Mommywood by Tori Spelling

In honor of Mother’s Day weekend . . .

This was not as much of a “tell-all” as her last book, but I enjoyed her insights into motherhood and raising kids in Hollywood. This book confirmed what I thought after the last one: Tori’s smart and she’s building her brand. I’m sure she’ll write again.

This basically picks up where Stori Telling left off . . . but with more anecdotes about being a hollywood mom than her history.

Always Looking Up by Michael J. Fox

Subtitled: observations of an incurable optimist
I enjoyed his first autobiography so I picked this up. It’s slightly different in format with four sections Work, Politics, Faith and Family and memories as related to those areas. This didn’t seem to have as much meat to it, since it only covered the last eight years, but I admire and respect what he’s done to move research forward for Parkinson’s disease.
I learned a lot about stem cell research and enjoyed the family section the best.
A thoughtful memoir.

Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

I read this based on a recommendation from a blog I read. The cover reads: “I have not survived against all odds. I have not lived to tell. I have not witnessed the extraordinary. This is my story.” This book is supposed to be a peek into life at the beginning of the 21st century and I believe the author achieves that. Various anecdotes and thoughts about life are filed alphabetically and they all make for an entertaining glimpse into her life.

It was a quick read and I enjoyed it. That’s really all I have to say. Well maybe not, I thought about AJ Jacob’s book The Know It All while reading this. Refer to my entry about his book for more. I was trying to do a comparison but it wasn’t really possible as both books have different goals. But the theme of encyclopedias resonated with me. I wonder what an encyclopedia of my life would look like.

sTori Telling by Tori Spelling

I confess. I’m a fan of Tori Spelling. I was a huge fan of 90210 (oh Dylan) and now my guilty pleasure is Tori’s reality show, Tori and Dean: Inn Loveon Oxygen. So of course I wanted to read her autobiography. And I was not disappointed. It’s short (276 pages with acknowledgements) but covers her childhood, the alleged feud with her mom, her first marriage, her relationship with Dean, basically it’s her side of everything we’ve seen play out in the tabloids for the past 3 years.

Her writing style is direct, she doesn’t pull any punches and it rings true to me. Also I totally appreciate how she didn’t just name drop the entire time. And I appreciated her candor about money. I would’ve liked to hear more about how she feels about “her gays” and being a cult figure in the gay world. Her brother Randy is conspicuously absent. This isn’t a trashy tell-all. This her really her side of the story, focused primarily on the past 5 or so years. When talking about her relationship with Dean McDermott, (who was married when they met & fell in love) she says nothing negative about why his marriage broke up/wasn’t working/the custody battle basically nothing negative about his ex-wife. And I totally respect her for that. As she says, it’s not her story to tell.

All in all this book just made me like Tori more and confirmed what I’ve thought for awhile – she’s smarter than everyone gives her credit for.