sTORI TELLING

by Tori Spelling

book data

2,392 ratings, 3.56 average rating, 883 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		16%
4		37%
3		33%
2		10%
1		1%

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published

March 11th 2008 by Simon Spotlight Entertainment

binding

Hardcover, 288 pages

setting

The United States

isbn

1416950737 (isbn13: 9781416950738)

description

She was television's most famous virgin -- and, as Aaron Spelling's daughter, arguably its most famous case of nepotism. Portraying Donna Martin on Be...more

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04/09/08

Bean rated it:

Read in March, 2008

Ok, I know I am admitting here on this public forum, that I, a Librarian, have read the biography of Tori Spelling and thoroughly enjoyed it. Do I feel guilty about it? You bet. I know I should be reading the greats – Tolstoy, Austen, Dickens. They are heavy meals worthy of consumption. But then there are times when you just want to scarf down a dozen donuts – that’s what reading sTORI Telling was for me without all the nasty calories and only a little guilt.

On the remote chanc...more Ok, I know I am admitting here on this public forum, that I, a Librarian, have read the biography of Tori Spelling and thoroughly enjoyed it. Do I feel guilty about it? You bet. I know I should be reading the greats – Tolstoy, Austen, Dickens. They are heavy meals worthy of consumption. But then there are times when you just want to scarf down a dozen donuts – that’s what reading sTORI Telling was for me without all the nasty calories and only a little guilt.

On the remote chance you don’t know who Tori Spelling is allow me to enlighten you. She is the daughter of the late great television producer Aaron Spelling and played virginal Donna Martin in the television drama Beverly Hills 90210. Ok, I’ll admit it. I have seen every episode of 90210 – that’s 10 years of episodes! She’s gone on to do other things, especially made-for-TV movies (that even I wouldn’t watch!), but she’ll always be known as the daughter of Aaron Spelling who was on his show 90210 and who has been tabloid fodder ever since (I never read tabloids! Really!).

Though the book is touted as revealing all of the secrets of the goings-on on the set of 90210 and in her private life, it really is a book that reads like a conversation with a close girlfriend. It starts with Tori’s early years with the over-the-top birthday parties and Halloween costumes through the years where she had to struggle to overcome having such a famous name. Just to give you some insight into the book, there are chapters called, “They Hated Me at Hello”, “Strings Attached (or Why I Didn’t Notice That I Shouldn’t Be Getting Married” and my favorite “Is That a Knife in Your Purse or Are You Just Glad to See Me?”. You learn through reading the book, which some could see as just another “Poor Little Rich Girl” tale, that Tori’s a regular person with a really interesting life. She’s had problems with money and with her mother and with irrational fears. It was humanizing to read about her struggle with ODC. She loves her dogs and her second husband and, just like all of us, wants to be successful on her own without help from her parents.

I find the interactions between her and her mother especially intriguing. When Tori was 12 and all dressed up for a family portrait, she asked her mother, “Am I pretty?” Her mother responded with “You will be when we get your nose done.” Throughout the book there are plenty of other examples of her mother’s “sweetness”. To anyone that has watched 90210 with any regularity, you will know that Tori’s character on the program also had an uneasy relationship with her mother. Though Tori doesn’t say so in the book, it does leave you wondering if her real mother was the pattern the writers for the show followed. It is also notable that her father on the show was very sympathetic – did the fact that the producer of the show was Tori’s father have any bearing on this too?

I am in no way saying read this book and forget all about the Dostoevskys and James Joyces out there. But every now and then it’s nice to put aside the Lobster Newburg and opt for a donut with pink icing. That’s this book.(less)

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03/10/08

christa rated it:

Read in March, 2008

like you, i hated donna martin for the first few seasons of 90210. mostly because she has really weird cleavage, and no one ever talked about it. picture a cutout area the shape of a squash, with its round bottom sitting on her chest. tori spelling's cleavage. this never detracted from her popularity at the fictitious beverly hill's high school. if she'd gone to my high school, everyone would have called her ole squash boobs and filled her locker with vegetables.

however, i grew to l...more

Like this review? yes (8 people liked it)

5 comments

07/11/08

Myra rated it:

bookshelves: read-in-2008

Read in July, 2008

Most people probably will look at this book and think, "Why on Earth would I want to read about Tori Spelling's life? She's just another celebrity who has it easy." My answer to that would be this: "Spelling's book is not what you think. It's genuine, hilarious, touching, and you may miss out on a pretty decent read if you pass it up."

