Cher : the memoir, part one / Cher.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

***The Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller***

***The Global #1 Bestseller***

The extraordinary life of Cher can be told by only one person . . . Cher herself.

After more than seventy years of fighting to live her life on her own terms, Cher finally reveals her true story in this intimate celebrity memoir, the first of two parts.

Her remarkable career is unique and unparalleled. The only woman to top Billboard charts in seven consecutive decades, she is the winner of an Academy Award, an Emmy, a Grammy, and a Cannes Film Festival Award, and an inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame who has been lauded by the Kennedy Center.

She is a lifelong activist and philanthropist.

As a dyslexic child who dreamed of becoming famous, Cher was raised in often-chaotic circumstances, surrounded by singers, actors, and a mother who inspired her in spite of their difficult relationship.

With her trademark honesty and humor, Cher: The Memoir traces how this diamond in the rough succeeded with no plan and little confidence to become the trailblazing superstar the world has been unable to ignore for more than half a century.

Cher: The Memoir, Part One follows her extraordinary beginnings through childhood to meeting and marrying Sonny Bono--and reveals the behind the scenes story of the highly complicated relationship that made them world-famous, but eventually drove them apart.

This powerful autobiography reveals the daughter, the sister, the wife, the lover, the mother, and the superstar.

It is a life too immense for only one book.

An Icon's Origin Story: Before the awards and superstardom, she was a dyslexic child who dreamed of being famous. This is the story of how that girl from a chaotic childhood became a trailblazer. The Real Sonny & Cher: Go behind the music to the very beginning of her partnership with Sonny Bono, discovering the complex, deeply personal relationship that created a global phenomenon and ultimately drove them apart. 1960s Music Scene: With trademark honesty and humor, Cher recounts her rise through the vibrant, chaotic world of 1960s Hollywood, from Gold Star Studios to topping the Billboard charts. Unfiltered & Uncensored: With her trademark humor and candor, Cher holds nothing back about her extraordinary beginnings, the fight to live on her own terms, and the making of a legend.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Author's Note (xi)
• Preface (xiii)
• 1 Georgia on my mind (1)
• 2 I'm so lonesome i could cry (12)
• 3 A dream is a wish your heart makes (23)
• 4 Unforgettable (42)
• 5 I'm movin' on (57)
• 6 Because you loved me (71)
• 7 Trouble (80)
• 8 New york, new york (101)
• 9 Tong meets maria (124)
• 10 Be my baby (142)
• 11 Baby don't go (163)
• 12 I got you babe (187)
• 13 Good times (208)
• 14 The harder they come (235)
• 15 Ladies and gentlemen, sonny & cher (245)
• 16 I will always love you (263)
• 17 We can work it out (288)
• 18 And then there was david … you raise me up (305)
• 19 Both sides now (336)
• 20 All in love is fair (358)
• 21 Changes (382)
• Acknowledgments (413)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

The glitzy and forthright first installment of Cher's two-part autobiography finds the Grammy- and Oscar-winning performer pulling out more than a few secrets from her Bob Mackie--designed sleeves. The narrative begins with a detailed account of Cher's rocky 1950s Southern California childhood before covering her struggles with dyslexia, the early radio hits she cut in Los Angeles, her marriages to Sonny Bono and Greg Allman, and the many famous faces she mingled with in the 1960s and '70s. It ends with Francis Ford Coppola asking Cher why she isn't acting, setting the stage for a part two that includes peeks at her film work in Moonstruck and Mermaids. Throughout, Cher is a recognizably frank, occasionally profane narrator (the text contains 42 f-bombs), but it's her tenderness that shines brightest--especially moving is her determination to remain friends with Allman even after the end of their tumultuous, addiction-blighted marriage. She's also a gleeful dispenser of top-shelf gossip, with juicy nuggets on everyone from Mick Jagger to Carol Burnett to Salvador Dalí (Cher attended a memorable dinner at the surrealist's house, alongside a "bra-less chick" who "came out wearing a see-through blouse that might as well have been Saran Wrap"). Even casual Cher fans will be entertained. (Nov.)

Kirkus Book Review

The diva recounts the action-packed first half of her life story, an all-American rags-to-riches dream. Like Barbra Streisand, this iconic woman, born in 1946, is going to need about a thousand pages to tell the story of her amazing life and career--but she has chosen to do it in two volumes. This one ends about eight years before she won her Oscar forMoonstruck in 1988, but having started her partnership with Sonny Bono at the age of 16, there is plenty to cover. She begins at the beginning: "I mean, jeez. My family. You couldn't make it up." Though Cher grew up with sour milk, ants in the Rice Krispies, and saddle shoes held together with rubber bands, her mother always won the "misery Olympics" with stories of her own past: "Did your dad ever try to gas you in your sleep?" Georgia Holt, this beautiful man-eater actress mom, was married six times (twice to Cher's "smooth-talking Armenian father," Johnnie Sarkisian), and Cher's relationship with her, which included quite a bit of difficulty over the years but always landed on love, seems to presage her history with Bono. He died in 1998, creating an opportunity for affecting candor and self-reflection about their trajectory, which included a divorce on the basis that "Sonny had held me in 'involuntary servitude,' in direct violation of the US Constitution's Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery." Their comedy act continued to thrive after their split: She loved this man, and always will. The story of Sonny & Cher is a story of the '60s and '70s, of the growth of the music and television industries, of fashion and celebrity culture, of the evolving role of women in the 20th century. And the skinny on her relationships with music mogul David Geffen, second husband Gregg Allman, and Kiss frontman Gene Simmons is just as riveting. "We talked so long on the phone he ended up with a $2,800 phone bill," she writes of Simmons. "That's when he blurted out that he loved me….What is it with these men?" The vicarious experience of wealth, glamour, and romance is rarely this much fun. A truly great celebrity memoir. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.