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sTORI Telling

Tori Spelling

sTORI Telling Tori Spelling Amazon Price: $13.72
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Total reviews: 104 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

She was television's most famous virgin--and, as Aaron Spelling's daughter, arguably its most famous case of nepotism. Portraying Donna Martin on Beverly Hills, 90210, Tori Spelling became one of the most recognizable young actresses of her generation, with a not-so-private personal life every bit as fascinating as her character's exploits. Yet years later the name Tori Spelling too often closed--and sometimes slammed--the same doors it had opened.

sTORI Telling is Tori's chance to finally tell her side of the tabloid-worthy life she's led, and she talks about it all: her decadent childhood birthday parties, her nose job, her fairy-tale wedding to the wrong man, her so-called feud with her mother. Tori has already revealed her flair for brilliant, self-effacing satire on her VH1 show So NoTORIous and Oxygen's Tori & Dean: Inn Love, but her memoir goes deeper, into the real life behind the rumors: her complicated relationship with her parents; her struggles as an actress after 90210; her accident-prone love life; and, ultimately, her quest to define herself on her own terms.

From her over-the-top first wedding to finding new love to her much-publicized--and misunderstood--"disinheritance," sTORI Telling is a juicy, eye-opening, enthralling look at what it really means to be Tori Spelling.



Amazon.com Exclusive
A Bonus Story and Family Photo from Tori Spelling

The Manor
People are always asking about my parents' mansion, which they called the "Manor," but I don't really spend much time talking about it in sTORI Telling because I didn't grow up there. After demolishing Bing Crosby's former estate in Holmby Hills, a fancy neighborhood in west L.A., they spent six years building the Manor. It's about 46,000 square feet (slightly over an acre) and has 123 rooms. Not that I counted or measured. I got those figures from the press, just like everyone else.

Anyway, we moved in when I was seventeen and I only lived there for two years. In some ways the house is like a normal house, but everything is on a bigger scale. It has four floors: the basement (which we call the "Lower Level," probably because that's its designation on the elevator) and the first, second, and third floors. The first floor has a kitchen, a breakfast room, a dining room, an office, a family room, a living room, and a projection room. There's a grand foyer with sweeping staircases on each side. Oh, and there's also a guards' room and the staff dining room. Everyone except fancy guests comes through the service entrance into a hallway with the guards' room and the kitchen.

The kitchen is gigantic, and my fondest memory of it is from when I was twenty-one and had just moved back in after splitting up with a boyfriend. I came home drunk with some girlfriends, and we pillaged the two double-sized Sub-Zero refrigerators. There was always bulk food in there for the staff. We pulled out a big vat of chicken salad and a tub of peanut dressing, both of which looked like they'd been made for giants. Somewhere in the middle of our feast we decided to have a food fight, and the five of us started flinging food at each other. Soon we were covered in peanut dressing from head to toe and the pristine kitchen was a mess. Then we heard a ding, the elevator doors opened, and there was my mother.

She stared at us in silent disbelief. I said, "We're going to clean it up!" She just said, "Mmm hmm," and left the room. I felt a surge of love for her in that moment. It took us hours to clean the kitchen, but it was worth it. That moment made it feel, for once, like home. --Tori Spelling


Big Russ and Me: Father and Son: Lessons of Life

Tim Russert

Big Russ and Me: Father and Son: Lessons of Life Tim Russert Amazon Price: $8.37
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 112 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Veteran newsman and Meet the Press moderator Tim Russert is known for his direct and unpretentious style and in this charming memoir he explains why. Russert's father is profiled as a plainspoken World War II veteran who worked two blue-collar jobs while raising four kids in South Buffalo but the elder Russert's lessons on how to live an honest, disciplined, and ethical life are shown to be universal. Big Russ and Me, a sort of Greatest Generation meets Tuesdays with Morrie, could easily have become a sentimental pile of mush with a son wistfully recalling the wisdom of his beloved dad. But both Russerts are far too down-to-earth to let that happen and the emotional content of the book is made more direct, accessible, and palatable because of it. The relationship between father and son, contrary to what one would think of as essential to a riveting memoir, seems completely healthy and positive as Tim, the academically gifted kid and later the esteemed TV star and political operative relies on his old man, a career sanitation worker and newspaper truck driver, for advice. Big Russ and Me also traces Russert's life from working-class kid to one of broadcast journalism's top interviewers by introducing various influential figures who guided him along the way, including Jesuit teachers, nuns, his dad's drinking buddies, and, most notably, the late New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, whom Russert helped get elected in 1976. Plenty of entertaining anecdotes are served up along the way from schoolyard pranks to an attempt to book Pope John Paul II on the Today Show. Though not likely to revolutionize modern thought, Big Russ and Me will provide fathers and sons a chance to reflect on lessons learned between generations. --Charlie Williams

Life with My Sister Madonna

Christopher Ciccone, Wendy Leigh

Life with My Sister Madonna Christopher Ciccone, Wendy Leigh Amazon Price: $15.60
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 37 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

A MUST read. A++ 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 9 people found this review helpful.

