#Grief&Bereavement – Rosepoint Publishing

Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me by Whoopi Goldberg #AudiobookReview #ThrowbackThursday

Award nominee

Rosepoint Publishing: Five Stars

Book Blurb:

From multi-award winner Whoopi Goldberg comes a new and unique memoir of her family and their influence on her early life.

If it weren’t for Emma Johnson, Caryn Johnson would have never become Whoopi Goldberg. Emma gave her children the loving care and wisdom they needed to succeed in life, always encouraging them to be true to themselves. When Whoopi lost her mother in 2010—and then her older brother, Clyde, five years later—she felt deeply alone; the only people who truly knew her were gone.

Emma raised her children not just to survive, but to thrive. In this intimate and heartfelt memoir, Whoopi shares many of the deeply personal stories of their lives together for the first time. Growing up in the projects in New York City, there were trips to Coney Island, the Ice Capades, and museums, and every Christmas was a magical experience. To this day, she doesn’t know how her mother was able to give them such an enriching childhood, despite the struggles they faced—and it wasn’t until she was well into adulthood that Whoopi learned just how traumatic some of those struggles were.

Fans of personal memoirs such as Finding Me by Viola Davis and In Pieces by Sally Field will be touched by Bits and Pieces: a moving tribute from a daughter to her mother, and a beautiful portrait of three people who loved each other deeply. Whoopi writes, “Not everybody gets to walk this earth with folks who let you be exactly who you are and who give you the confidence to become exactly who you want to be. So, I thought I’d share mine with you.”

My Review:

Above anything else, this might be a slightly long eulogy and love letter to her mother first and then her brother, Clyde. (I had to chuckle though, as that is the CE’s first name as well.)

But it’s no wonder she fills the book with praise, remembering so many stories in which her mother shines brilliantly with wisdom in raising, teaching, nurturing, and yes, strict discipline, her two children under the worst of circumstances.

Time and again, I marveled at how, when push comes to shove, her mother, Emma, manages to mold her daughter and son into strong, independent thinking, kind, and thoughtful people. Who taught her those qualities? She bestowed everything she had at grievous cost to herself, a great philosophical education that might have made Gandhi blush.

“You’ve got two choices. You can waste a lot of time complaining, or you can get up and figure out how to fix it.”

Besides the stories of her childhood and the beginning of her amazing career, she lays bare the loves she’s shared, including the birth of her daughter (her only child), the foray into drugs, and attempted reconciliation with her father. So many anecdotes regarding her experiences.

Whether or not you’ve been a fan of Whoopi (nee Caryn Johnson), reading this book may enhance your respect or create a new fan.

This audiobook is narrated by herself, complete with that distinctive voice, sense of humor, emotion. It’s a celebration of life.

Book Details:

Genre: Grief & Loss, Black & African American Biographies, Grief & Bereavement
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
ASIN: B0CMFC8M37
Listening Length: 6 hrs 43 mins
Narrator: Whoopi Goldberg
Publication Date: May 7, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Links: Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Whoopi Goldberg is the the author of the Sugar Plum Ballerinas books, as well as Whoopi’s Big Book of Manners, illustrated by Olo. She has won a Tony, an Emmy, an Oscar, and a Grammy, as well as two Golden Globes. In 2001, she was awarded the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Whoopi Goldberg has appeared in scores of films and is a host of ABC’s The View. She lives in New York and Vermont.

#ThrowbackThursday

Banner picture credits:
Oda May Brown- Ghost – Images Press, Getty Images
The Color Purple – Bruce Gilkas, Film Magic Celie Harris
Wikipedia

From Here to the Great Unknown: A Memoir by Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough #AudiobookReview #GriefandLoss

in Grief & Loss

Nominee for Readers’ Favorite Audiobook-2024 Nominee for Readers’ Favorite Memoir-2024

Book Blurb:

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK Born to an American myth and raised in the wilds of Graceland, Lisa Marie Presley tells her whole story for the first time in this raw, riveting, one-of-a-kind memoir faithfully completed by her daughter, Riley Keough.

A PEOPLE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

In 2022, Lisa Marie Presley asked her daughter to help finally finish her long-gestating memoir.

