Rating: 
Summary: Donna's denials
Review: Donna Summer has had one of the most interesting careers in pop music. She came to fame with a novelty hit ("Love To Love You Baby") but later hits like "Last Dance" and "Dim All The Lights" revealed a singer with a stunning voice and surprisingly good songwriting. The tag of "Queen of Disco" never prevented Summer from becoming a major pop star. But by the 80s, and the death of disco, Summer's career took a downward turn. She became a Born Again Christian and was accused of homophobia for alleged comments she made after a concert in the early 80s. She joined Geffen records and her tenure under David Geffen led to uneven work and middling chart performances. This would all be excellent fodder for her autobiography, but Summer refuses to acknowledge these events in her life. Sure, she talks about being born again, but she doesn't talk about the effect it had on her career or her relationships. She also doesn't discuss (except for one line) that her relationship with her gay fans suffered because of the alleged comments and her being saved. Summer continues to overlook how integral gay men have been to her success, and her inability to discuss this subject only shows her ambivalence towards her gay fans. This is a boring, dull autobiography that's as uninteresting as some of Summer's worst songs.
Rating: 
Summary: Extraordinary Life - Very Ordinary Biography
Review: Donna Summer is an exceptional singer and songwriter, but book author? No. So much is missing from this book that it would take me days to list it all. For people who care about the creative process of putting her career together, keeping it afloat, and the progress she's made as an artist, it certainly leaves you wanting.
Rating:
Summary: Boring
Review: Every one of the reviews for this book is more eloquent than anything found in the pages of "Ordinary Girl." I stumbled onto this book (or rather, this book "event") on Sunset Blvd during Ms. Summer's recent book signing. She was pleasant enough, but hardly thrilled to see gay man after gay man lining up for a chance to say hello and get a book signed from the Queen of Disco. This book is horrible, religiously pompous, confusing, and shallow. It is a true testament to an empty headed diva and her quest to be "ordinary." It should have been called "Boring Girl," at least then it would have been an honest account of her life. Don't bother wasting your time. Two people spent two years writing this?
Rating:
Summary: Disappointingly sparse in detail and uneven in vision
Review: For people who are even nominally familiar with her name, Donna Summer is the Queen of Disco. Critically acclaimed as the only true artist from that musical genre, she left behind the many one-hit wonders and continued a career for the next couple of decades. So how disappointing is this book that is a highly personal look at her faith but says little about her music. The first couple of chapters are interesting, outlining her family background and her almost hippie past in German stage productions like HAIR, but she gives her biggest collaborator, Giorgio Moroder a light dust-over. This is the man who produced and co-wrote many of her biggest hits. This is also the guy who said that in disco, the producer is the absolute dictator! Surely there are stories to be told about working with him and Pete Bellotte for so many years. Surely there were stories when she split with Moroder to work with other producers. It becomes very clear that Summer has avoided dissing the living. She spends some interesting chapters looking at her love/hate relationship with Casablanca Records president, Neil Bogart, but he's dead. Meanwhile, she carefully and diplomatically mentions David Geffen but she glances over her well-documented turbulent years with Geffen Records. That omission is testament to Geffen's continued clout. (Summer fans may recall her thank-you notes in CATS WITHOUT CLAWS which thanked Geffen for 'staying out of the kitchen this time'.) Like other reviewers have noted, she also barely mentions the urban legend that she became homophobic when she became a Born-Again Christian. True or false? Where else but in her biography could she have either talked about her reaction or how she felt about the boycott against her music which effectively blockaded her work for much of the 1980s? But forgetting about the scandals and sizzle of her career, ultimately it is the music that gets shortchanged here. She does not mention one of her biggest hits, "Hot Stuff". She does not mention her immediate post-Born-Again decision not to ever sing her more provocative material and why she reversed that decision. And as the Queen of Disco, she has the unique perspective to talk about the music, its impact and its endurance. Even her critically-acclaimed THE WANDERER is barely mentioned here - and that was a record that John Lennon loved and that tried to move her away from disco into rock - the kind of dance/rock fusion that she had pioneered with "Hot Stuff". If she had any comments about her disco stereotyping, the state of dance music or how easy/difficult it was to be a female pop star in the music industry, she doesn't say here. Oddly enough, at the back of the book is her discography and it too is glaring in its omissions. She includes forgettable soundtracks like THE DEEP and FOXES but overlooks her hits with FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMOUNT HIGH and FLASHDANCE. Her many officially sanctioned greatest hits are also MIA - THE DONNA SUMMER ANTHOLOGY being the biggest one. Perhaps she was embarrassed to list them all? Overall, ORDINARY GIRL is a disappointing peek at a fabulous life and career. There's some selective amnesia going on so for anyone looking for the definitive look at the career of Donna Summer, this book is only 60 percent there.
