The Beauty of Living Twice

there knowing that I could die at any second, she stroked my face with her dusty hand and I suddenly felt that my mother loved me. Bit by bit.
 
My father stood beside her like a bull looking to charge.
 
I called my best friend of more than twenty years, Mimi, and said what we always said when the news was exceptionally good or bad: You d better sit down. I could hear her sharp inhale. I said, I might die and you are the only one I can tell the truth to because somebody needs to take care of everyone and it s not going to be me. I m bleeding into my brain. They don t know why.
 
She said, Oh, shit.
 
I said, There is a very good-looking doctor here, and sadly I might not be able to flirt with him.
 
She was trying not to cry as she whispered, Oh, honey, I m on the next plane. As I knew she would be.
 
Then came the silence again. Echoing off the emergency room tiles and hitting my newly broken heart. I remember feeling something between scared and fascinated that no one was running around yelling, STAT STAT! like they do on TV. There was a stunning lack of urgency and movement. The doctor yeah, that one told me an ambulance was coming to transport me to another hospital, Moffitt-Long, which was renowned for neurological issues, and that they would take special care of me.
 
God, that really made me feel bad. There are just times when getting special care can be such a downer. This is not like floor seats at a Laker game or getting the table by the window at your favorite restaurant. Privileges. Fame. Shit.
 
It was then that I suddenly felt everything moving strangely, as if the film of my life were moving through a camera backward. Fast. I started to experience a feeling of falling

The Washington Post      

Stone is a strong portraitist of the instant in time, and aware that stardom, like identity, is mostly a phenomenon of the memory. . . . The gossipy moments in this book are juicy. Her occasional lapses into divahood are frankly more entertaining to read than the more virtuous edit of the same event would have been. . . . The Beauty of Living Twice is a book about Sharon Stone s life, which makes it a book about how women take on multiple personas when they become very famous, then struggle to keep them in order.
Jo Livingstone, The New Republic

[The Beauty of Living Twice] charts not only the highs and lows of her career on screen but also her struggles, including medical problems that nearly killed her, in her personal life. Stone being Stone, it's all delivered with a wit and honestly that brings the book beyond your average movie-star memoir.
Town & Country

The past few years have seen a string of revelatory celebrity memoirs that aren t just promotional tools but genuine, no-holds-barred autobiographies offering nuanced looks at people we might have thought we knew . . . This year, Sharon Stone shares her story: The actress recounts how she rebuilt her life in the wake of a massive stroke and pursued a slow road back to wholeness and health.
Fortune

Fans of Stone will eat up the actress new autobiography, which chronicles not only her famous roles but also a traumatic childhood; a stroke in 2001 that, she writes, cost her both her career and savings; and her humanitarian efforts to strengthen the lives of women and children around the world.
CNN

In her candid memoir, Sharon Stone discusses how she rebuilt her life after a stroke that forever altered life as she knew it.
Marie Claire

Brave, contemplative and inspiring. . . . Stone's tough and touching memoir reveals the traumas, setbacks and gritty determination to survive and thrive that have previously been hidden beneath a beautiful façade.
Kevin Howell, Shelf Awareness

Stone delivers a bighearted, wonderfully rambling story full of wisdom and humor.
Amy Scribner, BookPage

Delivering a barrage of self-reflective anecdotes, [Stone] is consistently candid, alternatingly tender and feisty, and always witty. . . . Fans will blissfully revel in the intimate if restlessly delivered details in this perceptive memoir.
Kirkus Reviews

Bold. . . . Suffused with wry humor, Stone's storytelling alternates between literary descriptions and intimate colloquialisms. . . . The mix of moxie and vulnerability conveys a life well lived, and well examined.
Publishers Weekly

[Stone s] writing is conversational and engaging, especially as she tells the powerful stories that demonstrate resilience and grit in many facets of her life, from her childhood to her acting career and beyond. . . . A welcome memoir of finding your way when life doesn't go according to plan. Stone's vulnerability and rediscovery will resonate with many readers.
Library Journal