Tori Spelling pretty much lays all her cards on the table in this memoir. To be perfectly honest, it's quite refreshing to see ...more

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1 comment

04/07/08

Rhonda rated it:

Read in June, 2008

recommends it for: Fans of 90210

This is really a smartly written book. I thoroughly enjoyed it and it's a great read. Tori is very candid in here and seems honest throughout. She doesn't pull any punches when it comes to talking about her relationships with her parents (especially her mother) and her collegues and the press and almost everyone else.
She starts off talking about her childhood and the dolls given to her each and every birthday that were really more for her mothers pleasure than for Tori herself. To some pe...more

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11/21/08

Jamie rated it:

Read in November, 2008

Not the most challenging read ever, but kind of interesting to hear about her life. She seems very down to Earth and fairly normal. I haven't watched any of her reality shows, but my Mom said it's fun to watch the shows, then read the book, because there are cross-over 'characters' that show up in each.

The more I read this book, the less I like it. As I continue on, Tori is starting to jump around in the chronology of events, and sometimes her thoughts seem a bit scattered. The...more

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06/03/08

Cyndi rated it:

bookshelves: books-i-have, read-in-2009

Read in March, 2009

I loved this book! I was a big 90210 fan and would plan my weeks around the new episodes. Tori Spelling was never my favorite character, but I followed the tabloids nonetheless.
I applaud her for putting her life out there and finally doing what she wanted to do!
This book is such a fun, easy read. Its like having a conversation with her.

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06/21/08

Blair rated it:

bookshelves: read-in-2008

Read in June, 2008

Even as Tori Spelling grates on my nerves, I can't resist keeping track of what's going on in her life - her dishy sitcom, her tawdry hook-up with current husband Dean McDermott, and her painfully scripted "reality" show. I also couldn't resist this autobiography, which is one of the first dishy, tell-all books in Spelling's (and my) generation. However, this book was less about Spelling's acting experiences and her famous co-stars as it was about growing up rich and under the thumb ...more

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04/24/08

fbuser591230091 rated it:

bookshelves: memoir

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in April, 2008

recommended to Amy by: My Sister
recommends it for: any 90210 Fans

My sister bought me this book for my birthday. It was the perfect birthday gift. She knows me well enough that I would never buy this for myself, but I was dying to read it after reading the excerpts in People magazine.

This is a fascinating read for any 90210 fan, of which I am proud to say I am one. I set my ringtone on my cell to play the theme song. Nuff said. Tori Spelling has had a tumultuous relationship with her mother. Now, the stories she retells wouldn't have gotten...more

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02/22/08

Emily rated it:

bookshelves: nonfiction

Read in August, 2008

The perfect juicy summer read. Super fast. I know a lot of people have a bad perception of Tori Spelling, but she has been through a whole lot more than people realize -- and she doesn't throw a pity party about it. She owns up to her mistakes and tells her life story with refreshing, self-deprecating humor. She makes fun of herself. She seems a lot more real than some celebrities. I thoroughly enjoy this book.

-------------------------------------

I cannot tell a lie: I l...more

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05/04/08

Dina rated it:

Read in January, 2008

I really liked this book! Granted I had picked it up hoping to find out some dirt on the cast of 90210 (which I still watch, occassionally, on the Soap channel). There was hardly anything about 90210 here, but I still really liked this book! (Can you hear the, almost, disbelief as I state that?) How fascinating to grow up with absolutely no idea of the value of money (Dean Martin was her Godfather and would bring her a money tree every year on her birthday), to be given a credit card in your...more

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08/25/08

Brandon rated it:

Read in September, 2008

It feels like so much of what would be interesting (namely behind-the-scenes info about 90210) gets glossed over so she can talk about how much she likes her current husband. Also, if her mom were any colder, she'd be a polar bear. I find the whole "Rich people: they're just like us!" argument incredibly annoying, but Spelling shows that it's true; rich folks just have more of a means to mess each other up.

The book was easy to read, as it should be. Tori just wants to be l...more

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07/25/08

Andrea Whitten rated it:

Read in August, 2008

recommends it for: NATALIE AND RENEE

Well, I got this book and read it all in one night. That's several hours of my life I will never get back. The disconcerting part of this story is that I actually LIKED it. I couldn't put the stinkin' book down.

I could have been doing so many other things with my life. I could have been exercising or cooking or contemplating life or writing my own book. But, no. I was reading the autobiography of Tori Spelling alone on a Wednesday night with my dog cuddled up beside me.
...more

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2 comments

03/31/08

Alison rated it:

Read in May, 2008

Alhough I was never really a huge fan of Tori Spelling, I love 90210. Her character Donna Martin grew to be one of my favorites and at the end of the last season I was glad to see that Donna and David finally got back together (again) and got married. So after reading a little about this book, I had to do it, I bought it and it was really good. It is a super quick read. I read it in one day while on vacation. I now really like Tori despite all my preconceived notions of her over the lat 28 ...more

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04/22/09

Barrie rated it:

so dumb that it was actually entertaining.

