Bits and Pieces
My Mother, My Brother, and Me
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
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 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.”
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Actor Goldberg (Two Old Broads) reflects in this tender chronicle on the deaths of her two closest family members. Goldberg grew up in New York City's Chelsea projects with her mother, Emma, and brother, Clyde, while Emma worked tirelessly as a practical nurse and a schoolteacher to support her children. Even as Goldberg hits the requisite celeb memoir career beats—including sections on her one-woman Broadway show, her breakthrough film role in 1985's The Color Purple, and her supporting actress Oscar for Ghost—she keeps the focus on Emma, whose thriftiness and lust for life filled the author's childhood with happy memories of trips to Coney Island and Radio City Music Hall to see the Rockettes. Goldberg contrasts these reveries with the overwhelming grief she felt when Emma died, in 2010, from a stroke. Five years later, Clyde succumbed to a ruptured brain aneurysm, leaving Goldberg to face the world without the "folks who let her be exactly who she was and gave her the confidence to become exactly who she wanted to be." Throughout, Goldberg's earthy, no-nonsense voice anchors her commentary on the ravages of bereavement ("If you go into a funk, then really let yourself go fully into it. Pull up a fainting chair. Draw the curtains. Close out the world for a while and get as insane in your grief as you ever thought you could"). This is no dishy Hollywood tell-all—it's a salve for wounded souls.
Customer Reviews
Love Whoopi
Reading this book was like visiting with an old friend.
I Wish I Could Give More Than 5 Stars
This is hands down one of the best books I’ve ever read. I grew up watching you Whoopi, I was born in 1989. I’ve always loved and appreciated your personality especially on Everybody Hates Chris. Thank you for sharing your life with us, I feel like I personally know both you and your family now.
I will rave about this book until the day that I die♥️
Whewww Weeee Whoopi!
Thank you Whoopi Goldberg for sharing with us your meteoric rise from the Chelsea Projects, to Broadway and the Big Screen. Thank you for telling us about your Family Nucleus, Momma Emma and Clyde. I’m happy that you all were given time to spend together doing all the things you all dreamed of. Thank you for sharing all of your life lessons with us as well and the very important information that those who have not lost their Mothers or a Sibling needs to know. Thank you for continuing to use your voice on the View to speak of things that you believe that need to change. I’m sure there are more books from you to come, because you are one of our Life Teachers . Thank you Queen . 👑🙏🏽☺️