Mark Bergo's updated edition -Blonde Ambition- book will guide you from Madonna's early beginnings all the way until the year 2000. The author takes you on a chronological timetable to help you learn more about how Madonna climbed to the top by describing the people she met, the choices she made, the ups & downs, her contributions, and how she dealt with it all.

What I most enjoyed was how he described all the different albums, movies, plays, concerts, and videos including their release date, success in the charts, and ratings-- The appendix also has a list of her albums, films, videos, concerts, plays, and movies to enjoy or gain knowledge of. There are great descriptions of all her producers, lovers, friends, childhood acquaintances, Hollywood contacts, grandparents, and family members.

There is even a picture of Mark Bergo on the inside of the book, which shows Madonna and him talking. There are other photos from her childhood, daily life, screen playing, films (A Certain Sacrifice), performances, videos, meeting with fans, posing with Jellybean Benitez, concerts, movies (Desperately Seeking Susan), pose with Sean Penn, with ex-Beatle George Harrison, paparazzi fight, a day with 1 of her trainers, a pose with Sandra Bernhard, "The L* Kiss", Madonna as Marie Antoinette, and other AIDS benefit events.

From all the books I've read I found this one to have a very nice description of Madonna--although making her look a bit too calculating and manipulating at times. There are lots of descriptions about how she was introduced into the music business, the struggles she underwent to be heard, and how she came up with her songs. Her collaborators were also mentioned as well as many of her close friends who died of AIDS. There are times in the book where you can sense Madonna's emotions, sorrows of her mother's sad death, struggles raising her brothers and sisters, conflicts with her step mother, fights with her dad, and even personal accounts of her first boyfriend.

There was a lot of stories on Sean Penn to make the reader know just how much Madonna was in love during that 3rd making of her album "True Blue". There were plenty of accounts on her different affairs throughout her life but not gory or scandalous like other books I've read. The author maintains professionalism, class, and quality. Guy Ritchie was only mentioned in the last chapter very briefly. This would be a great book for someone who isn't too familiar with Madonna. Already fans will enjoy this as an added compliment to there already collection of popular books. I like how the author ends saying, "Singer, actress, record company president, erotic sex goddess, mother, spiritual guru, and media icon, she never seems to tire of astounding the public." Excellent buy and highly recommendable!

**Note: There were a few spelling errors and 1 wrong year date (release of Like A Virgin says 1994 instead of 1984 in the appendix) on this book but it doesn't change the fact it was a fantastic purchase.

If you are a Madonna fan, you already know most of what you'll read in here regarding Madonna's career history, but the material is presented in a nice, chonological format that makes for a good night of reading.

I think that the author must be a little "square" of a person, given such mistakes as the misspelling of Charles Barkley's last name (here, he spells it "Barclay"). I'm no basketball fan, or sports fan for that matter, but I picked up on that error right away.

In his updated editorial since the original printing, he seems to have soured his attitude towards Madonna. He is a lot harsher on her, and makes her every career move since the Like a Prayer era to be calculated and cynical.

There were a couple of items of Madonna trivia here that I didn't know, but I'll let you find that out for yourselves.

All things considered, this is a worthwhile read for a Madonna fan.

This book contains 51 different articles, thesis', poems and rants about Madonna, by authors varied as Camille Paglia and Vincent Canby to Henry Rollins and Liz Smith. It includes various one page cartoons and strips from "Mad" magazine and the Village Voice, and also in the mix are Rolling Stone poll results, a David Letterman top ten list about "Truth or Dare", and Sandra Bernhard writing about her Madonna dreams from her book "Confessions of a Pretty Lady". This book is chock full of more useless information about Madonna that us fans crave, new and old...The information covers roughly the 1984-1991 era (her most active IMHO) and is very entertaining, though not for the average reader. Madonna fans will find this book a great resource and companion to "The Madonna Companion", also a collection of written works about Madonna, though it is more on the scholarly edge. So this book is recommended to Madonna collectors, and all others...Borrow it from your own "Madonna freak".

Don't let it's dimunitive size fool you.This palm size book contains more information than a tabloid.Factual and refreshing...Filled with pictures that essays the life of the Artist at the time being.In the years to come this will be a most sought after collectible...So hold onto it!

This is a very comprehensive guide that offers several things:1)descriptions of a broad range of herbs, their properties,and specific applications and uses for medicinal and nutritional purposes; 2)an explanation of why these herbs are so critical to our overall health and wellbeing; and 3)an excellent introduction including frequently asked questions about the role and function of herbs. I have found it to be an excellent resource as well as an entertaing read.

A very compeleing mystery with a very surprising villain. A must read for mystery lovers.

This is a great hard to find book. I found mine in a rummage sale. Their's not much text, but the photos of Madonna are well worth trying to locate this book.

Perhaps the only more powerful person than Teddy Franklin in the international banking communities of Wall St., London, and Zurich is Greenspan. When Teddy Franklin decides to make a deal, the Fortune 500 feels the impact as if an earthquake hit. Politicians know not the mess with Teddy because he can break any one of them. However, Teddy's world changes when Barbara Hickman enters his life.

Though three decades younger than him, Teddy covets Barbara like he has not desired any person or thing in years. Teddy treats his approach to Barbara the way he handled a business deal using any means, including immoral to obtain his wants. He gains her inner secrets that she provides to a psychiatrist he arranged for her to see. However, as he obsesses over her, Teddy's world begins to crash around him, leaving him with few options.

THE MADONNA COMPLEX is an entertaining tale centering on the potential destructiveness of obsession. The story line is more of a character study than a thriller as Norman Bogner provides a deep look into Teddy and Barbara's thought processes and inner gut emotions. Graphic sex scenes may turn off some readers, but add to the overall feel of the reader being an observer. Though the subplot involving the law and killers subtract from the tale by trying to twist it into a thriller, the obsession which is the main story line brilliantly works leading to a fabulous absorbing look at extreme behavior.

Harriet Klausner

Este libro es la primera parte de la historia de la vida Lucrecia Borgia, que continúa con "Luz sobre Lucrecia" de la misma autora. Lucrecia Borgia fue una mujer que vivió en la Italia Renacentista de los siglos XV y XVI. Hija natural del papá Alejandro VI, esta mujer sería tristemente recordada como envenenadora, asesina, y por mantener una supuesta relación incestuosa con su padre y hermanos. Es un relato interesante sobre la vida licenciosa de los Papas, en una época en donde el poder y la riqueza corrompían a cualquier persona.

MADONNA: LIVE! contains live shots of Madonna performing in various venues during the "Who's That Girl?" tour of 1987. This is Madonna's second world tour, and it is the first one in which she showed off her newly toned body (in some shots she looks like an amateur body builder).

This is a paperback book with a binding made of staples, and it was published in 1988.