Whoopi Goldberg

This audiobook is both hilarious and thoughtful. Whoopi lost her mother and then her brother just a few years later, and she is still trying to recover from that loss. This book is mainly a tribute to her mother, who was brilliant. Despite a husband who abandoned her with two children she got a nursing degree while living in the projects. She filled her kids lives with the arts. Any museum that was free they visited regularly. She wrangled tickets to concerts and the ballet. She even took show more them to see The Beatles! After some serious trauma, which I won't reveal here, her mother switched careers and started teaching at Head Start. She got an undergrad degree from Hunter College and a Masters from NYU, all while teaching full time. Whoopi often points out that she wouldn't be where she is without her mom... not just as an amazing influence on her early life, but as a caregiver for her own daughter when Whoopi's career took off.

This is well worth the time. It won the Audie Award this year for the best audiobook read by the author. If you are looking for a lot of celebrity gossip you won't find it here. show less

This audiobook was narrated by the author and what a great decision that was. I'm not the only person who thinks that, apparently, because it won the 2025 Audie for Best Narration by the Author.

I learned a lot about Whoopi Goldberg starting with her life as a child living with her mother and brother in New York City. Whoopi's relationship with her mother was warm and close in her adult years but that was due to her mother's strength to raise the two children on her own. Money was tight but show more Whoopi tells how her mother would celebrate Christmas with all the trimmings and take them to concerts and picnics and shows. At one point, her mother suffered a break down and she was hospitalized for two years. During this period her kids never saw her and they were looked after by various adults, including Whoopi's father. Her mother returned to look after the children and went on to achieve a Master's degree in Education. Whoopi has dyslexia but with her mother's determination she was able to learn how to read. She was never a top student and she dropped out of high school. She had a daughter when she was seventeen whom she raised mostly on her own. She was also involved with drugs but realized it was ruining her life. Going out to California started out as a move to help nanny a friend's child but she soon got involved in acting and stand-up comedy. She was asked to come back to New York to do her comedy act and Steven Spielberg saw the act. He offered her a part in The Color Purple and the rest is history. Once Whoopi achieved stardom she asked her mother to come help her raise her daughter since she had to be away from home so much. Later, she also asked her brother to come be her driver. Her mother's death in 2010 and her brother's death in 2015 affected her deeply and she continues to grieve for them. In fact, this book is more of a tribute to them than a full memoir of herself.

Whoopi was born Caryn Elaine Johnson but changed her name when she started her acting career. Supposedly, Whoopi is from a whooppee cushion because she was famous for farting on stage. Goldberg was suggested by her mother because it was a family name. show less

Basically a list of all the things people do that piss off Whoopi Goldberg. Gee, I wish I had the clout to get a book like this published-I complain about the same kind of stuff ALL THE TIME and yet no one offers me a book deal! Pardon the snide remark; I'm just jealous she thought of it first! It was entertaining and I really agree with a lot of what she says (why can't people understand the concept of personal space? And what the hell happened to saying "please" and "thank you"? Ask anyone show more who works the circ desk at a public library and you'll know that basic politeness flew the coop a long time ago). I just wonder how much effort she put into the editorial decisions. The book reads like her personal journal-there's not much in the way of punctuation (another pet peeve of mine with which I could fill a second book), and there's no apparent organization to the chapters. That's not really the point, I guess, but I found it distracting. Almost like someone taking a cell phone call while you're trying to get them a library card. Just sayin'. show less

Whoopi Goldberg is no stranger to controversy. She often doubles down when called out and her apologies rarely mean what most people want them to. It's so unfortunate, Whoopi is an icon, both in entertainment history and within my childhood. Her roles in Star Trek and Corrina, Corrina are some of my favorites of all time. I wanted to check out her memoir and see what she had to say about her life, but I recently found out about some of the more horrendous things she has said and defended. show more This does impact my review and overall thoughts about her as a person, but this book is very much outside of most of that. She does share some thoughts I find to be tone deaf at least, but nothing related to her controversies. Guess she waits until she's on live tv for all that. More likely, she had a good editor.

This book is not for those who like a well put-together storyline that flows from Point A to point B. I've always thought it was futile to seek that type of writing in a memoir. Most people have a fractured view of their life, and often relate different moments to each other, even when they're 20 (or 50) years apart. I enjoy this both in memoirs and in fiction, but this book will really annoy the people who hate that. There's a reason she titled it Bits and Pieces- this is quite literally bits and pieces of her life. She even says that she writes as she thinks, and mentions the audiobook does not follow the writing exactly as she can get caught on tangents.

I fell in love with Whoopi's mother. She sounded like she was a very strong and very intelligent woman, and I often agreed with the way she thought kids should be treated- with agency and respect. She allowed her children to grow into themselves, not who she wanted them to be, and I suppose that's how we got loudmouth Whoopi as she is today. Which, despite how upset she has made people, is a feat of it's own as a Black woman, especially with her darker skin. Her mother's time in a mental institution really stuck out to me, and the terrible treatments they used on her, that were so commonly used on women back then. It's a blessing Whoopi and her brother got their mother back, even if she didn't remember who they were. Whoopi's grief from losing her mother (and brother) is really what this book is about, and I think someone who's lost a parent could use some of the advice she provides.

I'm not really better or worse for listening to this one. It was a fine time, Whoopi has a nice voice, and she cracked me up sometimes while other times making me roll my eyes. No one says 'What the fuck' as good as Whoopi does. I do wish she had talked more about her career, but we do get some stories here and there about that, especially her early days. For me, this is another book logged- nothing too special, but not a waste of time either. show less