Five Fabulous Celebrity Autobiographies

Big-time fans love their stars, and eat up every detail about them. But the best celebrity autobiographies appeal to everyone, whether they tell a rags-to-riches story or illuminate a nostalgic past in showbiz. Here are some of summer’s best.

Shania Twain: From This Moment On

Everyone who loves Twain knows how difficult her early life was. She was born in Canada, part of a poor family of five kids. She helped her mother and siblings escape to a battered women’s shelter. And she raised her family on her own after both her parents were killed in a car accident. But in From This Moment On, she tells her story in painfully honest detail. In one way, it’s a miracle that she escaped that life to become the star she is. But it’s another one that she had the resilience and intelligence to do so. “Life was not going to knock me down!” she writes. “I had to make it.”

Keith Richards: Life The most visible face of the Rolling Stones, besides Mick Jagger, Richards’ autobiography is starkly titled. But it tells a lot. Even next to Jagger, Richards is the ultimate rock’n’roll bad boy. He grew up in a poor London neighborhood, and from the time he was a kid, he cultivated “a criminal mind.” But throughout the 576-page book, Richards’ love for music is obvious, and it was probably the music that kept him from turning into a bad boy who doesn’t make money (as opposed to a bad boy who does.) And the name on the jacket definitively settles a decades-long controversy among Stones fans: Is it Richard or Richards?

Monica Lewis: Hollywood Through My Eyes This is the rarest of all celebrity autobiographies: One that’s both comprehensive and an irresistible page-turner. A goldmine for fans of retro Hollywood, Lewis’ autobiography is the story of “America’s Singing Sweetheart,” as Lewis was known while scoring hits like “Autumn Leaves” and “I Wish You Love.” The first guest ever on the Ed Sullivan Show, Lewis, now 89, includes an amazingly comprehensive photo collection of her with friends like Ava Gardner, Ted Kennedy and Barbra Streisand. Our favorite photo: Lewis at dinner with Ronald Reagan. She’s wearing his special gift, a medal of St.Genesius, patron saint of actors.

Steven Tyler: Does The Noise In My Head Bother You? To say Steven Tyler is just an American Idol judge is like saying that the Beatles were Paul McCartney’s old band. Tyler’s raucous odyssey beginning in the 1970s as the front man for Aerosmith contains everything you ‘d expect: sex, drugs and rock’n’roll . But it was the drugs that almost killed him, everything from cocaine to downers. Now, though, it’s the 21st century and Tyler is 63, though he’s still styling with those flowing scarves and being as nice as he can be on Idol. Which, surprisingly, is pretty nice. His autobiographical advice: “Break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, and laugh uncontrollably, and never regret anything that makes you smile.”

Betty White: If You Ask Me (And Of Course You Won't) It’s just possible that Betty White’s comeback is the biggest in entertainment history. She’s always been extraordinarily beloved for her roles on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Golden Girls and kept her career going for decades after those 1970s/1980s shows. But it took a Superbowl Snickers commercial in 2010 to bring her fully back into the spotlight . Now she’s one of the hottest entertainers around, but she’s never lost either her perspective or her sense of humor. You can see it in her latest autobiography: If You Ask Me (And Of Course You Won’t). At 89, she’s beyond being fake about anything. “I have no idea what color my hair is,” she writes,” and I have no intention of finding out.” And why should she? She’s busy with so much other stuff.

To order these books, visit www.amazon.com.