Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic!
Review: A compelling biography of one of the worlds hottest talents which rightly doesn't in any way try and put her down like some other sources have in the past. What you immediatley feel from J. Randy Taraborellis writing (famous also for his startling biography on Soul music legend, Diana Ross) is a huge sense of respect for this multi talented Pop Icon who has never ceased to amaze and surprise with her stunning back catologue of studio albums. What this book offers is a fascinating story of her upbringing where she tragically had lost her mother at the tender age of 5, her often troubled relalationship with her father. her strong religious beliefs, her eventful struggle to fame through to her triumphant first taste of success and gradually blosomming into one one of the most successful and enduring female artists in history. As well as that it also traces her erratic movie career from the low budget A Certain Sacrifice, through to her triumphant and utterly magnificent performance in Evita. It also focuses on her turbulent marrage to actor Sean Penn through to her happier marrage to respected and highly talented film director, Guy Ritchie. Taraborelli attempts to analyse much of Madonnas music through her albums such as Like A Prayer and Ray Of Light which each offers insightful and indepth reviews. It makes utterly compelling reading and once you start you just won't want to put it down! Without doubt the best and most articulate book i've ever read on Madonna.
Rating:
Summary: What a book ..... what a woman!
Review: A wonderful book with confirms every pre-conception you have about Madonna - good or bad. But the bad things she does don't seem like bad things, they seem to me lke a necessary part of her struggle to get to the top. She one of the most famous women in the world and she bloody deserves it too. A fabulous book by a writter who obviously knew his stuff. A well worthwhile read.
Rating:
Summary: Loved it!
Review: Am I the only person on earth who doesn't know every little thing about Madonna? Judging from the cynical customer reviews here, I must be. I found this book to be well-researched and very well done. The writer is compassionate, and tells both sides of every story -- not just Madonna's side. In the Sean Penn battering episode, for example, he interviewed Sean and Sean denied it ever happened. Sean says he did not tie her up. That's why Taraborrelli wrote that there are "two sides" to every episode of domestic abuse. This was a great book. I would recommend it to anyone interested in a good read, and one that really explores the life of a woman who everyone seems to know ... but not until reading this book did I really feel I knew her. Read this book!
Rating:
Summary: extraordinary!!!!! two thumps up
Review: as far as i know this is the best,real biography that i have read about MADONNA,so many details, a great book that i would like to recoment to every madonna fan in the world!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Tabloid Style Is Out-Of-Touch With Madonna's Current Image
Review: As the "Madonna historian" refered to four times in this book, I have to say I am a little dissapointed with the final result of this biography considering it took 10 years to complete. The amount of information collected was probably enormous, but it's editing and delivery leaves much to be desired. Madonna: An Intimate Biography, is an excellent compilation of the various media news reports spanning Madonna's entire career, but most fans have already heard these stories and there is not much "new" offered. Many of the stories originate from Madonna's sensationalized tabloid past which is not really very current with Madonna's present image and relationship with her fans. The author tried to end on a positve note only after spending much of the book showing every negative trait of Madonna's former persona. I would have liked to have seen more focus on the new exclusive interviews with people surrounding Madonna's career. The author did do some of this, but did not present very many new details unless they were of a negative tone. This style of bio would have been better suited for circa 1990-1992. I did find the John Kennedy Jr. stories more detailed than what was previously reported due to the authors research into the Kennedy clan, but I don't have 100% confidence in the author's quote accuracy considering that his references to my work were close to, but not quoted 100% correct. This is not a big deal, but it makes it hard to believe that these stories happened exactly as described in the book. I saw what might be considered expressed bias aginst Madonna with this book by the publisher (Simon & Schuster) on page 221 where the author claims that Madonna stole her "Sex" book idea for Time-Warner from Simon & Schuster editor Judith Regan. If this story is true, it might have been better for this book to have been published by another publisher. Otherwise the appearance of a negative "pay back" to Madonna with this book does cross the readers mind as it did when I read the story. I would also like to have seen more detail on the production of Madonna's recordings which is why she is so famous in the first place. There are many juicy stories about the production of her albums that have not yet been told in detail. The author missed an opportunity to explore this, particularly with her former collaborators Shep Pettibone, Stephen Bray and Tony Shimkin and Junior Vasquez. As much work as the author put into this book, perhaps he didn't ask enough questions or the right questions when speaking to the interview subjects. More likely, these details may have been edited away by S&S as too boring? At any rate ,this "intimate" biography just doesn't seem very intimate with sources credited to People Magazine, The National Enquirer and the Globe. Sure many other sources were also used, but the tone of this bio for the majority of the first 2/3'rds of it, reeks of the style of these publications. Perhaps the publisher would consider publishing a volume two
using the rest of Taraborrelli's research using a different delivery style and tone more current to Madonna's more mature fan base and current public image? ...
