Mommywood

While sTori Telling was a well-written, self-aware memoir full of humor and juicy D List tales, Mommywood fell flat for me. Spelling seems to have become increasingly narcissistic, and it's difficult to take her seriously when she has such an outsized idea of the media's expectations of her. Nobody cares if and when she loses baby weight (after all, she's not Jessica Alba or even B list), but she seems to think the tabs are waiting with bated breath to see her post-pregnancy body. This would be easy enough to overlook if it didn't make up a sizable portion of the book.
The first book worked because, no matter what you thought of her career, Spelling came across as likable and self-aware. This isn't the case in Mommywood.
I love me a show more trashy read, but I'd have skipped this if I knew it would be so whiny and out of touch. show less

I have never really been a fan of Tori Spelling, nor have I read her first book, but after reading this one, I think I'll go back and read sTORI Telling.

This was a quick, sassy book to read. I enjoyed her stories on trying to raise her children with the balance of Hollywood lifestyle and as "normal" as she has always dreamed of.

Facing an eight-hour drive alone for a wedding this summer, I immediately picked Mommywood on audio book (read by Tori Spelling). I admit it, I'm a Tori fan. I grew up watching 90210, and I looked up to her as a somewhat normal girl (I was a kid, remember). So NoTorious is one of the funniest shows ever made (seriously, I didn't believe until I watched it; even nomadreaderboy likes it.) I loved reading sTori Telling to get her perspective on her life, and I even read Candy's delightful and bizarre memoir, Stories from Candyland. Yes, I watched Tori and Dean: Inn Love and still watch Tori and Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood. I am the target audience for this book. I find Tori delightful and fascinating.

It was a great book to listen to on show more audio. I often have a hard time getting into audio books, so it helped to have a familiar voice and some familiar stories (from the tv show) to lure me in. Tori is refreshingly honest, and despite being on a reality show, it's amazing how little you know of her thoughts on events. Sure, I knew their lives were squished down and edited into neatly-sized episodes, but it's different to hear the emotions only from her, without Dean's reaction shot or the scene ending. There were times I was glad I had seen the show because it gave me a different perspective, but there were also a few moments the storytelling lagged because I knew how it ended.

I can't speak to the mommy part of the title, but I imagine mothers who aren't fans of Tori would still enjoy this book. She certainly has a unique parenting experience, but it's always surprising and interesting what parts of Tori's life seem normal and what parts seem unreal. I actually enjoyed Mommywood more than sTori Telling. They're different books, even though they're both memoirs. Mommywood deals with motherhood and childhood and how it changed Tori. Her kids are young, and her emotions and situations are fresher. show less

I admit it, I like Tori Spelling. She is personable, self-deprecating, and completely aware of how ridiculous she can be. I enjoyed this book. A glimpse into her thoughts and life as she tries to blend her family and be successful. I want to be friends with her, Tori, call me!

A quick read. Enjoyable with a few cringey moments of oversharing. I wouldn't call myself a Tori Spelling fan but her life has been an interesting one and her willingness to be so candid makes for a really engaging read. I feel like she does a good job of depicting her complex relationships and even though (obviously) the storytelling is coming from only one perspective - I do feel like I understand how she has become the person she is.

Likable - very readable - great summer/airplane read.

Mommywood is Tori Spelling's newest memoir, it picks up where sTORI Telling left off. Mostly she writes about what it is like being a mother in Hollywood. She has a lot of insecurities resulting from her childhood and she is honest about trying to work through them while focusing on her children. There were some humorous stories in the book, such as the first time she tried to change her son's dirty swim diaper by herself (for the non-mommies out there, soiled swim diapers are a little harder to handle then regular diapers). As a mom with small children, I could relate to a lot of the parenting situations she wrote about (although not all of them, such as handling a tantrum in front of paparazzi). She seemed to be a genuine nice person show more that really loves her family and I had a enjoyable afternoon eavesdropping on her life. show less

Picking up where her first autobiography left off, Tori Spelling updates readers on her life since having baby Liam and getting pregnant with little Stella. I do find Tori to be engaging and human in her life story. She is strangely neurotic and paranoid about way too many things, but you feel for her anxiety over life as you realize that she is a true product of her upbringing.