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).