... candid.

It is, in any case, a rather arduous journey—for the reader too. Ms. Stone can’t seem to do a good deed without heralding it as such, then pretends to play it down. There is much self-consciously spiritual talk about taking journeys and paths, trusting in the here and now, finding a way 'to succeed better' ...The book is most compelling and assured as a portrait of the actress as a young striver.

... an unusually readable Hollywood memoir.

True to her extraordinary cinematic chops, actor Stone launches her powerhouse memoir with the dramatic events surrounding the life-threatening stroke she suffered in September 2001.

Often shocking, Sharon Stone’s life has been difficult from birth, but one senses her immeasurable growth as an intelligent, empathetic, well-traveled feminist. The Beauty of Living Twice is a powerfully written and enlightening read for Sharon Stone fans, cinephiles, and lovers of glitzy, yet down-to-earth memoirs..

... unpredictable energy. [Stone's] writing can be electrifying, especially when she’s describing her early life or her illness; at other times, a drizzle of Hollywood spirituality and cosmic learning dims the brightness.

... sincere.

... generous.

The book includes almost no detail at all about her romantic history, and there's relatively little here, too, about her experience in Hollywood, except as being mostly incidental to the actress' more spiritual evolution.

As an icon of Hollywood glamour and clear subversion of the dumb-blonde myth as soon as she opens her mouth, Stone’s existence is baldfaced in its rarefaction. But even without the fame that is her memoir’s primary selling point, enough has happened to Stone to fill a book much longer than the 246-pager that she turned in.

Though the memoir is unevenly, frenetically narrated, that will only deter readers unfamiliar with Stone’s persona. Delivering a barrage of self-reflective anecdotes, she is consistently candid, alternatingly tender and feisty, and always witty.

... bold.