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Find Me
Di tengah ketenaran, kekayaan, dan kesibukannya, ternyata Rosie memendam kenangan masa kecil yang menyedihkan. Semua kesedihan dan ketidakpuasannya itu dilampiskan melalui caranya bersikap baik terhadap SIAPA PUN. Justru kebaik-hatiannya itulah yang sering disalahgunakan orang lain, yang akhirnya membawa dirinya kepada suatu masalah besar.
Kisahnya dimulai ketika secara impulsif dia menerima telepon dari seorang gadis berusia 14 tahun yang hamil di luar nikah dan ingin bayinya diadopsi. Rosie memperkenalkan diri dan menawarkan bantuan apa pun kepada gadis itu, meskipun dia telah diperingatkan oleh orang-orang dekatnya agar tidak terlalu menuruti nalurinya yang bisa "membahayakan" itu. Ternyata, gadis itu seorang wanita berpribadian ganda yang "sakit". Tetapi, Rosie tetap ingin menolongnya.
Berhasilkah kali Rosie menyelamatkan wanita itu? Apakah perbuatan baiknya kali ini berhasil memuaskan hatinya dan memecahkan misteri kenangan masa kecilnya?
Kisahnya dimulai ketika secara impulsif dia menerima telepon dari seorang gadis berusia 14 tahun yang hamil di luar nikah dan ingin bayinya diadopsi. Rosie memperkenalkan diri dan menawarkan bantuan apa pun kepada gadis itu, meskipun dia telah diperingatkan oleh orang-orang dekatnya agar tidak terlalu menuruti nalurinya yang bisa "membahayakan" itu. Ternyata, gadis itu seorang wanita berpribadian ganda yang "sakit". Tetapi, Rosie tetap ingin menolongnya.
Berhasilkah kali Rosie menyelamatkan wanita itu? Apakah perbuatan baiknya kali ini berhasil memuaskan hatinya dan memecahkan misteri kenangan masa kecilnya?
189 pages, Paperback
First published April 16, 2002
22 people are currently reading
737 people want to read
About the author
Rosie O'Donnell
23 books27 followersRoseann "Rosie" O'Donnell is an eleven-time Emmy Award-winning American comedian, television talk show host, author, and film, television, and stage actress. She has also been magazine editor and continues to be a celebrity blogger, LGBT civil rights activist, television producer and collaborative partner in the LGBT family vacation company R Family Vacations.
Raised Irish Catholic, O'Donnell lost her mother to cancer as a pre-teen and has consistently stressed values of protecting children and supporting families throughout her career. O'Donnell started her comedy career while still a teenager and her big break was on the talent show Star Search. A TV sitcom and a series of movies introduced the comic to a wider audience and in 1996 she started hosting The Rosie O'Donnell Show which won multiple Emmy awards.
During her years on The Rosie O'Donnell Show she wrote her first book, a memoir called Find Me and developed a reputation for being "the queen of nice" as well as a reputation for charitable philanthropy. She used the book's $3 million advance to establish her own For All Kids foundation and promoted numerous other charity schemes and projects encouraging other celebrities on her show to also take part. O'Donnell came out officially as a "dyke" two months before finishing her talk show run, she cited her primary reason was to bring attention to gay adoption issues. O'Donnell is a foster — and adoptive — mother. She has since continued to support many LGBT causes and issues.
In 2006 O'Donnell became the new moderator on The View boosting ratings and attracting controversies with her more liberal views and strong personality arguably dominating many of the conversations. She became a polarizing figure to many conservatives and her strong opinions resulted in several notable controversies including an on-air dispute regarding The Bush administration's policies with the war in Iraq resulting in her pre-maturely ending her contract. In 2007 O'Donnell also released her second memoir, Celebrity Detox, which focuses on her struggles with fame and her time at The View. She continues to do charity work and remains focused on LGBT and family-related issues.
Raised Irish Catholic, O'Donnell lost her mother to cancer as a pre-teen and has consistently stressed values of protecting children and supporting families throughout her career. O'Donnell started her comedy career while still a teenager and her big break was on the talent show Star Search. A TV sitcom and a series of movies introduced the comic to a wider audience and in 1996 she started hosting The Rosie O'Donnell Show which won multiple Emmy awards.