Rating:
Summary: Very Disappointing Autobiography
Review: I agree with the reviews of many posters that this is an extremely disappointing book. As I began reading it, I wondered why she was spending an exponential amount of time in the beginning of the book discussing very mundane and insignificant events in her childhood. It would make sense to do this if these accounts offered meaningful insights about the impact that these events had on her later in life, but they do not. As I continued reading the book, I was struck by Donna's omission of important events in her career and life, most importantly her feelings about her place in the disco era, her struggles to maintain a place at the top of the charts, as well as more details on the impact of fame on her life during the disco days. Instead she spent a lot of time talking about cooking with Sophia Loren, her garden, moving to Nashville, and her struggles with her boyfriends and husband. Although these accounts may be the kinds of things Martha Stewart's fans may want to read, they certainly are not what the fans of the Queen of Disco want to read. The book, quite simply, left me feeling hungry, unfulfilled, dissatisfied, and empty. What I really wanted from this book, and what I did not get, was a detailed account of the disco era that defined the 70's and Donna's place in it, her experiences during that time, her feelings about her successes and winning Grammy awards, her relationships with other artists during that exciting time, her feelings about the challenges she faced staying at the top of the charts, her experiences with record companies, her musical experiences during the 80's and 90's when she was no longer on top, and the resurgence she is experiencing now. Many of these important issues are touched on in only a few lines. I believe these are issues that Donna's fans really want to hear about. For those of us who lived through the wonderful and exciting Disco era, a more detailed account on the events of her life within this context would have been an interesting read. I hate to say it but I believe Josiah Howard's biography is much better than this autiobiography. I was very bored reading Donna's book but very intrigued whilst reading Howard's book.
Rating: 
Summary: A Wonderful Book
Review: I enjoyed Donna Summer's book immensely. It took the reader on a journey from the difficult days of her childhood to her years in Europe and eventually back to the USA as a disco star and also on her fascinating spiritual journey throughout her entire life. I have always been touched deeply by Donna's singing regardless of the musical genre as there is something that resonates from within her that comes from her soul and stirs the soul of this listener as I am sure with millions of her other fans. I feel the same way about her writing and about this book. It is very much a book written from the heart and it is truly a spiritual journey throughout. I felt it gave a good overview of her disco days without getting overly hungup on conflicts with her record companies, producers, etc. She told what happened but didn't feel the need to go on any tirades. She pretty much considered everything a learning experience along the way and presented it as such which was pleasing to this reader. I appreciated the depth of information about her family life which seems most precious to her. She has overcome many tragedies and losses in her life. I also her appreciated her only devoting a couple sentences to the anti-gay urban legend.
Donna always handled that with dignity, denied it, and felt there was no more she could do. It was proven to be untrue.
As much as it hurt her career, she had the class to carry on in the face of slander and libel and just keep going. Some reviewers seems to feel she should devote many pages to this item. As evidenced by her still large gay fanbase, it's old news, it was untrue, and everyone has moved on. Some reviewers also seem to want to accuse Donna of making up stories of events in her life. On what basis? Where's the reviewer's proof? I find accusatory reviews offensive and unfair. Donna's story is one of a faith journey from childhood through the present. I personally found her autobiography to be very interesting, very moving, and left me with alot to think about as to what is important in life especially where family is concerned. The book is an honest effort to share her life story with the world in a way that takes all experiences, both negative and positive, as a learning experience and as part of the journey.