This book is a MUST read for any Madonna fan, former or present. I wondered why I stopped liking her shortly after the erotica era, and why I wasn't into Bedtime Stories. I thought it had to do with why I definitely considered myself a pre-erotica Madonna fan once she moved to England and took on that disingenuous accent. Now I know why. She's obviously very driven and disciplined, but I guess I finally got the message that everything she does is completely calculated and that due to or because of it she is a bit cold and uncaring about other people. This book pretty much confirmed those suspicions. I'm SO glad this book was written. A+++ a DEFINITE must read for all Madonna fans, past or present. Or for someone interested in the current inner workings of celebrity private lives. Great book! A+

More Madonna 3 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

For any Madonna fan the narrative of this book will be startling familiar. Her life and psyche have been documented to excess. However, this is written by a one time insider and it's interesting enough. Both Madonna and Christopher are from a middle class background and found and sustained international fame without nary a college education. Hence smart and scappy sibilings creating an interesting life experience with little advantage. This is not the total diss the press would have you believe. Three fourths of the book Ciccone documents his love and admiration for his sister and all of her pop star accomplishments.

Overall I think his assessments of his sister are true and accurate but one is left with the feeling that his own issues with addiction and alcohol have been left largely unexamined. Ciccone fails to fess up to his own contribution to the unraveling of his relationship with his sister and pretty much plays the victim throughout. We all know there are two sides. But I must say it makes for a compelling "summer read" and can be read in one or two sittings by the pool.

Editorial Review:

Ciccone's extraordinary memoir is based on his life and forty-seven years of growing up with and working with his sister - the most famous woman in the world.

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia

Elizabeth Gilbert

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia Elizabeth Gilbert Amazon Price: $9.00
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1557 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

ugh! 1 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I also was excited to read this book, I'd heard good things about it. I was really suprised that I could dislike it this much! The writer is just sooo totally self-centered and annoying. I've never rolled my eyes so much while reading a book and just found it so shallow and the writer so concieted. I found it disturbing that she didn't seem too affected by the poverty she must've witnessed in India, perhaps she was, it just didn not come across to me in the book that she was. If you want some great reads I'd suggest - The Glass Castle, The Book Thief and Three Cups of Tea.

Editorial Review:

This beautifully written, heartfelt memoir touched a nerve among both readers and reviewers. Elizabeth Gilbert tells how she made the difficult choice to leave behind all the trappings of modern American success (marriage, house in the country, career) and find, instead, what she truly wanted from life. Setting out for a year to study three different aspects of her nature amid three different cultures, Gilbert explored the art of pleasure in Italy and the art of devotion in India, and then a balance between the two on the Indonesian island of Bali. By turns rapturous and rueful, this wise and funny author (whom Booklist calls “Anne Lamott’s hip, yoga- practicing, footloose younger sister”) is poised to garner yet more adoring fans.

My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands

Chelsea Handler

My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands Chelsea Handler Amazon Price: $8.97
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 189 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In this raucous collection of true-life stories, actress and comedian Chelsea Handler recounts her time spent in the social trenches with that wild, strange, irresistible, and often gratifying beast: the one-night stand.

You've either done it or know someone who has: the one-night stand, the familiar outcome of a night spent at a bar, sometimes the sole payoff for your friend's irritating wedding, or the only relief from a disastrous vacation. Often embarrassing and uncomfortable, occasionally outlandish, but most times just a necessary and irresistible evil, the one-night stand is a social rite as old as sex itself and as common as a bar stool.

Enter Chelsea Handler. Gorgeous, sharp, and anything but shy, Chelsea loves men and lots of them. My Horizontal Life chronicles her romp through the different bedrooms of a variety of suitors, a no-holds-barred account of what can happen between a man and a sometimes very intoxicated, outgoing woman during one night of passion. From her short fling with a Vegas stripper to her even shorter dalliance with a well-endowed little person, from her uncomfortable tryst with a cruise ship performer to her misguided rebound with a man who likes to play leather dress-up, Chelsea recalls the highs and lows of her one-night stands with hilarious honesty. Encouraged by her motley collection of friends (aka: her partners in crime) but challenged by her family members (who at times find themselves a surprise part of the encounter), Chelsea hits bottom and bounces back, unafraid to share the gritty details. My Horizontal Life is one guilty pleasure you won't be ashamed to talk about in the morning.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (P.S.)