During her years on The Rosie O'Donnell Show she wrote her first book, a memoir called Find Me and developed a reputation for being "the queen of nice" as well as a reputation for charitable philanthropy. She used the book's $3 million advance to establish her own For All Kids foundation and promoted numerous other charity schemes and projects encouraging other celebrities on her show to also take part. O'Donnell came out officially as a "dyke" two months before finishing her talk show run, she cited her primary reason was to bring attention to gay adoption issues. O'Donnell is a foster — and adoptive — mother. She has since continued to support many LGBT causes and issues.
In 2006 O'Donnell became the new moderator on The View boosting ratings and attracting controversies with her more liberal views and strong personality arguably dominating many of the conversations. She became a polarizing figure to many conservatives and her strong opinions resulted in several notable controversies including an on-air dispute regarding The Bush administration's policies with the war in Iraq resulting in her pre-maturely ending her contract. In 2007 O'Donnell also released her second memoir, Celebrity Detox, which focuses on her struggles with fame and her time at The View. She continues to do charity work and remains focused on LGBT and family-related issues.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 151 reviews
March 24, 2018
Great read! A very unique and fascinating story...recommended to everyone (paperback!)
February 15, 2009
I have always found Rosie O'Donnell entertaining, but I had no idea how much I would like her book! She is a terrific writer, and I believe she wrote this book and not a ghostwriter because the voice and the thought process is so authentic that I have to believe it is really her. The story is interesting -- the mother of a young woman contacts Rosie about her daughter being pregnant and giving up the child for adoption through Rosie's adoption agency, which specializes in placing children no one wants (babies who are sick, babies who are mixed race or any race other than white). And the story deepens from there. Rosie tells us about her childhood and her mother's death. I totally identified with the aspect of Rosie's personality that wants to help others, and partially just to run away from one's own problems. There are so many classic lines in this book. I usually give books away, but I am going to keep this one. I think Rosie and I are a lot alike! She is so bold and strong but also sensitive. For me, this was like reading that book that just blows you away because it's like the author is writing about you!
May 13, 2021
What all celeb memories should be!
October 12, 2014
Rosie O'Donnel, selebriti tenar, kaya dan sukses namun menyimpan kepahitan hidup masa kecil. Masa yang mempengaruhi kehidupan Rosie selanjutnya. Kesedihan hidupnya dimasa lalu membuatnya merasa nyaman dengan menjadi penolong dan orang baik bagi siapa pun. Sikap yang menjadi bumerang terhadap dirinya.
October 6, 2023
my girl rosie is a little crazy…
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March 5, 2008Archived at http://web.archive.org/web/2003012613...
Find Me by Rosie O'Donnell
Let me tell you everything that this newest book by Rosie O'Donnell is not. It is not an autobiography, although the openly gay stand-up comedian/film actress/talk show host and mother of three adopted children (with a child on the way from her somehow pregnant partner) does share a few snapshot moments. When she was a kid, Rosie let a mean trick be played on her brother, and she still feels guilty about it. After her mother died, when she was 11, a clueless teacher, upset at Rosie for not having her homework, yelled that he would be calling and telling her mother about her behavior, which spurred Rosie to run screaming out of the school and hide in a neighbor's home nearby. In middle school Rosie stood up for a female classmate who was the victim of cruel taunts after it came out that she'd been sexually attacked by a group of boys at a drunken brawl. Rosie remembers going to the flea market with her mother and how it was never the same once her mother passed on, and she remembers the time her father returned the $60 a bank teller had given him in error.