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02/08/09

Clare rated it:

Read in February, 2009

I have to admit that before I say Tori Spelling's reality show on television, I really thought she would be one of those Hollywood brat airheads. After I watched her show about the very pregnant Tori and her husband buying a bed and breakfast and trying to make it a successful business, I had a different opinion of this young actress. The "reality" part of the show was obviously a come-on to get viewers interested in watching the show. There was no way I believed that Tori Spellin...more

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01/11/09

Feminist Review rated it:

Read in January, 2009

As a TV show runs into multiple seasons, careful viewers often catch trivial contradictions. Some backstory from Season One disappears or reverses altogether, or two characters who hated each other at the end of last season are suddenly childhood friends reunited (ahem, The L Word). Television viewers excuse these continuity issues as inherent to the form. In movies and books, however, the beginning of a story can be tweaked to match the ending before anyone has to see it. Therefore, it's disapp...more As a TV show runs into multiple seasons, careful viewers often catch trivial contradictions. Some backstory from Season One disappears or reverses altogether, or two characters who hated each other at the end of last season are suddenly childhood friends reunited (ahem, The L Word). Television viewers excuse these continuity issues as inherent to the form. In movies and books, however, the beginning of a story can be tweaked to match the ending before anyone has to see it. Therefore, it's disappointing to find these “Season One” contradictions throughout sTORI Telling, the recent memoir by actress and celebrity Tori Spelling. Often I would read a sentence, and then find the opposite sentiment a few chapters later.

In sTORI Telling, Spelling describes her complicated relationships with work, fame, money, and family. But rather than a thorough retrospective or revealing memoir, sTORI Telling is snapshot of how a young celebrity interprets her past from the modest vantage of her mid-thirties. The contradictions reveal as much as they obscure about Spelling’s life and how she views it. In this way, sTORI Telling is more like a revealing self-portrait than an incisive memoir.

The most startling contradictions come in the most ambitious and interesting part of the book, where Spelling explains her complicated relationship with wealth. With a legacy of stunted earning power, and constant encouragement to rely on someone else, women's financial biographies are often tortured and difficult. Spelling is brave to take it on at all.

After she was cut off from her family’s wealth, Spelling had to square the lifestyle she was accustomed to with the reality of her finances. It did not go well, and Spelling quickly fell into debt. Trying to explain that she hadn't been living on family money as a young adult, Spelling writes, "I'd been living independently since I moved out of the Manor, except that I paid rent to my mother for the ten years before she evicted me.” Later she fumes, “I’d been working hard to support myself since I was sixteen.” While earlier on she had corrected a popular misconception by stating that she didn't even move into the Manor, the famous Spelling mansion, until she was 17. Then she writes, “Look, I’m not complaining; I’m just trying to explain what it feels like to think about money for the first time in your thirties.”

Spelling's fans will find plenty of interesting stories in the pages of sTORI Telling, some very familiar to devotees of So NoTORIous, her autobiographical sitcom that lasted one (glorious) season on VH1. Readers who are ambivalent about Spelling may come to this book out of guilty pleasure, but they too will leave happy, fully briefed on the details of her first wedding, divorce, new relationship and new family. Media criticism enthusiasts will enjoy reflecting on how far the teen market has come since Beverly Hills 90210 broke the mold to become the first hour-long, primetime, network drama with a teenaged cast. That said, sTORI Telling probably won’t make many converts.

Whatever she was going for, Spelling’s screw ups and work-in-progress reflections paint a more honest portrait of American women of her generation than the jacket copy gives her credit for.

Review by Ann Raber(less)

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11/25/08

Alissa rated it:

bookshelves: 2008, nonfiction

Read in July, 2008

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 Love on 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 ...more

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06/21/09

Erica rated it:

Surpisingly there were alot of things that i liked about this book. Tori is easy to like and tells storys about her life that let you realize she is human. However there were some things I majorly disliked.
I cry very easily in books so on the section towards the end when she discusses the death of her father I couldn't help but shed some tears.. then about halfway through the chapter the story of her fathers death turned into the story of her fathers money. Now the whole book was ve...more

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04/21/09

Kim rated it:

I never was a big Tori Spelling fan until I read this book. I've seen every episode of Beverly Hills 90210 so I was very curious about this "tell-all" book.

What I learned about Tori Spelling while reading this book made me feel sorry for her. You would think that having Aaron Spelling as a Dad, you'd have it made. It seemed like her mother was very jealous of her. Her parents never showed any love or affection and her mother always seemed to buy her birthday gifts that she...more

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06/18/09

Alex rated it:

Read in June, 2009

So I read this book last night, as much as I am ashamed to admit it.

Why did I pick this up at the library? Honestly, I have no clue. I'm a bit intrigued by all the autobiographies coming out though. Somehow it feels wrong to hate actors without any good reason, as I always did with Tori Spelling. I decided that I should read her story and THEN decide if I still hate her.

The verdict? I, as embarrassing as it is, enjoyed this book. It was very well-written and funny, and s...more

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