Give Them Their Flowers (Reflections on Women, Film, and Friendship)

“All my blessings are the blessings of community.” —Octavia Spencer

Octavia drove to Los Angeles at twenty-six in search of a career in film. What she found was her chosen family. In this captivating memoir, the Oscar-winning actor and producer recounts the seeds of the relationships that grew into the story of her life, from her tender teenage connection with Whoopi Goldberg to her sustaining friendships with Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy, Allison Janney, Viola Davis, Jessica Chastain, and the many talented, inspiring women whose love and advice have helped her become the woman she is today. Together, they built the world in which this book is set: a place where women support one another and the voices of history’s heroines ring aloud.

Give Them Their Flowers is a love letter to female friendship. It is a call to follow your personal passions, create community, and persevere. This is Octavia’s ode to all the women who wake up early to get it done: the mentors, the mothers and the mother figures, the aunties and the godmothers, the creators, the visionaries, and the best friends.

“Men have given me jobs,” Octavia says. “Women are the reason the world knows who I am.”