Barbara Kingsolver, Camille Kingsolver, Steven L. Hopp

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (P.S.) Barbara Kingsolver, Camille Kingsolver, Steven L. Hopp Amazon Price: $8.97
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 268 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Newbie's Impression of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle... 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is the second book I have read of Barbara Kingsolver, the other, The Poisonwood Bible, I must read again because the details of that particular piece are a bit sketchy, but I digress...
Recent events highlighted in the news, bulldozed bloated and sickly cows and salmonella tainted tomatoes make opting out of our national food chain a viable option. This book defined many terms and allowed me to expand my vocabulary for example by defining "locavore" and CAFOs, and just in many ways increased my awareness of what I was putting in my mouth. This book higlighted all the work and preparation required to raise food and the importance of supporting local small farmers. Granted we all do not have a back 20 or 40 to till and grow or own vegetable and raise animals to provide meat to eat nor do we have the time and most of us don't have the inclination to do such. But we can support our farmers by buying direct in local farmer's markets and vegetable stands. By buying directly we also support only our consumption of quality foods. Also we are reminded of seasonality and regionality of food through Ms. Kingsolver's work. Tomatoes and other vegetables and fruits maybe should not be available year round or bred to survive being shipped from around the world because certain vegetables only grow well in certain regions and lose nutrients and disease fighting capabilities when they are bred to withstand the rigors of travel and grocery store shelf life. Hat's Off to Ms, Kingsolver and her family for their commitment to this daunting undertaking. This book encouraged me to become a locavore and I started my own garden this year. I also found out about an organization called Seed Savers and endeavor to produce some of those plants. I have also gained a greater respect for the land that produces the bounty we take for granted and have gained a greater respect for those that are able to coax the bounty from the land and nourish us all.

Editorial Review:

Author Barbara Kingsolver and her family abandoned the industrial-food pipeline to live a rural life—vowing that, for one year, they'd only buy food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is an enthralling narrative that will open your eyes in a hundred new ways to an old truth: You are what you eat.

The Glass Castle: A Memoir

Jeannette Walls

The Glass Castle: A Memoir Jeannette Walls Amazon Price: $9.00
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Total reviews: 1069 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Jeannette Walls's father always called her "Mountain Goat" and there's perhaps no more apt nickname for a girl who navigated a sheer and towering cliff of childhood both daily and stoically. In The Glass Castle, Walls chronicles her upbringing at the hands of eccentric, nomadic parents--Rose Mary, her frustrated-artist mother, and Rex, her brilliant, alcoholic father. To call the elder Walls's childrearing style laissez faire would be putting it mildly. As Rose Mary and Rex, motivated by whims and paranoia, uprooted their kids time and again, the youngsters (Walls, her brother and two sisters) were left largely to their own devices. But while Rex and Rose Mary firmly believed children learned best from their own mistakes, they themselves never seemed to do so, repeating the same disastrous patterns that eventually landed them on the streets. Walls describes in fascinating detail what it was to be a child in this family, from the embarrassing (wearing shoes held together with safety pins; using markers to color her skin in an effort to camouflage holes in her pants) to the horrific (being told, after a creepy uncle pleasured himself in close proximity, that sexual assault is a crime of perception; and being pimped by her father at a bar). Though Walls has well earned the right to complain, at no point does she play the victim. In fact, Walls' removed, nonjudgmental stance is initially startling, since many of the circumstances she describes could be categorized as abusive (and unquestioningly neglectful). But on the contrary, Walls respects her parents' knack for making hardships feel like adventures, and her love for them--despite their overwhelming self-absorption--resonates from cover to cover. --Brangien Davis

Audition: A Memoir

Barbara Walters

Audition: A Memoir Barbara Walters Amazon Price: $19.77
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 195 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Young people starting out in television sometimes say to me: “I want to be you.” My stock reply is always: “Then you have to take the whole package.”

And now, at last, the most important woman in the history of television journalism gives us that “whole package,” in her inspiring and riveting memoir. After more than forty years of interviewing heads of state, world leaders, movie stars, criminals, murderers, inspirational figures, and celebrities of all kinds, Barbara Walters has turned her gift for examination onto herself to reveal the forces that shaped her extraordinary life.

