience. Davis's performance here is essentially a one-woman show, bringing listeners in close from the first moments. While she was growing up in a condemned property, her family struggled with poverty. But her hard work and talent brought her to the Juilliard School. Davis describes how her true artistic connection came when she traveled to Africa. She's clear about how her focus on acting, and not stardom, has guided her throughout her career, and how success in the arts has a lot to do with luck. Davis is the consummate actor and storyteller, perfect for the audiobook medium. Her voice is vulnerable yet strong. The result is electric. S.P.C. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
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Starred review from September 1, 2022
Raw and unflinchingly honest, this powerful memoir will have fans celebrating actress Davis's resilience and drive to be more, leave her small-town childhood behind, and find her voice. Listeners get a glimpse into Davis's private life, from Central Falls, RI, to New York City and more locations worldwide. Her willingness to describe what she has overcome is powerful and not to be missed. Having an author narrate their own memoir adds intimacy, and this audiobook is no exception--no other choice would have made sense. Listeners hear the pain, feel the love, and celebrate the accomplishments Davis unfolds throughout her determined rise to be the remarkable leading powerhouse she is. This memoir takes listeners on Davis's journey through the racism, misogyny, and abuse she's experienced throughout her life and career. VERDICT Not to be missed, this memoir is a powerful reminder that our childhoods do not define us, that we can determine our perception and worth.--Stephanie Charlefour
Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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Starred review from May 16, 2022
Tony and Oscar–winning actor Davis gives a master class in triumphing over poverty and despair in her soul-baring debut. Born in 1965, Davis became intimate with destitution, dysfunction, and abuse at a young age, growing up with an alcoholic father, and living off welfare checks in 1970s Central Falls, R.I. Inspired by the “true power of artistry” she watched Cicely Tyson display on TV, Davis took up acting, and, with the encouragement of an acting coach from a college prep program, won a scholarship to Rhode Island College. “Achieving became my idea of being alive,” Davis writes as she recounts honing her craft at Juilliard, before embarking on a trip to Gambia that transformed her and helped her celebrate her Blackness. Though her success didn’t come overnight, years of hard work led Davis to break out of the stereotypical “eye-rolling, ambiguous sidekick” roles that she bemoans Black women actors are often cast in, and win a 2014 Emmy at age 47 for her role in Shonda Rhimes’s How to Get Away with Murder. Even with her accomplishments, Davis is frank about the acting world’s shortcomings, where, she writes, “womanhood is defined by how ‘classically’ pretty you are... how close to white you are.” Davis’s grit and determination are moving, and her unflinching reckoning with the “racism and misogyny” she faced in Hollywood makes her story of overcoming all the more effective. Fans will be utterly enthralled.