A month later, Lisa Marie was dead, and the world would never know her story in her own words, never know the passionate, joyful, caring, and complicated woman that Riley loved and now grieved.

Riley got the tapes that her mother had recorded for the book, lay in her bed, and listened as Lisa Marie told story after story about smashing golf carts together in the yards of Graceland, about the unconditional love she felt from her father, about being upstairs, just the two of them. About getting dragged screaming out of the bathroom as she ran toward his body on the floor. About living in Los Angeles with her mother, getting sent to school after school, always kicked out, always in trouble. About her singular, lifelong relationship with Danny Keough, about being married to Michael Jackson, what they had in common. About motherhood. About deep addiction. About ever-present grief. Riley knew she had to fulfill her mother’s wish to reveal these memories, incandescent and painful, to the world.

To make her mother known.

This extraordinary book is written in both Lisa Marie’s and Riley’s voices, a mother and daughter communicating—from this world to the one beyond—as they try to heal each other. Profoundly moving and deeply revealing, From Here to the Great Unknown is a book like no other—the last words of the only child of an American icon.

My Review:

Once again, confirmation that fame and fortune can be tragic. I do appreciate that we had Riley’s voice of calm reason and reflection to add to the tale and, of course, Julia Roberts (yes, Julia Roberts) narrates Lisa Marie’s portion of the audiobook. There were intermittent bursts of taped narrative by Lisa Marie as she attempted to recall and write her memoir. Unfortunately, for the most part, I was unable to understand them.

Of course Lisa Marie was Priscilla’s daughter and the only Elvis offspring. I greatly enjoyed the memories of her early childhood, stories of Graceland. But Lisa Marie had little adult supervision and is allowed free rein and she uses it in her teens to begin experimentation with booze and drugs.

As an adult, Lisa Marie finds love; Danny Keough (Riley’s father), compulsiveness, and a wide range of men from Michael Jackson to Nicholas Cage. (Riley, btw, is now the sole trustee of Graceland. Riley played a credible Daisy Jones in Daisy Jones and the Six in 2023.)

Yes, there is a lot of name dropping, they certainly ran in the inner circles which only confounded Lisa Marie’s place in life even more—was she merely a shadow of her father carrying his name? Her memories of him were loving and impactful, his early death a blow from which she only gradually lived with, but not well.

Priscilla Presley is painted as a stern, hands-off mother and figures in the book probably about the same way she did in Lisa Marie’s life—almost as a footnote. Riley does a good job using her mother’s tapes and memories to fill in the blanks and does so with a loving perspective. While her mother became deeply flawed and she lost her brother largely as a result, she struggles to tell their stories truthfully. She believes this is the way it was. A fine tribute to her mother as she completed the memoir her mother left upon her death in January of 2023.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts. It’s sad, tragic, and a grim epitaph.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Grief & Loss, Grief & Bereavement, Biographies of Celebrities & Entertainment Professionals
Publisher: Random House Audio
ASIN: B0CRSDK1Q8
Listening Length: 5 hrs 42 mins
Narrator: Riley Keough, Julia Roberts
Publication Date: October 8, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Links: Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Authors:

Lisa-Marie Presley

Lisa Marie Presley was a singer and songwriter who was born in Memphis and raised at Graceland as the only child of Elvis and Priscilla Presley. She released three studio albums throughout her music career—To Whom It May Concern, Now What, and Storm & Grace, the first of which was certified gold. Lisa Marie passed away in January 2023.

Riley Keough

Riley Keough is an Emmy, Golden Globe, and Independent Spirit Award–nominated actress. She is known for her work in Daisy Jones & the Six, Zola, and more. She also co-directed War Pony (2022), which won the Caméra d’Or for best first feature at Cannes, and cofounded the production company Felix Culpa with Gina Gammell. She is the eldest daughter of Lisa Marie Presley and sole trustee of Graceland.

The Narrator:

Julia Roberts

“I was so moved by Lisa Marie’s incredible memoir,” Roberts tells PEOPLE, in an exclusive statement. “It was a real privilege to give voice to her wild and beautiful life and I deeply appreciate Riley entrusting me with her mother’s story.”

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