Rating:
Summary: A Nice, Intimate Look at the Icon
Review: Begining this book as a devout fan, I thought that it was going to put down my idol. However, it paints my idol as something that is often overlooked- it depicts her as a human being. And a very nice, caring, sweet human, at that. I do have to say that it seemed to leave some things missing, but seemed somewhat complete without writing about her day-to day life. I liked her even more after reading this book!
Rating:
Summary: Not for Madonna fans ... just clueless soon to be fans
Review: For those who are Madonna fans, this book is probably all old news. For those of us who were not Madonna fans - welcome to the club of Madonna. What an incredible story of a little girl who must face the anguish of losing her mother at a tender age. What a traumatic thing for a child to bear. For starters we see Madonna as that little girl as we peek into her childhood. We see her grow into a teen and we see her dream of being a star. Not always a pretty picture as we see Madonna taking her lumps and still hang onto her dream. Success is not without hard work and tears and unshakable passion that one thrives on to make their dream come true. The author has quite a list of reference sources for his written material rather than giving a first hand account but it was enough to keep me thoroughly immersed in the pages of this book. The heck with all her relationships ( with the exception of the gentleman, dreamy Warren Beatty and the hothead bad boy Sean Penn and of course the husband, oh so lovable Guy Ritchie ) I am in awe of her success and her multi-talents. One thing not explained was how she met her back up singers, Nikki Harris and Donna DeLory. Yes, this book made a fan out of me. Don't know if this helped out to those of you who are considering buying it but I found it very good. Buy it here on Amazon and pick up a few of her movies and cds while you're at it and kick back and enjoy yourself.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting to Read, But Nothing Too Earthshattering...
Review: Having been a fan of Madonna for almost 20 years (my God, has it really been that long?!) there was no question in my mind as to whether or not I was going to buy this book when I first saw it on the shelf in the bookstore. I couldn't wait to read it! Now that I've devoured the book in just a few short hours, I have to say it was worth buying, mainly as another addition to my extensive collection of all things Madonna!I was not overly impressed by much of the information gleaned from this book. There were many passages that were already very familiar to me, coming almost directly from other older interviews and magazine articles that have been quoted many times before. The author himself claims that the last time he interviewed Madonna was in 1987, so... you kind of have to take what he says about her with a grain of salt. There were also passages that I somehow doubted the truth of, passages that seemed embellished or even made up. How was this author privy to intimate or personal conversations or incidents between Madonna and only one other person? If they were true, I would have to wonder what kind of people Madonna is friends with or employs that so many of them would go out of their way to relate personal information about her to some guy writing an unauthorized book about her! Many of his sources are people like Camille(did somebody say sour grapes???)Barbone or some of her dancers from her BLond Ambition Tour. But, whatever! I have no actual way of judging the veracity of any of his "sources," either named or anonymous. That said, I would have to say that Madonna is portrayed in this book as having quite a lot of notches in her famed Boy-Toy belt, as the book goes into great detail of her supposed conquests with men. One is led to believe that Madonna has an almost insatiable appetite for sex! Many passages also portray her as being rude, childish, and even cruel to most of the people around her. How does a person who treats everyone in such a shabby manner, as the book implies, have such a successful and long-standing career? A bit of a mystery to me... Perhaps many of the sources for these parts of the book are simply disgruntled ex-employees, jilted "friends," or money-hungry hangers-on who didn't mind making a few things up for the extra cash? One never knows... There WERE parts of the book that DO portray Madonna in a more human light, more of a likeable person. It was these parts that I found to be the most interesting, as opposed to the more tabloid-like tattling in other parts of the book. You probably will not find anything too earthshattering in the way of revelations about Madonna as you read this book. Most of it appears to be re-hashed from old interviews, as I said before. (How very convenient that it was published in the U.S. just as Madonna was embarking upon her first world tour since the Girlie Show! Nothing like good timing when you want to ride the coattails of someone else's fame, eh??) It does lead me to the realization that no "tell-all" or "intimate biography" can truly capture the essence of who a person really is. A person is so much more than who they are made to appear as on paper, and sometimes to try to do so is to trivialize that person. If you buy the book, read it only for fun and be sure to take most of what you read with a grain of salt. Light-weight reading for those hot summer days when you would rather be floating on a raft in the water than working!
Rating: 
Summary: No matter what , you will buy it anyway. :) Just be warned.
