Uncharted TerriTORI Offers Another Entertaining Episode From Reality Star Tori Spelling's Life

I've been a fan of Tori Spelling since my senior year of high school, when I began watching Beverly Hills, 90210 and started a love affair that would last -- well, until now. My hours watching the 1990s teen drama are vastly reduced now, but there was a time when I watched it every week when a new episode aired, then in following years when reruns came on every morning and every afternoon -- for two hours each time. Ah, the days when FX and Soap Network were part of my life... To this day, if I happen to be home at a time when it's playing, I'm still likely to pause for a little while to see which episode is on. Is it early, when Brenda was still in an on-again/ off-again relationship with Dylan? Or later in the series, when Tiffani-Amber Theissen or Vanessa Marcil entered the picture? I'm pretty confident there isn't an episode of 90210 I haven't seen. Donna Martin wasn't necessarily my favorite character, but she was a constant, and the show wouldn't have been the same without her.

As an aside, she also starred in one of my all-time favorite, but mostly-unknown, flicks -- the Jackie O. inspired The House of Yes.

When she and newlywed husband Dean McDermott began filming their first season of Tori & Dean: Inn Love, I couldn't wait to see what Tori Spelling's real life was like... er, I mean, her "reality" life. I remember watching that season in amazement as Tori and Dean cooked, cleaned, and worked their way towards running an actual inn with actual guests. And then, of course, there was her pregnancy. I could hardly wait to see her little one. Since that first season, the McDermott-Spelling household has seen many changes, with not one but two mini-McDermotts running around now. The show's name changed from Inn Love to Home Sweet Hollywood, and the family moved from deep southern California back to Los Angeles, and has seen at least one or two L.A. neighborhood moves since then.

In uncharted terriTORI, the reality star's third memoir, Tori continues telling her side of the story. Although disappointed by a couple of overlap recollections (I've watched every episode of Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood -- I didn't need a season five recap), overall the book was exactly what I expected, and exactly what I wanted. More Tori, more Dean, and more little Monkey (Liam) and Buggy (Stella). In this book, Tori discusses her own difficulties in being not only a wife, mother, and self-professed workaholic, but also herself. She recalls her attempts to heal her constant headaches and stomach troubles by one holistic and traditional healer after another. After undergoing past-life therapy, voodoo rituals, and hospitalization at Cedars-Sinai, she finally finds a sense of calm in an energist's office. Only she has the power to force self-growth and find peace, she realizes.

Sometimes goofy (I mean, really -- she and Dean were married in a past life and he killed her, prompting their current marital problems in this life?), but always down-to-earth and "real," uncharted terriTORI is Tori Spelling not only as she wants everyone else to see her, but as she really is: successful, hardworking, loving, and above all -- uncertain. But trying hard. Really, really hard. Tabloids and naysayers both spread lies and report truths better left private, but her series of memoirs has given Tori a chance to speak for herself. uncharted terriTORI is another honest attempt to communicate with fans and offer explanation for so many things. I've enjoyed them all thoroughly, as I enjoy her reality show each season. But Tori Spelling owes me no explanations; I like her just as she is -- quirky, funny, beautiful, family-oriented, and stylish.

Tori Spelling, on the path her newest book took during the writing process: