Rating: 
Summary: Oh my...
Review: First of all, why do paperback editions always have the extra stuff? The paperback of this book has a new chapter added. Also, a few additional photos. Why can't they be included with the original hardcover? Pfft...
Anywho, not much is known about Traci Lords (real name: Nora Louise Kuzma) other than the fact that she was underage while doing porn and starred in a few movies (most were duds) like "Cry-Baby." At least, that's all I knew about Miss Lords... until now.
She had a rough life. She endured rape, physical abuse, racial discrimination, abortion, drug addiction, sex, rough relationships, and much more... most of which she encountered during her teen years. Her high school years would ultimately be the end of her normal life and the beginning of the life she isn't proud of: Nude modeling and porn.
The book is brief but it captures your attention. An abused runaway teenager that makes it big in the porn industry. Once her age is revealed, she's booted out of the business and again finds herself struggling for survival. She eventually finds happiness late into her life.
Inspirational is the best way to describe this book. A brilliant story of survival and finding out who you are, leading to find true happiness. Traci had accomplished in all three areas. Hopefully her happiness continues to prevail...
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting if one-sided and a bit hollow
Review: I admit it... I'm a porn fan and a woman. I was very much so looking forward to this autobiography of Traci Lords. Mostly I wanted to read gossip about the porn industry (you know, who was horrible, who was great, wild parties, secrets revealed, that kind of thing). I was disappointed in that respect (read Jerry Butler's book for that type of stuff) but pleasantly surprised in others. Ms. Lords tells her story with sensitivity and intelligence, something I admit I wasn't expecting. I was very intrigued by her difficult and at times horribly depressing life. It must have taken great courage to reveal some of these things (poverty, abuse, drug addiction). In some ways I was doubtful of the accuracy of her depiction of these events simply because she seems to take very little responsibility for her actions. I also think she might be a bit too young to offer a convincing recitation and evaluation of her life and experiences. Perhaps there's not enough hindsight available to her right now. There were also places where the story skips along, leaving out completely why people mean a lot to her, how she ended up in situations, etc. For example, at one point she meets a guy and then moves in with him several months later, but we don't hear anything about what happened between meeting him and moving in together. I feel like if she's going to expose this relationship in the book there should be some significance to it, and I didn't feel that in this case. The recitation becomes hollow. Ultimately, it is an interesting glimpse into a fascinating woman's life with brief but forgivable lapses and holes in the story. I imagine there's more here that we're not hearing, and I'd like to.
Rating: 
Summary: Fact or fiction?
Review: I always thought Traci Lords was an over-acting, under-talented actress (except for her natural endowment), in or out of porn. One thing she does possess is a lot of ambition and the will to overcome obstacles. Her autobiography details her life into the adult entertainment industry and out of it. There's surprisingly very little about her years in the porn world and the 100 hardcore films she starred in as an underaged vixen. There's also no mention of her family's Jewish background. (She does mention that her great-grandmother on her mother's side was Irish, and her paternal grandfather came from the Ukraine.) Each chapter is rather short, and the book reads like a diary with carefully picked entries. There's a bit too much self-analysis. Even the pictures, some in color, are a letdown. The question is, of course, how much of what Lords writes is fact and how much is fiction. But maybe that's just a silly question. Like her films, Traci Lords's book is not to be taken seriously.
Rating: 
Summary: Frank look at an interesting life
Review: I am 3 weeks older than Tracy. I knew of her when I was in high school. I always wondered how a young girl could wind up in [illegal photography] and I always wondered what HER story was. I always rooted for her and wished there was a way to let her know that I thought she was a good legitimate actress, I know that people make mistakes and that I believed her mistakes were not even her own. She was steered into that life by people she trusted and her heart was in the right place. That said, reading this book answered so many questions I had. It also confirmed that good parenting prevents a lot of pain in a persons life. This was the second book I read this week where the parents just seemed to be absent from their childrens' lives and the consequences were great. This story and the biography of Janice Dickinson, Supermodel. Both had similiar parrallels. Parents should not be asleep at the wheel and forget they are parents. So many things could have gone right for Tracy if someone just cared where she was, what she was doing, who she was with. I am glad to say her mother is in her life now..but this book left me feeling so proud of her and who she has become despite her beginnings in pornograpy. I didn't like her sitting in judgement of Ginger Lynn another teen porn star..because she didn't know what Gingers' story was. I really liked reading this book because it really shows how hard this woman has worked to gain what she should ALREADY have..people's respect. I was astounded at the treatment she received and still receives because she did [illegal photography] as a teen. The same folks sitting in judgement of her have probably done just as many bad things if not more than her..but they were not 15 and there sins are not caught on film forever. Tracy made the mistake of trying to survive by any means necessary, she trusted the wrong people and that is now something she'll live with forever. I just did a search for Tracy Lords to find her website and she still is considered a porn queen and she's not been in a movie for 20 years. Sigh. This book will make you root for the underdog..and you know she's way more than a pretty face. There is depth there.
