This week, Basic Instinct star Sharon Stone was back in the news doing the type of thing that garnered her fame and fortune in the early 1990s.

She was posing for a glamorous photo shoot on a beach in France when she experienced a wardrobe malfunction, according to the Mirror.

The tabloid coverage of this event reinforced stereotypes about Stone as a sex symbol. But in fact, she's a compelling storyteller who's survived severe financial hardship, abuse, and a deadly health crisis.

This was revealed in her memoir, The Beauty of Living Twice, which was released earlier this year.

It opens in 2001 with Stone in an emergency ward facing a cerebral hemorrhage. In a highly conversational style, Stone describes her spiritual awakening and quest for wholeness.

This is a woman who knows how to defeat a challenge rather than being overwhelmed by it. And The Beauty of Living Twice shows a person who had it all but lost it, then found the light within.

"I am proud of my success in my work," Stone writes. "It belongs to me, I earned it. I kept getting up to bat, just like my dad said.

"Not every movie or TV job I've done has been a winner," she continues. "Some of them seem like I'm a pie girl again: just shoveling the crap out of the can into the premade crust. However, work is work. I go into each project wanting to do my best, be my best, hoping for the best outcome."

Stone comes across as extremely resilient, intelligent, and very intuitive. She would be a hard person to fool in any situation.

Her ability to share and reflect is refreshing. You can't help but admire how forthcoming she is about some horrible events in her life.

She's been at the crossroads many times. But at the end of it all, she's in a good place. And it's clear that the most important role of all has been as a mother to her three sons.

The book is choppy and a bit vague in a few places. Readers might come away hungry for more juicy details, which were not published due to nondisclosure agreements. And this is definitely not a linear memoir.

But it's heartfelt and real. It's proof that no matter how old a person is or what their experiences have been, they can pursue a life of wellness and be of service to others.

"We can reach for that light; we can look into that light. We can carry that light, be that light, and know that we are not digital, we cannot be replaced by that because we are the one thing that matters more," Stone concludes.

"Call it what makes your heart sing; but call it with love, because that light will lift you, cleanse you, and save you. It is the beauty of living twice."