Get the idea? All we get are emotionally unrevealing vignettes stuck here and there throughout the book. No attempts are made to draw these moments into a meaningful whole. There are dozens of things even I, a casual fan, wouldn't mind reading about Rosie. What's it like to be a female stand-up comedian in this very male profession? When she started, did she feel isolated and discouraged? If so, how did she manage to overcome these things? How did her family handle her choosing to go out on the road and do comedy? Were they supportive? What was it like to be a VJ in the early days of cable channel VH1 (especially since she had previously been turned down for the job on sister channel MTV)? How did her relationship with VH1 grow to the point where the channel gave her a program on which to give aspiring stand-up comedians valuable television exposure, including helping New York favorite Mario Cantone and Caroline Rhea, who years ago landed a role on the sitcom "Sabrina" and now will be "replacing" Rosie on her talk show this fall? Was she thrilled at first to make the jump to movies, but then happy to return to doing TV? What was it like to do Broadway? More personally, what made her, a single woman, want to adopt not just one, not just two, but three children to raise on her own? Does she feel she had an unfair advantage in adopting them because of her wealth and fame (as radio shock jock Howard Stern has often accused)? Did she feel comfortable finally coming out of the closet, walking in the path laid out by Ellen DeGeneres and Lily Tomlin, or does she still feel some trepidation? How committed is she to reversing current Florida law that refuses to let gays adopt children?
This book addresses not one of these questions.
Don't believe the hype you may have heard--that Rosie speaks in this book about her sexuality and her current partner, Kelli. She does not. Kelli is barely mentioned, much less revealed to be Rosie's girlfriend, and there's certainly no treatment of the fact that she's expecting a child (and HOW she's doing that). To make matters all the more confusing, the only romantic relationship Rosie does mention is with a man!
So what is this book? Basically it's a narrative of events that occurred in Rosie's life, beginning LAST SPRING and developing over the next year or so, leading to her decision to end her talk show. It's not exactly clear how these events helped her make the decision, but Rosie seems to feel that she explains it all. Throughout the book she assures the reader, "There are no accidents. Everything happens for a reason."
But Rosie never provides any reasons. She goes on for page after page about how she got caught up in the troubles of a young teenager she hears about through an adoption agency that she funds. The teen has a devastating story as to how she became pregnant. Rosie is instantly touched, and she crosses the line, choosing to contact the teen herself, instead of leaving it to her agency professional. And this is the entire focus of the book. Rosie tells about how she starts to spend hour after hour on the phone with the teen, making herself endlessly available throughout the day and into the night for this young woman she's never met. She freely admits that she became obsessed, neglected her own family, and rejected the advice of friends to dig deeper into the teen's melodramatic story. This book is nothing if not proof of Rosie's stubborn yet naive determination--but that is all it is.
The progression of the relationship allegedly provides the context for the flashbacks, but any connections we're supposed to make from the teen's experience (which, as you might expect, is not quite as it seems) and Rosie's life are not on the page, and can't even be guessed. Thrown in are other various episodes and meanderings, from Rosie visiting her tattoo artist to her relaying yet another dream starring pouty movie actress Angelina Jolie. Meanwhile, her television show's producers assume her declining to renew her contract is merely the typical tough negotiating stance expected from such a star, and keep offering her increasing amounts of money to continue. Rosie keeps turning them down flat, citing as her main reason that she can't "be herself" on the show. Is she alluding to her much-criticized decision to not come out of the closet until the show's demise, or something else? If she wanted to show another side of herself, why does she still not renew even when the producers offer her the option to change the show's direction to talk more about social and political issues? Is she just tired of the daily grind of television? Or does she want a more dramatic end to the "Queen of Nice" perception in order to return to doing comedy with more of an edge (as an appearance at the June 2002 Mohegan Sun Casino Grand Opening Celebration seems to suggest)? As far as this book is concerned, your guess is as good as mine.
I can find no good reason for this book to have been written. Even the fact that Rosie is donating the profits from this book to charity don't help. If you want to donate money to charity, just give your money to them directly--no need to go through Rosie. Besides, it's not like she takes the time to mention what charity she means.
Even the publisher knows this isn't really a book. The font is larger and the pages are slimmer than the average novel, and the whole publication is barely over 200 pages long. Yet there are 39 chapters! Laughably, there are four chapters, including both chapters one and two, that are only one page! With all the jumping between her memories and the present day, from musing about her sad childhood to insisting that she can't be herself on her television show and going on and on about what she calls her "superhero complex," this is obviously a book written by someone who doesn't usually write, for people who don't usually read. "Find Me" is the worst kind of celebrity memoir. Rosie may protest that she is revealing her soul, but there's no real intimacy here. The best metaphor for the book comes when Rosie talks about the visit to her tattoo artist. Rosie has a scar on her left wrist which resembles the kind of scar left by a suicidal slit. When the artist gingerly asks her about it, she assures him it isn't as it appears. She didn't try to kill herself. But then she doesn't reveal how she got it, either.
