As the reigning “Queen of Pop” introduces the world to her 12th studio album in her non-stop almost thirty year music career, Madonna asks today’s younger pop female talent to step aside as she takes center-stage once again.
There is so much material out there about the “material girl” that it can become overwhelming if you’re looking to buy a quality book for yourself or to give as a gift to a fan. As a long-time fan and expert, here is a guide to the best books about or by Madonna that you may want to consider having in your collection.
5. Madonna Megastar: Photographs, 1988-1993.
A stunning coffee-table book containing hundreds of pictures from one of the most creative, controversial, and game-changing periods in Madonna’s entire career. Go on a visual journey from the beginning of the “Like A Prayer” era, to her career-defining “Blond Ambition” tour era where she explores themes of religion, sex, redemption and also creates a documentary around the chaos of it all. The next few years that followed were the most controversial and rebellious of her entire career and saw Madonna release a picture coffee-table book about her sexual fantasies while posing fully nude amongst other celebrities and gay porn icons. In 1993 Madonna took her highly under-rated “Erotica” album on the road in a mostly international world tour entitled “The Girlie Show.” This book covers the pinnacle of Madonna’s career and also the period that would forever solidify her as a megastar. In addition to the great pictures, there is also an essay written by feminist, Camille Paglia which gives great insight into the Madonna phenomenon.
4. Madonna Like An Icon by Lucy O’Brien
While other biographies seem to go into detail about the steamy affairs Madonna had with John F. Kennedy Jr., Warren Beatty and others, O’Brien leaves all the gossip aside and focuses on her career which in turn makes for a great read. Written by a fan, this book goes into detail about her successes and failures across all mediums she has worked in from the start of her career up to the 2007, when this book was written.
3. Madonna by Daryl Easlea and Eddie Fiegel
The most recent Madonna book to arrive on bookstore shelves is this huge giant size coffee-table book with a velvety fabric cover to its amazing content, including pull-outs, timelines and mostly accurate information that spans her debut album all the way to the release of her “Sticky & Sweet” tour in chronological order. Released December 2011, Madonna by Easlea and Fiegel is hands down the best and easiest to find book to gift to any Madonna fan.
2. Life With My Sister Madonna by Christopher Ciccone
Madonna’s younger brother and collaborator for the first half of her career, Christopher, has written a book that gives us insight into a woman, a living pop legend, in a way that we have never been given in her three decade career. Often times we hear from the voice of a little brother who is hurt, upset and whining. With all that said, you get more insight into the psychology of Madonna, her upbringing, her motivations, her relationships, her demands and her drive all from the perspective of a man who has been by her side from her child through the first two decades of her career. There isn’t really anything to scathing here or anything that a Madonna fan may not have already been able to deduce for himself except for killing the famous “came to NY with $35 in my pocket” myth. Christopher gives us a real-life account of what it’s like to be the brother of, arguably, the most famous woman in the world.
1. Sex by Madonna
The only book that could come close to beating Christopher Ciccone’s account of life with his sister is a book the woman herself, Sex. After ending a career-defining tour, releasing her first greatest hits compilation to huge sales, and winning rave reviews for both her “Truth or Dare” documentary as well as her role as a baseball player in “A League of their Own,” Madonna decided it was time to turn up the dial. In October of 1992 Madonna released Sex, a book of sexual fantasies containing mostly nude images of the pop icon by fashion photographer and long-time collaborator to the pop icon, Stephen Meisel. The book, spiral bound with metal front and back covers, came sealed in a mylar bag with an image of Madonna that would also be used for the cover of her album, Erotica, released around the same time. The US edition saw only one printing of 750,000 copies, all individually numbered, and sealed. If you really want to know whats going on in Madonna’s mind (in the early 90s anyway), here’s the only book you need. You can usually find a copy on eBay in varied condition.