Barbara Walters’s perception of the world was formed at a very early age. Her father, Lou Walters, was the owner and creative mind behind the legendary Latin Quarter nightclub, and it was his risk-taking lifestyle that gave Barbara her first taste of glamour. It also made her aware of the ups and downs, the insecurities, and even the tragedies that can occur when someone is willing to take great risks, for Lou Walters didn’t just make several fortunes—he also lost them. Barbara learned early about the damage that such an existence can do to relationships—between husband and wife as well as between parent and child. Through her roller-coaster ride of a childhood, Barbara had a close companion, her mentally challenged sister, Jackie. True, Jackie taught her younger sister much about patience and compassion, but Barbara also writes honestly about the resentment she often felt having a sister who was so “different” and the guilt that still haunts her.

All of this—the financial responsibility for her family, the fear, the love—played a large part in the choices she made as she grew up: the friendships she developed, the relationships she had, the marriages she tried to make work. Ultimately, thanks to her drive, combined with a decent amount of luck, she began a career in television. And what a career it has been! Against great odds, Barbara has made it to the top of a male-dominated industry. She was the first woman cohost of the Today show, the first female network news coanchor, the host and producer of countless top-rated Specials, the star of 20/20, and the creator and cohost of The View. She has not just interviewed the world’s most fascinating figures, she has become a part of their world. These are just a few of the names that play a key role in Barbara’s life, career, and book: Yasir Arafat, Warren Beatty, Menachem Begin, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Roy Cohn, the Dalai Lama, Princess Diana, Katharine Hepburn, King Hussein, Angelina Jolie, Henry Kissinger, Monica Lewinsky, Richard Nixon, Rosie O’Donnell, Christopher Reeve, Anwar Sadat, John Wayne . . . the list goes on and on.

Barbara Walters has spent a lifetime auditioning: for her bosses at the TV networks, for millions of viewers, for the most famous people in the world, and even for her own daughter, with whom she has had a difficult but ultimately quite wonderful and moving relationship. This book, in some ways, is her final audition, as she fully opens up both her private and public lives. In doing so, she has given us a story that is heartbreaking and honest, surprising and fun, sometimes startling, and always fascinating.

A Wolf at the Table: A Memoir of My Father

Augusten Burroughs

A Wolf at the Table: A Memoir of My Father Augusten Burroughs Amazon Price: $16.47
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 85 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

I am so going to get slammed BUT 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I do not believe that this book is a memoir. If this book is a memoir then he and James Fray should get together and compare notes. If you do not understand you need only to read the first chapter and see that their is NO WAY possible that this man remembers so vividly at 1 1/2 years old the details he has written. This book is an embellishment about his life. I believe as many other reviews that after reading this book I question the authors honesty. I did before everyone blast me enjoy Running with Scissors very much. It was a great read it however is not a memoir. There are many people in this world that grow up in disfunctional families and do not make it their goal to profit off it.

Editorial Review:

Amazon Significant Seven, April 2008: When I started reading A Wolf at the Table, I thought I knew what to expect. Augusten Burroughs captures intense experience with an inexplicably cool remove, imparting a stillness and purity to emotions that would likely run amok in anyone else's hands. I love this quality of his writing, and it's present in full force in this memoir of a childhood spent in thrall to a predatory and deeply unpredictable father. What I wasn't prepared for was the suspense--the dread-filled, nearly sonorous waiting for the worst to happen. An artful sort of bait-and-switch happens in the telling: Burroughs brings you to the brink of a terrible catharsis more than once, but the break in tension never comes. It is profoundly sad, remarkably tender, and fueled by a sense of love and reverence that only a child knows. --Anne Bartholomew

Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon--And the Journey of a Generation

Sheila Weller

Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon--And the Journey of a Generation Sheila Weller Amazon Price: $18.45
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 77 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A groundbreaking and irresistible biography of three of America's most important musical artists -- Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon -- charts their lives as women at a magical moment in time.

Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon remain among the most enduring and important women in popular music. Each woman is distinct. Carole King is the product of outer-borough, middle-class New York City; Joni Mitchell is a granddaughter of Canadian farmers; and Carly Simon is a child of the Manhattan intellectual upper crust. They collectively represent, in their lives and their songs, a great swath of American girls who came of age in the late 1960s. Their stories trace the arc of the now mythic sixties generation -- female version -- but in a bracingly specific and deeply recalled way, far from cliché. The history of the women of that generation has never been written -- until now, through their resonant lives and emblematic songs.

Filled with the voices of many dozens of these women's intimates, who are speaking in these pages for the first time, this alternating biography reads like a novel -- except it's all true, and the heroines are famous and beloved. Sheila Weller captures the character of each woman and gives a balanced portrayal enriched by a wealth of new information.

Girls Like Us is an epic treatment of midcentury women who dared to break tradition and become what none had been before them -- confessors in song, rock superstars, and adventurers of heart and soul.


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