Marie Osmond’s new book deals with using humor when life throws a curve

A fire in your home turns three decades' worth of prized possessions and family heirlooms into cinders. What do you do?

If you're like most of humanity: You visit an ATM, make an emergency run to the discount liquor store and curl up in a fetal position in a dark bedroom for the next three or four weeks.

If you're Marie Osmond: You turn a photo of the blaze into a mock ad for a Christmas LP, with songs that include "Siren Night," "Up on the Rooftop Reindeer Roast," "Douse the Halls" and "All I Want for Christmas (is My Two Front Rooms"), and send it out as your 2005 Christmas card.

It's just that sort of never-say-die attitude and goofy, self-effacing humor that suffuse Osmond's second book, "Might As Well Laugh About It Now" (with Marcia Wilkie, New American Library, $24.95).

Osmond's first book, "Behind the Smile: My Journey Out of Postpartum Depression," was a New York Times best-seller. This time around, the singer/dancer/Las Vegas headliner/working single mother of eight explores life, love, show business, adolescence, family, struggle and disappointment through a series of inspirational, amusing, moving, sometimes laugh-out-loud essays.

In her book, Osmond covers such disparate topics as lessons learned from her parents, what it's like to compete on "Dancing with the Stars," Lucille Ball's stage-lighting tips and the perils of laughing too hard. And, in a more personal vein, Osmond tells the intensely moving story of her all-too-brief meeting with an infant niece.

Throughout it all, Osmond reveals herself to be a natural storyteller with a down-to-earth style and a quip always at the ready. (About preparing for "Dancing with the Stars": "I had to make room in my memory bank for hundreds of new dance steps, so I erased my brothers' names and their birthdays. Sorry, Tito, Marlon and Jermaine.")

During a phone interview last week -- on a day off from her show at the Flamingo Las Vegas, where she headlines with brother and longtime comic foil Donny -- Osmond said the book was inspired by the fire in her Utah home that destroyed, among other things, 30 years' worth of personal journals.

In sitting down to rechronicle a few memories, Osmond realized that the reminiscences she was writing down could serve as stand-alone chapters in a book. And while the stories she tells aren't averse to making a point or two, they're not heavy-handed or preachy.

"It's been likened to Erma Bombeck, which is really flattering," Osmond says. "I love how she took life and turned it into humor." Throughout Osmond's book flows a simple but powerful message: No matter what happens, there's always a laugh lurking about somewhere.

"To me," Osmond says, "humor is how you survive."

Survive, indeed. In the book, Osmond writes candidly about her marriages, her divorces and the struggles of balancing family and a high-profile job.

"I really believe it's the hard things in life that make us what we are, not the good things," she says.

But, at the same time, "I'm a very blessed woman," Osmond adds. "I've been working 45 years consistently in my business. The other day, I was saying that I'm working longer than Madonna. I said: She may have been like a virgin, but I was the original. And to have your career span that long, there's really only a handful of us who have been able to do that. I feel so honored."

In addition to the legions of longtime fans who've followed her career ever since "Paper Roses" in 1973, Osmond has won over a new generation of fans through her "Dancing with the Stars" stint and her popular collection of handcrafted dolls.

"It's interesting to have a young demographic now, probably because of my dolls," she says. "My e-mails are from 16- to 23-year-olds and 14- and 15-year-olds. It's amazing."

While Osmond's book has been predictably popular among women -- who sense in her a kindred spirit, or even the cool but accessible big sister they always wished they had -- she has found that it seems to have found another, more surprising, group of readers, too.

"What surprises me is, a lot of men enjoy the book," Osmond says. "I've gotten a lot of e-mail from men."

Osmond and brother Donny recently extended their Flamingo show for two more years, and this fall she adds to her professional plate duties as host of a daily syndicated talk show.

So: Has she started work on her third book yet?

Osmond laughs. "It's only been out three weeks," she answers in mock exasperation.

But, not surprisingly, her publisher asked that same question.

"I don't know," Osmond says. "We'll just wait and see if people want another one."

Right now, "I'm just thrilled people are enjoying it," she continues. "It's so thrilling. I'll walk into a bookstore and see it among the popular ones and it's like, 'Wow.'

"The big thing is, people I talk to say, 'Thank you for helping us laugh at our lives.' Tragedy plus time equals humor, and if you're going to laugh about it later, you might as well laugh about it now."

Contact reporter John Przybys at jprzybys@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0280.