| Audition: A Memoir | 
 enlarge | Author: Barbara Walters
Publisher: Knopf
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  240 reviews
Sales Rank: 587
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 624
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.2
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.2 x 2.2
ISBN: 030726646X
Dewey Decimal Number: 070.92
EAN: 9780307266460
ASIN: 030726646X
Publication Date: May 6, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Quite a Life May 15, 2008
3 out of 8 found this review helpful
Walters, Barbara. "Audition: A Memoir", Alfred Knopf, 2008.
Quite a Life
Amos Lassen
I have always loved Barbara Walters but I must admit that I really did not want to read her book because of all the hype. Nevertheless, when my copy came I sat down with it and found myself enjoying every word. It's over 600 pages long so there was no way I would get through it in one sitting; I do have a life and I had to prepare for my summer school classes.
Walters has lived quite a life both personally and professionally and she comes across as a compassionate woman and an inspiration. She exudes class and humanity. She can interview people like no one else can and has done so. Her list ranges from Monica Lewinsky to Elizabeth Taylor to presidents, world leaders, disgraced public figures and just anyone else that has affected our lives.
Her childhood was fascinating. Her father ran the nightclubs known as the Latin Quarter so she grew up around celebrities. She went where women had not been before and became a co-host of a major American news show and when she went onto 20/20 with Hugh Downs her star rose and she became one of the most famous women in the world.
Much has been said about her "adulterous" affair with the American senator but the book is so much more than that. Barbara Walters is an ambitious and tenacious women and even though she says that her life has been one large audition, there is no question that she "got the job".
If anything really characterizes the book, I think it is Walters' style and class. Sure Barbara Walters had an affair with a married man and sure, she has guilt feelings about not always being there for her sister but all of us must remember and consider how life would be without someone like Barbara Walters. She takes the opportunity in her book to let us into her life and even though she has not done everything the way some of his might have wanted, Barbara Walters, to me, at least, remains a major figure in our lives. She is an extraordinary woman and has led an extraordinary life.
Changing the World for Female Journalists May 15, 2008
14 out of 19 found this review helpful
Barbara Walters who has spent more than five decades shattering the glass ceiling for female journalists has delivered a candid new memoir, "Audition," looking back on her extraordinary life. "Audition" begins in Boston where she was born and concludes in New York where she continues to work at age 78 on her ABC specials and "The View." She provides the kind of personal glimpses and secrets she tries to extract from her many high-profile interviews.
Walters got into television by accident and got her big break when she did Alpo dog food commercials as a "Today Girl" on NBC's Today Show. She then became the first woman cohost of the Today show, and after a difficult move to ABC, the first female network news co-anchor. "Audition" provides the behind the scenes stories we have come to expect in books like this, as she made history rising against all odds to the top of a male-dominated industry.
"Audition" is filled with star-studded stories about her famous and infamous interviewees including Richard Nixon, Anwar Sadat, Menachem Begin, Shah of Iran, Henry Fonda, John Wayne, Katherine Hepburn, Yasir Arafat, Warren Beatty, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Roy Cohn, the Dalai Lama, Princess Diana, King Hussein, Angelina Jolie, Henry Kissinger, Monica Lewinsky, Rosie O'Donnell, Christopher Reeve . . . the list goes on and on.
Walters weaves a very human narrative of her family throughout the book; a narrative that provides clues to where she got her drive, the choices she made, her three failed marriages, being attracted to older (and often married) men, and her willingness to take risk. There is her risk-taking father, Lou Walters, the mercurial nightclub impresario who made and lost several fortunes; her long suffering mother; the family's descent from the penthouse to rent-controlled apartments; her mentally disabled sister, Jackie, who taught her much about patience and compassion; and the troubled teen years of her adopted daughter, Jackie (named in honor of her sister) who got hooked on amphetamines.
"Audition" is a very readable portrait of a deftly calculating woman with an impeccable sense of timing and incredible luck. Walters has given us a story that is heartbreaking and honest, surprising and fun, sometimes startling, and always fascinating. This makes a great companion book to Katie Couric's recently published biography, "Katie: The Real Story."
 you've just entered a no spin zone May 13, 2008
51 out of 86 found this review helpful
I like Barbara Walters, I really do. But I'm not overly crazy about this book. And I've never been someone who sits by and gives (insincere) praise to someone no matter how much I like them.
Barbara totally played her "gender" card with this book, hoping to cash in on her fame as a female journalist. Think about it. If this were a man and he wrote a book about his affair 25 or 30 years ago how would he be received?
I also got incredibly sick of the redundancy in the book. She must have said at least 100 times "I am the first this and I am the first that..." Frankly, I don't believe Barbara Walters is anywhere close to being as influential or as important as she makes herself out to others. What exactly did she do to change American Media? What did any of the "female journalists" do to change American MSM? Not one thing. To quote the words of the Great Shakespeare: And therein lies the rub. Because our society sets such low standards for women. They see a woman who knows how to spin like Barbara Walters and all of a sudden everyone is flabbergasted.
In her book she briefly discusses Star Jones which I also found very foolish and rather sloppy on her part. Because let's assume that Star Jones was the fattest, laziest piece of work that ever crossed Waters' path, how exactly would that help her? Star Jones worked for her for nearly 10 years and all of a sudden now she's persona non grata just because Barbara Walters wants to push her book? I don't buy it.
My favorite parts of the book were about her family and daughter. Over the years Barbara has often been very private when it comes to discussing her non-professional life so some of this information was brand-new. I also enjoyed her writing style very much because it was not overbearing in these sections.
Did anyone see Barbara Walter on Larry King Live? You could tell that she was (at least mildly) ticked off for being bumped to the end of the program. And then when the interview ended it was so hilarious when they both went out of their ways to kiss each others bee-hinds. No, they are not "good friends" as they each purported in the interview. Barbara Walters has said many nasty things about Larry King over the years. I wonder why she didn't include that in her book?
At least with Bill O we all know exactly what we're getting. As far as Barbara is concerned, she's been pulling the wool over everyone's eyes for years and years and IMO it's rather tragic that this is how she is going to be remembered because this is how her career is ending. You know, my granny always said: if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck it's a duck.
 Career-obsessed, needs to retire! May 12, 2008
39 out of 75 found this review helpful
Barbara Walters is trash, plain and simple. This woman spent her whole career working too hard, not taking care of her only child, and had an affair with a married politican. Walters failed at marriage three times, she explains her heart was too heavy, if she didn't want to get married then don't, what is so hard about that? She is money-hungry, she needs to retire! what is she waiting for? All she cares about is exploiting her collegues, she doesn't realize how she is coming off. Someone needs to tell this woman to stay home and enjoy life, instead of selling her life story for cash. Don't buy into the hype, she hasn't opened any doors for women, and who said she was smart? this book is not well-written and she's a journalist! give me a break.
Really interesting insight to Barbara Walters May 12, 2008
3 out of 7 found this review helpful
Very interesting biography, honest and well written. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. What an extraordinary life!
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