The title of the book sounds like a promise when you pick it up. By the time you finish--a few minutes later--it sounds like a cruel taunt. Zero stars.
Warner Books, 2002, $23.95
Reviewed by Valerie Hawkins
Find Me by Rosie O'Donnell
Let me tell you everything that this newest book by Rosie O'Donnell is not. It is not an autobiography, although the openly gay stand-up comedian/film actress/talk show host and mother of three adopted children (with a child on the way from her somehow pregnant partner) does share a few snapshot moments. When she was a kid, Rosie let a mean trick be played on her brother, and she still feels guilty about it. After her mother died, when she was 11, a clueless teacher, upset at Rosie for not having her homework, yelled that he would be calling and telling her mother about her behavior, which spurred Rosie to run screaming out of the school and hide in a neighbor's home nearby. In middle school Rosie stood up for a female classmate who was the victim of cruel taunts after it came out that she'd been sexually attacked by a group of boys at a drunken brawl. Rosie remembers going to the flea market with her mother and how it was never the same once her mother passed on, and she remembers the time her father returned the $60 a bank teller had given him in error.
Get the idea? All we get are emotionally unrevealing vignettes stuck here and there throughout the book. No attempts are made to draw these moments into a meaningful whole. There are dozens of things even I, a casual fan, wouldn't mind reading about Rosie. What's it like to be a female stand-up comedian in this very male profession? When she started, did she feel isolated and discouraged? If so, how did she manage to overcome these things? How did her family handle her choosing to go out on the road and do comedy? Were they supportive? What was it like to be a VJ in the early days of cable channel VH1 (especially since she had previously been turned down for the job on sister channel MTV)? How did her relationship with VH1 grow to the point where the channel gave her a program on which to give aspiring stand-up comedians valuable television exposure, including helping New York favorite Mario Cantone and Caroline Rhea, who years ago landed a role on the sitcom "Sabrina" and now will be "replacing" Rosie on her talk show this fall? Was she thrilled at first to make the jump to movies, but then happy to return to doing TV? What was it like to do Broadway? More personally, what made her, a single woman, want to adopt not just one, not just two, but three children to raise on her own? Does she feel she had an unfair advantage in adopting them because of her wealth and fame (as radio shock jock Howard Stern has often accused)? Did she feel comfortable finally coming out of the closet, walking in the path laid out by Ellen DeGeneres and Lily Tomlin, or does she still feel some trepidation? How committed is she to reversing current Florida law that refuses to let gays adopt children?
This book addresses not one of these questions.
Don't believe the hype you may have heard--that Rosie speaks in this book about her sexuality and her current partner, Kelli. She does not. Kelli is barely mentioned, much less revealed to be Rosie's girlfriend, and there's certainly no treatment of the fact that she's expecting a child (and HOW she's doing that). To make matters all the more confusing, the only romantic relationship Rosie does mention is with a man!
So what is this book? Basically it's a narrative of events that occurred in Rosie's life, beginning LAST SPRING and developing over the next year or so, leading to her decision to end her talk show. It's not exactly clear how these events helped her make the decision, but Rosie seems to feel that she explains it all. Throughout the book she assures the reader, "There are no accidents. Everything happens for a reason."
But Rosie never provides any reasons. She goes on for page after page about how she got caught up in the troubles of a young teenager she hears about through an adoption agency that she funds. The teen has a devastating story as to how she became pregnant. Rosie is instantly touched, and she crosses the line, choosing to contact the teen herself, instead of leaving it to her agency professional. And this is the entire focus of the book. Rosie tells about how she starts to spend hour after hour on the phone with the teen, making herself endlessly available throughout the day and into the night for this young woman she's never met. She freely admits that she became obsessed, neglected her own family, and rejected the advice of friends to dig deeper into the teen's melodramatic story. This book is nothing if not proof of Rosie's stubborn yet naive determination--but that is all it is.
The progression of the relationship allegedly provides the context for the flashbacks, but any connections we're supposed to make from the teen's experience (which, as you might expect, is not quite as it seems) and Rosie's life are not on the page, and can't even be guessed. Thrown in are other various episodes and meanderings, from Rosie visiting her tattoo artist to her relaying yet another dream starring pouty movie actress Angelina Jolie. Meanwhile, her television show's producers assume her declining to renew her contract is merely the typical tough negotiating stance expected from such a star, and keep offering her increasing amounts of money to continue. Rosie keeps turning them down flat, citing as her main reason that she can't "be herself" on the show. Is she alluding to her much-criticized decision to not come out of the closet until the show's demise, or something else? If she wanted to show another side of herself, why does she still not renew even when the producers offer her the option to change the show's direction to talk more about social and political issues? Is she just tired of the daily grind of television? Or does she want a more dramatic end to the "Queen of Nice" perception in order to return to doing comedy with more of an edge (as an appearance at the June 2002 Mohegan Sun Casino Grand Opening Celebration seems to suggest)? As far as this book is concerned, your guess is as good as mine.
I can find no good reason for this book to have been written. Even the fact that Rosie is donating the profits from this book to charity don't help. If you want to donate money to charity, just give your money to them directly--no need to go through Rosie. Besides, it's not like she takes the time to mention what charity she means.
Even the publisher knows this isn't really a book. The font is larger and the pages are slimmer than the average novel, and the whole publication is barely over 200 pages long. Yet there are 39 chapters! Laughably, there are four chapters, including both chapters one and two, that are only one page! With all the jumping between her memories and the present day, from musing about her sad childhood to insisting that she can't be herself on her television show and going on and on about what she calls her "superhero complex," this is obviously a book written by someone who doesn't usually write, for people who don't usually read. "Find Me" is the worst kind of celebrity memoir. Rosie may protest that she is revealing her soul, but there's no real intimacy here. The best metaphor for the book comes when Rosie talks about the visit to her tattoo artist. Rosie has a scar on her left wrist which resembles the kind of scar left by a suicidal slit. When the artist gingerly asks her about it, she assures him it isn't as it appears. She didn't try to kill herself. But then she doesn't reveal how she got it, either.
The title of the book sounds like a promise when you pick it up. By the time you finish--a few minutes later--it sounds like a cruel taunt. Zero stars.
Warner Books, 2002, $23.95
Reviewed by Valerie Hawkins
January 19, 2024
This extremely unusual celebrity memoir answers the question: what if Rosie O’Donnell starred in an Ingmar Bergman thriller about her life? I went into this book as a Rosie fan - can I still say the same now? She’s REALLY narcissistic, like black hole vortex level ego lol. Still, I can’t resist her cuckoo crazy ways. And I loved the inclusion of full emails circa 2001 (RO3456 lol). Would recommend to the curious.
March 18, 2020
Rosie mentions many parts of her life but she is most revealing when she speaks of her obsession with Stacy. Rosie's desire to know Stacy and help her shows so much about her own struggles and personality. The book was not what I expected.
January 22, 2008
Rosie talks about believing things happen for a reason, and how sometimes she just knows things. Other times, not as deep, but profound, she has spingles. Spine tingles. When she recognizes those significant times, she feels compelled to follow up. In Find Me she tells of an obsessive quest to help a young woman. She recognizes a certain narcissism in wanting to be a superhero, sometimes to the detriment of her own family.
All the while reading this, I found myself thinking, but of course you're a bodhisattva! I found myself composing the short emails to her blog, thinking if it was meant to be, she would find me among the thousands of other messages. How I would tell her a bodhisattva is an enlightened codependent. She says several times in the book that she is not easy to love, with this obsessive superhero complex. I have to wonder though, if that has changed, or really, what her love Kelli would say to that.
Rosie transforms some deep scars regarding her mother's death through her obsessive superheroish love. On The View her best friend from the age of 3 said that what people might not know about Rosie is how generous Rosie is. When cohost Joy said, "The world does know," Jackie said, "No, you don't." Rosie shushed her. She doesn't want the world to know what a tremendous superhero giver she is. Another bodhisattva clue, I would say. She sees the selfishness in her love, but she keeps turning it over for the benefit of the world. She doesn't want the accolades for giving, she doesn't do it to feed her narcissist self.