Review: I bought this book to prepare myself for the wonderful Madonna concert I was about to embark on. I figured, since it's the first time I will see her in concert, I would like to revisit some of my earlier memories of my childhood idol. Well I did, word for word, article by article and from Christopher Anderson's "Madonna." I wonder if the author of this book bothered with researching the earlier part of her life. I understand that if anyone was going to talk about her early days they would have done so by now and little more could be gleaned. But what was more difficult to take was the authors often glib, rude and worse kind of... uncomfortably hmmm... how do I describe it, aging dirty old man judgmental comments on her earlier life. Randy (couldn't even think of a better name) seemed to be obsessed with the EXACT number of Madonna's abortions, and descriptions of how she was in bed. (The first is just gross, the second I guess is understandable.) However what was unforgivable was his pat comment about "In every domestic violent situation there are two sides of the story," throwaway, after his description on the abusive episode with Sean, where he tied Madonna up and tortured her for days until she broke free and ran to the Malibu police station, stricken, bruised and bleeding. Even a hardened LAPD officer was quoted, "There was no doubt she was a woman who had been in serious trouble." Considering this story has never been widely disputed, if at all. It was just offensive Randy would come down with such an insensitive and grotesque comment about a terrible situation of a woman he professes to admire. After that he goes on to dissect her career, ergh, (you could tell he really couldn¡¦t give a toss about that part). It was written with a convoluted timeline, jumping back and forth four, five years at a time, contradicting what he said previously: one moment ¡§Truth or Dare¡¨ was a wonderful piece and made a lot of money, ¡§Sex¡¨ was revolutionary, then ten pages down, it was unprofitable slime and the beginning of the ruin of her career. Randy then spends one sentence on the break up of Madonna's long time friend and manager, saying pretty much, "They stopped working together." and went on to discuss her sex life and what her date was wearing. Considering Madonna is one of the shrewdest business woman in the industry you would hope he would spend at least sometime dissecting her arguably most significant relationship that lasted over 15 years. FINALLY the later part of the book where Anderson's left off, her personal life begins some interesting tidbits. Such as information about her relationship with JFK Jr, were they really in love? Warren Beatty ¡Vwas that diamond ring an engagement ring or not? Her relationship with Lourde¡¦s father ¡Vshe paid him off to keep quiet but he is a decent man and probably didn¡¦t need to. And a tiny bit about her mothering. Then of course her and Guy's affair, bitchy comments from his ex, and preparations of their wedding and the wedding itself that Randy alludes to, were gotten from an interview with Mr. Ciccone. They way the book was written, the facts and relationships he so heavily discussed and what he missed out was, I think, Randy forgot -and it might even shock some of you- we have grown older. I realized this upon arrival of the concert, Madonna's fans are made up mostly of mid-20s to mid-40s women and gay men. She is no longer a young pop sensation. That is Britney Spear¡¦s job, Madonna is more like a stately older woman in terms of a revolutionary musician of her time -a Debra Harry, a Bob Dylan, a Joan Baez, a Frank Sinatra. And we her fans have grown out of our teenybopper stage a long time ago and expect more from a biography and much more from a biographer. But, I know no matter what is said here, hard-core fans will buy this book. I probably would have regardless of negative reviews too (I just didn¡¦t keep it). After all we always want more of our fabulous-idolicous Madonna, good, bad or ugly.
Rating:
Summary: Finally, the Definitive Madonna Biography!
Review: I had been waiting for this book, and it was sure worth the wait. Again, J. Randy Taraborrelli brings us his view of a diva. The last time out for him was his book about Jackie Kennedy and her sisters-in-law ("Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot." I so enjoyed it! I even cried at the end. <sob>) Prior to that he had written about the greatest diva of them all, Miss Diana Ross ("Call Her Miss Ross." Yum! So dishy I had to read it twice!) Now, the ultimate icon, Madonna. Okay, so there is nothing in this book that shocked me, really. But how could anyone write anything that would bemore sensational than what Madonna has already told us? This book put it all in perspective for me, and gave me a whole new understanding of her. I liked her so much more after reading this book. I had thouht she was just a b***h. But, no, there is a lot more to her than that, as I learned here. I enjoyed all of the bits about her father and the relationship that they have had, good and bad, and how, when she had Lourdes, she began to see her father in a different way. I also enjoyed reading about Guy Ritchie and her life today, and the kind of man he is, and how lucky he is to have gotten Madonna at this time in her life (and how lucky she is to have him!) If you know every little thing there is to know about Madonna, I still think you will find new stories here. For instance, did you know that she and Gwyneth Paltrow are such good friends? Did you know that she, Madonna, has tried to mend her relationship with Michael Jackson? There's a lot of juicy stuff here, and also some good analysis of her movies and records -- especially her albums. You only need one biography of Madonna on your book shelf, really, and this should definitely be it. Well worth the money, and the wait ...thanks, Amazon and J. Randy Taraborrelli. (Who's next for Randy? That's what I want to know!)
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