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Cher: Part One: The Memoir by Cher #AudiobookReview #BiographiesofWomen

Amazon Charts #19 this week

Rosepoint Publishing: Five Stars

Book Blurb:

Cher: The Memoir, Part One promises to be an engaging and exciting audiobook experience, befitting this incredible book. Read in part by Cher herself, the book is introduced, and each chapter launched, by the author. Rounding out each chapter as she continues the narrative is celebrated stage actor Stephanie J. Block. Stephanie starred on Broadway in The Cher Show for which she won a Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award. Together, Cher and Stephanie share the storytelling duties, alternating within the chapters to create a unique audiobook treatment that will bring listeners fully into this period of Cher’s life—from her earliest childhood memories, to her meeting Sonny and their ascent into superstardom, her painful divorce from Bono, her relationship with Gregg Allman and her reach for independence. It is a story of creativity, individuality, motherhood, love, and loss, as only Cher could recount.

“Lending my voice to help deliver Cher’s memoir has been an honor and a thrill. Her life is fascinating, glamorous, surprising, exciting… and at times, completely heartbreaking. Her story is a beautiful balance of ULTIMATE stardom and accessibility. She is CHER for a reason and this book helps the reader get behind ‘the reason,’” says Block.

“When it came to completing the audiobook, I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it all myself due to my dyslexia. But then I thought of Stephanie, who won the Tony for playing me on Broadway in The Cher Show. I knew she would be the perfect choice to get across to the reader the essence of me. I called her and within hours she re-arranged her schedule to start the recording. I felt so safe having her help share my story, and she did a beautiful job,” says Cher.

My Review:

Ooh, I do love memoirs, especially of those I’ve grown up/old with. And, Cher? Yes, one of a kind—didn’t need a first and last name.

Yes, of course, I got the audiobook, although not narrated wholly by Cher, you can hear that unique voice at the beginning of the chapters. I hadn’t known about the part that Stephanie J Block played on Broadway giving her a Tony Award (among others). She does sound like her and there were a few times when I realized I was no longer listening to Cher, but Stephanie.

Still, it was Cher’s “voice,” the telling of her childhood, meeting Sonny, the babies, the split, and still was only the first part of the memoir? I guess the second part is due out late this year.

Always a fan, I’ve been both appalled and amazed at the trails she was blazing, a contrast in naiveté and ballsiness when she needed it. The sixteen-year-old found a steadfast lover, father figure, friend, and (at times) questionable agent in Sonny.

Crazy childhood, she frankly relates the years with the different “dads,” the birth of “G,” and her mother. It was wild and later free of her mother, but then Sonny, eleven years older, took over. He was a hustler, a player, always trying one thing or another and wasn’t long before he noticed something very unique and special about Cher.

No, Cher didn’t just happen. They tried out a couple different names prior to the transition into Cher. But they “clicked” and had fun for years. I loved the Sonny and Cher Show and it’s gratifying now to know that what we were seeing, on the show, was real.

Their split was tough. Like losing Desi and Lucy (George Burns and Gracie Allen before that). Fans are often left lamenting the end of musical groups—it’s a divorce from their public as much as each other. Too bad, as it was so special.

Thoroughly entertaining, nostalgic, and probably most of everything you ever wanted to know. She doesn’t pull punches. Amazing stories about so many big names. She was there. A memoir I’d recommend, fan or not, and better than a National Inquirer.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Book Details:

Genre: Actor & Entertainer Biographies, Biographies of Women, Biographies of Celebrities & Entertainment Professionals
Publisher: HarperAudio
ASIN: B0D5J76G3H
Listening Length: 15 hrs 47 mins
Narrators: Cher, Stephanie J. Block
Publication Date: November 19, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)

Title Links:

Amazon-US | Amazon-UK | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

Cher - photo courtesy Goodreads bio — Photo courtesy Goodreads bio

The Author: Cher (born Cherilyn Sarkisian, (1946) later adopted by Gilbert LaPierre) is an American pop singer, actress, songwriter, film director, record producer and author. Among her many career accomplishments in music, television and film, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award and three Golden Globe Awards among others.

Cher first rose to prominence in 1965 as one half of the pop/rock duo Sonny & Cher. She also established herself as a solo recording artist, releasing 25 albums, contributing to numerous compilations, and tallying 34 Billboard Top 40 entries in the U.S. over her career, both solo and with Sonny. These include eighteen Top 10 singles and five number one singles. Cher has had 16 Top 10 hits in the UK Singles Chart between 1965 and 2003, four of which reached number one.

She became a television star in the 1970s and a film actress in the 1980s. In 1987, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the romantic comedy Moonstruck.

With a career surpassing 40 years, Cher is an enduring pop icon and one of the most popular female artists in music history. Since her debut in 1964, Cher has sold over 200 million records worldwide as a solo artist[3] and 75 million more as half of the duo Sonny and Cher.
http://www.cher.com/

#AudiobookReview

The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher – #Audiobook Review – #TBT

Best Biographies & Memoirs

Book Blurb:

2018 GRAMMY Award for Best Spoken Word Album

The Princess Diarist is Carrie Fisher’s intimate, hilarious and revealing recollection of what happened behind the scenes on one of the most famous film sets of all time, the first Star Wars movie.

PEOPLE magazine Best Book of Fall 2016

New York Times Best-seller

Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi, featuring Carrie Fisher, is scheduled for release on December 15, 2017. Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds debuted on HBO in January 2017.

When Carrie Fisher recently discovered the journals she kept during the filming of the first Star Wars movie, she was astonished to see what they had preserved – plaintive love poems, unbridled musings with youthful naiveté, and a vulnerability that she barely recognized. Today, her fame as an author, actress, and pop-culture icon is indisputable, but in 1977, Carrie Fisher was just a teenager with an all-consuming crush on her costar, Harrison Ford.

With these excerpts from her handwritten notebooks, The Princess Diarist is Fisher’s intimate and revealing recollection of what happened on one of the most famous film sets of all time – and what developed behind the scenes. Fisher also ponders the joys and insanity of celebrity, and the absurdity of a life spawned by Hollywood royalty, only to be surpassed by her own outer-space royalty. Laugh-out-loud hilarious and endlessly quotable, The Princess Diarist brims with the candor and introspection of a diary while offering shrewd insight into the type of stardom that few will ever experience.

My Review:

If ever a book is best read by the author, this one is it. I must admit that I wasn’t an overly enthusiastic fan of Ms. Fisher, feeling she rode her parents’ coat tails (Debbie Reynolds and [gasp] Eddie Fisher) to stardom.

Carrie, born October 21, 1956, discovered an old diary she’d kept during the filming of the first Star Wars movie. She was struck by co-star Harrison Ford. Carrie at the time being nineteen years of age admitted all those years later that she was still gaga over him. But this is not a tell-all about her very brief (three months) affair with the fastly rising-to-stardom co-star.

If that’s what you are here to read, or listen to, then you’ll be disappointed. What Fisher relates in her own witty, sarcastic, and often humorous recollections of those years regarding pre and post 1977 Star Wars is the immense impact it would have on the rest of her life. Not just a successful starring part, but the beginning of a sci-fi phenomenon of globe capacity with unforgettable characters whose names are still familiar. Forget Luke, we were all over Han Solo.

The ugly and the beautiful.

Carrie can wax poetic and, indeed, a sizeable portion of this book is her daughter’s (Billie Lourd) reading of the poems she penned in the diary, along with all her observations.

“After all is said and done, I was playing for keeps and he was playing for fun.”

“A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.”

Carrie was bi-polar, angst ridden, and prone to abuse both drugs and alcohol. The audiobook gives the listener the impression of having a private conversation with her, extremely animated, totally open and honest, a one-on-one veritable hoot for most of the narrative. No matter the memory she related, the audiobook voice is audacious and often self-deprecating. And of course, she does discuss that iconic hairdo. (Link to sound clip on image below.)

Excerpt of The Princess Diarist read by Carrie Fisher — April 14, 1977 – Princess Leia Organa (CARRIE FISHER) – (Credit Image: © Imago via ZUMA Press)

This wasn’t her first book, however. She wrote voraciously and produced a number of other books, including two additional memoirs. Actually, her death at age 60 in December 2016 reflected the loss of a serious talent. No one can forget either the death of her mother the following day.

A thoroughly enjoyable audiobook that you must listen to for the full flavor in which it was written. Enthusiastically recommended. Then why not five stars, you wonder? (Glad you asked) The poems read by Lourd may have, in my opinion, extended for just a tad too long (for me at least, anxious to get back to Carrie’s chronicle).

Book Details:

Genre: Bipolar Disorder, Humor Essays, Biographies of Celebrities & Entertainment Professionals
Publisher: Penguin Audio
ASIN: B01AAXYD54
Listening Length: 5 hrs 10 mins
Narrator: Carrie Fisher, Billie Lourd
Publication Date: November 22, 2016
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: The Princess Diarist [Amazon]

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

The Author: Carrie Fisher was an American actress, screenwriter and author, most famous for her portrayal of Princess Leia in the original Star Wars trilogy. Fisher was the daughter of singer Eddie Fisher and actress Debbie Reynolds. She had one daughter, Billie Lourd (b. 1992). [Goodreads]

Her final film, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, was released on December 15, 2017 and is dedicated to her.

The Narrator: Billie Lourd was born July 17, 1992, in Los Angeles, California, the only child of actress Carrie Fisher and talent agent Bryan Lourd. Lourd is also the only grandchild of actress Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher. [Wikipedia]