All the while reading this, I found myself thinking, but of course you're a bodhisattva! I found myself composing the short emails to her blog, thinking if it was meant to be, she would find me among the thousands of other messages. How I would tell her a bodhisattva is an enlightened codependent. She says several times in the book that she is not easy to love, with this obsessive superhero complex. I have to wonder though, if that has changed, or really, what her love Kelli would say to that.
Rosie transforms some deep scars regarding her mother's death through her obsessive superheroish love. On The View her best friend from the age of 3 said that what people might not know about Rosie is how generous Rosie is. When cohost Joy said, "The world does know," Jackie said, "No, you don't." Rosie shushed her. She doesn't want the world to know what a tremendous superhero giver she is. Another bodhisattva clue, I would say. She sees the selfishness in her love, but she keeps turning it over for the benefit of the world. She doesn't want the accolades for giving, she doesn't do it to feed her narcissist self.
August 9, 2009
This may be the strangest book I have ever read. It is autobiographical and the jacket implies it's about adoption, so I thought it would be about her experience adopting her three kids. But no, it started out weird and got really weird. It creeped me out so much I had to stay up to 2am to finish it to see if the people she was writing about were real or just screwing around with her, since she's a celebrity. Turns out a bit of both. Be warned - you may not like Rosie O'Donnell that much after reading this - she reveals a lot about her childhood but even more about her own lack of boundaries and in many cases, good judgment, in my opinion.
April 6, 2012
Not a typical autobiography, although a very fast read (read it in about 6 hours!)
So as not to accidentally give away spoilers, I will quote from the jacket cover: "Part memoir, part mystery, FIND ME is a compelling and utterly original tale that will break your heart as it heals it... It is the story of a friendship between a troubled young woman and a celebrity (Rosie O'Donnell) obsessed with helping her."
FIND ME is a true story and is a very interesting read. You learn things about the life of Rosie O'Donnell throughout the book, but not in the way you would from a straight autobiography. I've never read a book that was styled in this exact manner and found it quite unique.
So as not to accidentally give away spoilers, I will quote from the jacket cover: "Part memoir, part mystery, FIND ME is a compelling and utterly original tale that will break your heart as it heals it... It is the story of a friendship between a troubled young woman and a celebrity (Rosie O'Donnell) obsessed with helping her."
FIND ME is a true story and is a very interesting read. You learn things about the life of Rosie O'Donnell throughout the book, but not in the way you would from a straight autobiography. I've never read a book that was styled in this exact manner and found it quite unique.
November 6, 2017
I get a lot of slack for liking Rosie but she reminds me of my favorite aunt so I continue to love her unconditionally. This is yet another book by Rosie that I have read. I like how genuine she is and the fact that she doesn't hold back even if it makes her look bad or crazy. I like that she keeps it raw which makes her so relatable. This book was a little different than the others and by the end of her story about this pregnant girl, I wasn't sure where it was going to go. I was flying through this book just to see what the final outcome was as you knew something fishy was going on. This is a short and quick read and definitely enjoyable.
February 28, 2013
I had read Rosie's autobiography a few years before this, so the parts of this story where it relates to her own mother was repetitive for me. However, the main story involving Stacie was intriguing. I had a hard time putting this book down. Rosie has a down to earth style of writing which is a nice change from most novels I read.
May 24, 2008
What I really liked about this book is the honesty she brings to a really horrifically embarassing story.
September 24, 2009
Interesting life experience.
January 31, 2010
Good book, a little weird. But I understand her alot better now.
March 11, 2014
I can not explain to you how many degrees of perfection this book entails. Truly captivating and I never wanted it to end. Absolutely wonderful.
Read
June 14, 2015I love Rosie O'donnal, be she really was not cut out to be an author. I don't recommend this at all.
