Finding Me

Viola Davis has become a household name, and well-respected actress over the past two decades.  She has won accolades including all the major award shows’ top honors, listings in New York Times’ greatest actors and Time’s most influential people, and several honorary degrees.  But that’s not what Davis’s debut book centers on.  Finding Me is just that – a journey to finding herself and overcoming traumas.

This autobiography is a surprising look inside Davis’ life.  On the red carpet and in many on-camera interviews, the actress appears polished and well spoken.  But behind the scenes, Davis struggled through a childhood in poverty and surrounded by abuses.  She details how therapy, good friends, and watching other actresses walk this path before her helped Davis to embrace what shaped her early life and free herself to be an artist with her whole self.  This book is truly about facing the difficulties lurking in the darks of your past and strike down it’s stranglehold on your life.

I give Finding Me 4 out of 5 stars.  I was astonished to learn about Davis’ early life, and the trouble that family brought her throughout her burgeoning career.  However, I appreciated the honesty and clarity Davis brings to the conversations around therapy and how it has healed her spirit.  I also found some of the discussions around sex, drugs, and abuse to be brash, but transparent in that they show the vile side.  Instead of glorifying her past, this beautiful memoir lays out the pain and damage done, while walking through the recovery and healing done.

While I feel this book would be great reading for any adult, I do caution readers who are more sensitive to topics such as physical and sexual abuse, substance abuse, and pregnancy loss or fertility difficulties.  This book would be great reading for a girlfriend book club with so many topics to discuss.  I would also recommend this book for the budding actor struggling to find their footing – the discussions around Davis’ professional career balance the good with the difficult of that walk, too.

I chose Finding Me for my August biography read.  I’ve owned the audiobook since its debut week and am glad to find time to enjoy it now.  I will forever be thankful for Davis’s honest discussion of her fertility journey, including her struggle with fibroids, something that goes unspoken by so many women.  This is another book I think was better on audiobook than in print – hearing the author read her own words gave them authenticity.  Do you like to listen to autobiographies and memoirs read by the author themselves as much as I do?

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What I’m Reading

• Current print book: The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, Kim Michele Richardson
• Current audio book: Hello Beautiful, Ann Napolitano
• Book I’m most looking forward to: The First Ladies, Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray