Sharon Osbourne Extreme

October 1, 2006
Rock matriarch Osbourne's memoir is the U.K.'s top-selling biography of all time, selling more than 600,000 copies when it was released there in 2005. It's the kind of book that even nonreaders can't put down. The feisty, two-fisted, expletive-spouting wife of Ozzy Osbourne has lead an extremely volatile life, and Paul M. Thompson's abridgment leaves very little space for listeners to catch their breath. "I tell it like it is," she says. "I've heard it, seen it and done it before you were born." There is certainly no lack of drama with her frank retelling of a life dealing with domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, three miscarriages, several robberies, overdoses, comas and chemotherapy. The extreme abridgment (it's half the length of most abridged audios) often robs listeners of some of Osbourne's most powerful and raw observations, especially near the end when dealing with her cancer and an accident that nearly kills Ozzy. But Osbourne's chipper reading makes for an outstanding listening experience.Simultaneous release with the Springboard hardcover (Reviews, Aug. 28).

December 4, 2006
Rock matriarch Osbourne's memoir is the U.K.'s top-selling biography of all time, selling more than 600,000 copies when it was released there in 2005. It's the kind of book that even nonreaders can't put down. The feisty, two-fisted, expletive-spouting wife of Ozzy Osbourne has lead an extremely volatile life, and Paul M. Thompson's abridgment leaves very little space for listeners to catch their breath. "I tell it like it is," she says. "I've heard it, seen it and done it before you were born." There is certainly no lack of drama with her frank retelling of a life dealing with domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, three miscarriages, several robberies, overdoses, comas and chemotherapy. The extreme abridgment (it's half the length of most abridged audios) often robs listeners of some of Osbourne's most powerful and raw observations, especially near the end when dealing with her cancer and an accident that nearly kills Ozzy. But Osbourne's chipper reading makes for an outstanding listening experience. Simultaneous release with the Springboard hardcover (Reviews, Aug. 28).

October 1, 2006
Having raised her profile from wife of shock-rocker Ozzy and mother of three creatively dysfunctional kids to a celebrity in her own right with the hit reality TV showThe Osbournes , Sharon Osbourne lets fans in on her early tumultuous years during the British rock-and-roll scene in this raunchy, take-no-prisoners memoir. Born in Brixton, London, in 1952, the only daughter of a Jewish singer from Manchester, Don Arden, and his Irish dancer wife, Osbourne grew up among entertainers grasping to survive in the cutthroat business and with little time to nurture her childhood. Indeed, a strong theme in Osbourne's frank account is how her father, who became a formidable manager of early rock-and-rollers like Gene Vincent and the Animals, used her as a pawn in his get-rich schemes; by 15 she had quit school and started working at her father's office, repelling creditors and appeasing bailiffs. Arden's fortunes rose and fell, and Osbourne met and partied with hip rockers like ELO and Black Sabbath, originally fronted by Ozzy Osbourne. From London to L.A., the riot of parties didn't quit, and the drinking usually escalated to violence and destruction of hotel rooms, especially during the Osbournes' long, improbably durable marriage. Fond of luxury and her bed, Osbourne is rip-roaring chatty and never boring.