November 16, 2019
A poor man's The Night Listener, DID edition. Ro is no Maupin, but it's easy to draw the lines between their experiences. Maupin was strung along and manipulated for years by a fraudster claiming to be a teen paederst ring survivor living with HIV. This sets up in a very similar way - the late night calls, the intense, almost pathological relationship, the desperate, hurt teen at the other end of the line. The teen in question turns out to be a member of a multiple system, a teen living in a middle aged woman's body. It could have been an ugly end to this story. The set-up for the old tropes, stigma, and shaming of the system was there, but there's a twist. What this book has in its favour is that the system in question isn't demonised on the revelation. Ro remains friends with them, keeps the connection going, gifts them a computer so they can more easily communicate, and even meets with them in person. So often, multiple systems are demonised as liars, dangerous, disturbed, manipulative. People around Ro try to tell her all of these things, that the system is out to scam her, to tie her in knots for some perverse reason. But Ro, even as acknowledging the unhelthy intensity of the connection, draws the very clear parallel between her own hard origins and the system's. She tries to be the stable rock they need, and it makes a difference. They meet, and the system isn't a monster, a scam artist, or a manipulator. They're the fragile, scared, shy, abuse survivor Ro always felt they were. They meet, and the connection is there, and they remain friends, beyond that whisper down the phone line, beyond the revelation that the 'teen' Ro was helping wasn't what she seemed. And I think that's an important story to be out there, regardless of what you think of Ro, of her actions and reactions to this intense relationship, of what you think of a frightened teen reaching out for help but her story not being an accurate reflection of circumstances in the physical world. The need for help was real, and it was given without reservation, even when the truth was revealed, and I think that's something that multiple systems and anyone with a mental illness, trauma history, or neurological difference can take heart from. There are people out there who will listen, and will accept, and will help, even when the world tells them not to.
September 19, 2023
A fast read. An odd story. Don't expect Rosie O'Donnell humor. It's a pretty serious, self-reflective book. I think writing this book must have been a cathartic experience for her. Her mantra of "things happen for a reason" is definitely the engine that powers this story. I realized after reading it that the book is 20 years old! Nothing like being current, eh? :-) If you like Rosie (or "Ro" as she prefers), then I'd give it a read.
June 8, 2021
This a very strange book. It is definitely not what I thought it would be at all. If anything, this is a book version of "Catfish" before social media ever came out. I enjoyed learning bits and pieces about Rosie's childhood. It's a short book full of plot twists that I never anticipated. It's worth your while for a weekend binge read.
September 13, 2021
Someone described this to me as a kooky and fun memoir on the basis that there’s a dream sequence where she rescues Angelina Jolie from a haunted tree; the two sentences of haunted tree dream were not worth having to learn about the bizarre and kind of problematic penpal relationship at the center of this.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 21, 2022
This memoir is insightful and quite unusual, giving a very personal look into the famous Rosie O’Donnell’s life. She tells the story of the unlikely connection she formed over time with a woman on the west coast with mental issues, and slowly reveals her past and present challenges and the turning point she faced when deciding to end her talk show.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 11, 2023
Listen. I can't in good conscience recommend this book. But it is a WILD RIDE and if you like to read a hot mess written in a fast paced literary style, this book delivers. Just, absolutely fascinating and flies right by. I feel like it just says so much about Rosie O'Donnell in an interesting way, even though she's trying to understand this other person.
January 29, 2024
Rosie’s commitment to children is evident. She has several children of her own and cares for them while also juggling a full celebrity workload. The book is a little over 200 pages so I was able to complete it fairly quickly. Rosie is insightful about factors that have influenced her life which I enjoyed reading about.
October 30, 2017
In Rosie O'Donnell's memoir she shares the traumatic parts of her childhood and links them to the reasons for her becoming involved with a person she "met" via her nonprofit adoption agency. She is frank and open and always analyzing her actions.
January 3, 2021
This book wasn’t what I expected- I was assuming it was a regular biography. Instead she focuses on a one troubling yet interesting exchange with an ordinary person and sporadically adds info from throughout her life.
I do appreciate her vulnerability and her candor. It was an easy read.
I do appreciate her vulnerability and her candor. It was an easy read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 3, 2023
Do NOT read this book if you are thinking that it will be funny. This is NOT a funny book. It is sad. I mean, most comics come from places of sadness, but this book is really sad. It won't make you cry, it's just not a happy book. I love honest memoirs, but oddly, I think this was too honest.
August 1, 2025
This is something I would probably not normally read. The loss of her mother, at an early age, affected her greatly. Rosie is thankful for her life. She shares it could have turned out very different. She has persevered and hasn't let anyone (if you know who I mean) get the best of her.
October 31, 2017
an unexpected, heartfelt peek into her life
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