Synopses & Reviews
Donny Osmond was stumped when it came to choosing a title for his eagerly anticipated autobiography. He was partial to
I Survived Donny Osmond And You Can, Too. Then he was torn between
One More Joke About the Teeth and the Old Lady Gets It and
I Suffered for My Art, Now It's Your Turn. Finally, he knew he had to call it
Life Is Just What You Make It. Here's the reason why.
A television star by the age of six, a veteran of Las Vegas by eight, Donny at age eighteen had four separate careers successfully underway. He was a member of the Osmond Borthers, a solo artist, half of a duo with his sister, Marie, and a co-host of the immensely popular late-1970s television variety show The Donny & Marie Show. With numerous hits under his belt (23 gold records by the time he was thirteen) and legions of screaming fans, this polite boy from Utah with the golden voice and those pearly whites was one of the biggest teen idols of his time.
But by the early 1980s, public perception had changed. The kid everyone loved to love had grown up to be the young man everyone loved to hate. Unable to convince record company executives he could sell records as a mature artist, his music career appeared to be over. His squeaky-clean image had become so unfashionable that Michael Jackson even advised him to change his name. Donny was on the verge of calling it quits when his 1989 song "Soldier of Love" made it all the way to number two on the charts.
In Life Is Just What You Make It, Donny describes how he kept his faith, his dignity, and his sense of humor through creative, emotional, and financial setbacks. For the first time ever, Donny reveals his battle with social phobia, a common but debilitating anxiety disorder that threatened to ruin not only his career but his entire life as well. He talks about how he learned not to draw his identity from what others thought of him. He discovered that life really is what you make it.
Review
"Can a friend of Dweezil's be all bad? Does any other living person more embody the term 'pop culture' than Donny Osmond? A self-aware pro, Osmond presents himself (with Romanowski's help) informatively, entertainingly, inspiringly, and lightly." Booklist
Review
"[T]his is a surprisingly open and sincere look at the life of a child star whose early fame came and went (including a hint of resentment about having to work so hard so young), and the effort it took to get back on top." Library Journal
Synopsis
By the age of eighteen, Donny Osmond was a genuine entertainment phenomenon -- a member of the Osmond Brothers; a solo artist; half of a duo with his sister, Marie; and co-host of the immensely popular late 1970s television variety show, Donny and Marie. Then, by the early 1980s, his squeaky-clean teen-idol image had become so unfashionable that Michael Jackson advised him to change his name.
In Life Is Just What You Make It, Donny tells stories from his career and describes how he kept his faith, his dignity, and his sense of humor through creative, emotional, and financial setbacks. For the first time ever, he reveals his battle with social phobia, a common but debilitating anxiety disorder that threatened not only his career but his entire life as well. Rather than giving up when times got rough, he learned to persevere and follow his own path. Along the way, he discovered that life really is what you make it.
Synopsis
For the first time in trade paperback, entertainer, singer, and pop culture icon Donny Osmond returns to bring his life story up-to-date.Donny Osmond has been a superstar since the age of six--one of the few child stars whose popularity has endured for four decades. He's been a teen idol, a Broadway actor, and a talk show host, and to this day is still touring to sold-out crowds. This new edition of his acclaimed memoir fills in the gaps for his millions of fans, with three new chapters providing more fun, more revelations, more faith, more love, and more laughter.
About the Author
Donny Osmond has worked in the entertainment industry for more than forty years as a singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. His popularity as an all-round entertainer continues to grow and, as well as hosting the successful television program The Donny and Marie Show with his sister, he starred in Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat for six years. In 2004 he performed to a sell-out UK concert tour, and released his 54th album to commercial and critical acclaim.
Patricia Romanowski is the award-winning co-editor of The New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock and Roll. She lives on Long Island with her husband, author Philip Bashe, and their son, Justin.