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Gabourey Sidibe

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This Is Just My Face MP3 CD – Unabridged, January 16, 2018

by Gabourey Sidibe (Author, Reader)

4.5 1,327 ratings

Editors' pick Best Biographies & Memoirs

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The Oscar-nominated Precious star and Empire actress delivers a much-awaited memoir - wise, complex, smart, funny - a version of the American experience different from anything we've heard.

Gabourey Sidibe - "Gabby" to her legion of fans - skyrocketed to international fame in 2009 when she played the leading role in Lee Daniels' acclaimed movie Precious. In This Is Just My Face, she shares a one-of-a-kind life story in a voice as fresh and challenging as many of the unique characters she's played onscreen. With full-throttle honesty, Sidibe paints her Bed-Stuy/Harlem family life with a polygamous father and a gifted mother who supports her two children by singing in the subway. Sidibe tells the engrossing, inspiring story of her first job as a phone sex "talker". And she shares her unconventional (of course!) rise to fame as a movie star alongside "a superstar cast of rich people who lived in mansions and had their own private islands and amazing careers while I lived in my mom's apartment."

Sidibe's memoir hits hard with self-knowing dispatches on friendship, depression, celebrity, haters, fashion, race, and weight ("If I could just get the world to see me the way I see myself," she writes, "would my body still be a thing you walked away thinking about?"). Irreverent, hilarious, and untraditional, This Is Just My Face will resonate with anyone who has ever felt different and with anyone who has ever felt inspired to make a dream come true.

Language

English
Publisher

Audible Studios on Brilliance Audio
Publication date

January 16, 2018
Dimensions

6.75 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
ISBN-10

1543685447
ISBN-13

978-1543685442
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Audible Studios on Brilliance Audio; Unabridged edition (January 16, 2018)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1543685447
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1543685442
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.5 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.75 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches

Customer Reviews:
4.5 1,327 ratings

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Gabourey Sidibe

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Gabourey Sidibe is an award-winning actress who is best known for the title role of Precious, based on the novel Push by Sapphire. She has since starred as Queenie in FX’s American Horror Story: Coven and Denise in Difficult People, and can currently be seen as Becky on Fox’s smash-hit sensation Empire. Sidibe recently made her directorial debut with the short film, The Tale of Four. This Is Just My Face is her first book. She was born in Brooklyn and raised in Harlem, New York.

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DahShadowsofMD

Gorgeous read from Gorgeous Gabourey

Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2017

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When you devour a book that leaves you hungry for more, you know you've read something special. I read this book while on an Amtrak train to NY, but I felt as if I was sitting at my dining room table while pouring Gabourey some fine wine and sharing pasta. You go deep with this book and come out on the other side feeling as if you've made a new friend. Sidibe's style is casual, frank, intelligent and insightful; her honesty makes her most appealing because she's as unapologetic as it gets about her life. And what's to apologize for? Nothing. It's her life, she shares it with you and you just need to understand that she's far more special than you thought while you were watching her hurl wicked words at Kathy Bates! Sidibe ranks as one of my favorite people--she's more than an actress, more than a fierce black girl, more than a gorgeous icon of beauty--she's just one truly amazing soul who blesses us all! I smiled, I laughed, I cried, and I finished the book wishing that I could jump to the future for her next volume of riches. Thank you, Gabourey--you truly are just divine and anyone who reads this book will fall in love with you all over again!

3 people found this helpful

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Bernita S

Great Memoir

Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2019

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This was a heartwarming memoir. I enjoyed Gabby's truths and her openess. I could resonate with her on so many levels.

Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2024

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This is a gut wrenching, emotion driven book that I couldn’t put down. The author opens up her life completely leaving us with true respect for who she has become.

Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2018

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"I gave this memoir 5 stars because I feel like a memoir should have a good writing voice, be honest and revealing, be juicy, and if possible inspirational/ funny. Sidibe met all of these aspects in her work.

The story reads like she speaks, and is basically somewhat of a one- breath girly rant on her life thus far. The first quarter of the book is the juicy part, then again at the end when she talks about her questionable job choice and her surgery. Otherwise, there's just a little information with a lot of blabbering. The read is fun though, she gives a pretty cute rant.

If I had to guess, I'd suspect that if you want to know about the real Gabourey and her life, you'll find this book endearing. However, if you're looking for a train wreck, you'll pick apart her speech, her life, her choices, and probably her race and looks in criticism and hate the book.

5 people found this helpful

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Chuckey

Could have been better

Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2021

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It could have been better with just the stories and all that. It wasn't an attention keeper.

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D. Gamble

Love Gabby, Love the Book!!!

Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2022

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I cannot say enough good things about how beautiful, smart, strong, and talented Gadbourey is or thank her enough for sharing her amazing and wonderful story with the world. This book changed my life. I will enjoy passing it on to the world.

Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2022

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This book is far from my norm but I tried it on for size. Reading this felt like talking to an old friend. Comparing war stories with an old friend. As a fat black woman I can see exactly where Gabourey was coming from. There are so many nuances to our stories and she covers them seamlessly. Overall I’ll give this book 4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

2 people found this helpful

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Cyrus Webb

Gabourey Sidibe's THIS IS JUST MY FACE proves you can have the last laugh and love yourself in the process

Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2017

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3 days.

That's how long it took me to finish Gabourey Sidibe's book THIS IS JUST MY FACE, and I have to say that it is is so much more than I could have hoped for.

For those who are looking for a lot about the PRECIOUS and EMPIRE Sidibe you will get that---but there is a bigger story that she shares in the book that I believe will be equally as engaging. She takes us through the making of who she is, how she was able to now discuss her journey with some humor and soul-searching, but also how she got comfortable in the skin she was in.

We are able able to learn more about the family that she came from, and through that how the pursuing of dreams was nothing new for her mother but something that had to become more tangible for Gabourey because of the situation her family was in at the time. This is more than a rags to riches story. It is a story of a woman not just growing into the spotlight but into her own value and worth. Through the eating disorder and the family health scare to being able to get in front of the camera and see her gift recognized, even before she could fully see it.

THIS IS JUST MY FACE is a look at living life in a world that is not always kind, but is a book that reminds us all of the light inside we can't allow anyone or anything to snuff out. Gabourey is living proof that you can have the last laugh and love yourself along the way.

78 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Jo

What a ride

Reviewed in Canada on February 11, 2018

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I was enticed to purchase this book because of an interview I stumbled upon on YouTube from her interview on The Real. The way she spoke about the stories in the book with the ladies it intrigued me.
Needless to say, I was not disappointed. Ms. Sidibe, you poured your heart out in those pages. Thank you. Even if you never see this, I want the universe to know that your message and your williness to be vulnerable means something to all the little chubby black girls out here!
Thank you. I sincerely thank you.

One person found this helpful

Dannyboy

Wonderful story

Reviewed in Germany on December 11, 2018

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Having really enjoyed the film Precious, I was interested to read this book, and was not disappointed. It is authentically, if quickly, written, with no linguistic finesse but that fits with the story. Another great autobiography of a person of our times, that I most enjoyed.

R. Vakrat

Peeling the onion

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 10, 2018

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I started reading this book on Friday afternoon and swallowed it in less then two days. Reading each chapter made me thirsty to know more about Gabourey, after the first I said ‘OK, cute’ after the third one I was ‘Tell more!’ and by the fifth one I was ‘Don’t anyone talk to me I am reading!’.
What I liked the most about it is the layers - in the book she mentions that one of her therapists told her that being funny is just her top layer and she needs to get real and start peeling those layers off (just like an onion). One of the most significant layers for me was how she told the story about the relationship with her father, it started on one note, that held for the first part of the book to only get a completely different angle and meaning in later part.
Her immediate family and some other important intimate subjects get the same treatment. Once she gets the top layer of how she feels about something out of the way, she goes back to it later in the book and talks about the same subject giving more detail, changing the point of view and conclusion.
Reading something like that is close to how we getting to know a person in real life.(unlike other books where the character and convictions are outlined in the beginning and the character just follows the twists and turns aware of the need to remain consistent).
I enjoyed getting to know Gaboury, the parts she chose to show me, I am left with the feeling that the onion is infinitely bigger and will continue to be pilled.

### Favourite quotes from the book:
“Precious is a survivor, and I refuse to be anyone’s survivor because I prefer to think of myself as a winner.”

“I was trying my best to be honest with everyone about my feelings, including myself. I was peeling the onion.”

“I didn’t pray that I would get the role. I prayed that whatever my life was supposed to be, whatever my path was, I would finally be on it.”

“Well, thank God I was a creepy fat kid, cuz it has made for an interesting adulthood!”

One person found this helpful

Trail Runner

Funny, Enlightening, and Engaging

Reviewed in Canada on August 26, 2018

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Admittedly, I have not seen Sibide's first movie, or any of her work. However, I heard an interview with her about her recently published book, and thought she sounded like a very interesting individual. Sibide's book did not disappoint. I really enjoyed the raw, truthful version of herself she presented. Along with the optimism, humour, and hard work that she injects into her career and personal relationships. Great book!