Her respect for all people including those who she didn't always see eye to eye with is evidenced in the way the book is written. It is a very positive book in it's tone and I for one, can enjoy that much more than most celebrity autobiographies which are usually "oh woe is me" and playing the victim. Donna Summer is a class act in all respects. Her book is further evidence of that. For anyone who wishes to read a thought-provoking life story that will not only entertain you but touch you on a spiritual level - Ordinary Girl is most recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Very good book
Review: I enjoyed this book. I'm a big fan of music and artists' autobiographies, so I could not wait to read this book. Donna Summer's one of my favorite performers, and she's every bit as entertaining in print as she is on record. Her writing style is lively and sprinkled with vivid imagery and humor. Summer details her days in Boston, the trauma and insecurity that caused bed-wetting into her teens, and her rise to prominence in German theater. I was a little surprised she didn't delve more deeply into the rise of disco music and the role she played and the crash of the style in the late 70s and early 80s... she talks about the origin of many of her hits, but I thought more details about some of her albums and singles would have been great. I was also surprised that the whole fallout with the gay community over her alleged comments on the AIDS virus being a ruling from God (which she still denies to this day, and besides, I don't think any of it was true) was boiled down to one sentence. Since her born-again statements alienated many gays, I am surprised she did not write more about this. Nonetheless, she's very candid and direct in her delivery, just as she is when she sings. Any lover of Summer or pop music in general will dig this book... pick it up!
Rating: 
Summary: Nice pictures but rather vague
Review: I felt this book focused too much on Donna's early years and it didn't get in depth about her life as I would have liked. It was almost like an unauthorized biography.
Rating:
Summary: Nice pictures but rather vague
Review: I felt this book focused too much on Donna's early years and it didn't get in depth about her life as I would have liked. It was almost like an unauthorized biography.
Rating:
Summary: Ordinary, Boring, and Disappointing
Review: I have been looking forward to a Donna Summer biography for years. I have been a fan of the singer's since 1975 and have every LP, cassette, video, CD, and DVD that she made. Through the years I have always thought of Summer as an exceptional singer, an average song writer, and a mediocre (at best) performer. I had the opinion that she was full of herself and has made some dumb mistakes in her life (as we all do). It was her music that transcended everything else and for that I loved her. She did trail blaze and some of her recordings are still some of the best around. I had hopes with this book that Donna Summer would tell an interesting, insightful and truthful story of her life. I had hoped that her highly self-touted Christianity would humble her into telling a poignant story. Although there are some moments when you do see some of her refreshing vulnerability, overall it is a boring, contradictory, self-absorbed, sometimes preachy read.
The writing is some of the worst I have read. It is poorly structured, confusing, and bland. For example, there were many times that I was led to believe that her lover, Gunther, was no longer in her life, only to find out chapters later that he was still around.
My biggest problem with this book is that there is no true reference of her rise in the disco era and all that surrounded it. I know that she does not want to be known ultimately as the Queen of Disco (a term which she barely talks about) but disco made her the star she is today, regardless of her successful break from it. There is no detail given of how many of her songs came to be. The whole era is somewhat glossed over. What a disappointment.
And the final reason why I cannot recommend this book is her virtual elimination of two things; homosexuals and AIDS. She mentions it briefly in a sentence "A rumor was printed that I was homophobic." That's it. She still doesn't acknowledge that the gay audience ignited her career. She doesn't address the banning of her music for years in gay clubs for her alleged comment that AIDS was sent as God's wrath on homosexuals, which she denies she ever made. Maybe we will get truth to the scandal? Not here.
And she never speaks of her estranged relationship with Paul Jabara. Jabara wrote "Last Dance" and "Enough is Enough" -- two of her biggest hits. He was gay and Summer turned her back on him because of her Christian beliefs. Or did she? With this book, we assume she did because she never mentions it and barely talks of their relationship. Jabara died of AIDS after writing a song for Summer to sing to "come clean" with the gay community --that's the story anyway, and with this book, I am still left in the dark. She also never mentions Jabara's name in her long list of thank you's at the end of the book. That is one statement she does make. Shame on you Ms. Summer.
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