Rating: 
Summary: Barely beneath it all
Review: I bought this book because I am a professor of psychology, and I teach a course in human sexuality. Occasionally, I'll pick up a biography of this type to get an insight into a world that I know little about. In this case, I have to admit to a bit of prurient interest as well. I was an adolescent when Traci Lords was starring in pornographic films and magazine layouts, and it was difficult not to be aware of her notoriety. Regretably, her potentially revelatory volume was neither revelatory nor very interesting. I found myself skimming over page after page of hand-wringing and self-absorbed wailing interspersed with rhetorical question after rhetorical question. Frankly, I grew weary of it all. Her accusations against her tormentors garnered little sympathy from me, because she did not successfully convince me that she could not have walked away into another, safer, life had she wanted to. I was left with the impression that this book was yet another attempt to market her notoriety. I'm just sorry that I fell for it.
Rating:
Summary: Inspirational story
Review: I honestly didn't know what to expect from this book. I knew that Traci Lords was a former porn star, but that was all I knew about her. Born Nora Kuzma in 1968 in Ohio, she writes, she was raised in poverty and abused emotionally by an alcoholic father and raped at age 10 by a 16-year-old. By her early teens, Lords was hanging out with the wild crowd at school and was preyed upon by her mother's boyfriend, who arranged for her first modeling sessions, which led to her posing as a Penthouse centerfold at age 15 (she had false ID) and then to her meteoric career in porn, which crashed when the FBI stepped in and turned her into a poster child for sex abuse. Lords's career didn't end in 1986; she's gone on to star and costar in several films and TV shows, including John Waters's Cry Baby and Married with Children, and has enjoyed serious success as a singer. She has an amazing story to tell, and she tells it well here, without a coauthor. Frank, opinionated, intelligent, drenched in emotion, this is the rare celebrity memoir that doubles as a cautionary tale, and will have readers cheering Lords on as they speed through its gritty, big-souled pages. Underneath It All is a powerful, uncensored, and inspirational story of how one young girl made peace with her past and triumphed over impossible odds to become a successful actress, recording artist, and, most improbably of all, a happy and healthy woman. Highly recommended
Rating:
Summary: surprisingly good
Review: I imagine I picked this book up the same reason everyone else did. The rumors and ideas we had of Traci Lords, and we wanted to read about it. But as it turns out Traci isn't the 'porn queen,' and little of that work can be found. Traci found her voice with this memoir. You really feel the hurt and despair the young Traci felt. We travel with her through the rough times, the porn time (which, thankfully, she didn't go into graphic detail--through it all Traci was tactful), and finally the good times, when her life turned--when she changed her life. I didn't expect this book to be all that well written and maybe not even intersting. But I was wrong. Traci wrote an engaging and powerful book. Read it. I think it will surprise you too.
Rating:
Summary: She Deserves a Better Writer than Herself
Review: I so much wanted to like this book better than I did. Clearly, Ms. Lords has led a tragic life of neglect and abuse and, more importantly, has managed to triumph over it. She seems to have reached a place in her life and career where happiness is coming to her. And she deserves it. And I wanted to cheer for her. The problem is, her writing is just not very good. At times overwrought and flowery and at others vague to the point where I wasn't sure what was happening, her prose just wasn't equal to her own story. Her writing didn't allow me to feel the things I wanted to feel--I couldn't share her rage at the people who had done her wrong or her joys at her successes. At times, I couldn't even feel sympathy for her or interest in what was happening. Normally, I believe strongly in people telling their own story. In this case, however, Ms. Lords might have been better served by a ghostwriter. She at least deserved a better editor who could have helped her control some of her poorer tendencies as a writer. The book does improve as it goes on but I'm afraid most people won't make it that far. That's too bad because there is a life here worth reading about.
Rating:
Summary: Mind Bending
Review: I was a Traci Lords fan in the 80s. Though she seems to have some regrets about her past, I can't help but get the feeling that she would do it all over again under the same conditions. I will always be a fan, but I'm happy to see that she has proven to be a talented actress in spite of whatever misgivings she has had about her past.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Inspiring Book! A+
Review: I was totally engrossed in this book. I don't read many books because they just put me to sleep but I couldn't put this book down. This woman is and was very mis-understood and has a lot of inner strength. She has truly picked herself up over the years and has grown to be what appears to be a wonderful person inside and out. Great job Traci!
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