|
| Audition: A Memoir | 
 enlarge | Author: Barbara Walters
Publisher: Knopf
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy Used: $8.81
You Save: $21.14 (71%)
New (63) Used (65) Collectible (14) from $8.81
Avg. Customer Rating:  233 reviews
Sales Rank: 813
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
|
| Customer Reviews:
 A Classy Honest but Painful "Coming to Grips with Life" May 12, 2008
22 out of 34 found this review helpful
Befitting the classy lady that she is, Mrs. Walters has penned an extremely honest, revealing and often painful summary of an interesting and fulfilling life.
Not being able to drive, cook, or athletic in any way, including being unable to even ride a horse, makes Barbara seem almost normal: Her humanity comes through in so many ways that she now feels like a member of the family, the family of humanity: and not the calculating, hyper-testosterone, driven pseudo-masculine "ball-busting" "kill-or-be-killed witch" persona that she is often accused of projecting.
If having to care for her entire family after her father's "ups and downs," and then finally "down and out" business life was not enough, then her relationship with her "less than normal sister," troubles with her adopted daughter, her social isolation, and her struggles against a male dominated world, brings her humanity clearly into focus in a way that no other aspects of her life ever could have done.
After reading so much pabulum masquerading as autobiography (Hilary Clinton's "Living History" for instance), it is refreshing to read one that actually reveals a life actually lived and one, worth living.
Five Stars
 PLEASE THINK OF ALL THE OTHERS May 18, 2008
18 out of 27 found this review helpful
Much has been said about her affair with the Senator. HERE is WHERE I'm coming from.... the Senator may HAVE IMPLICITLY "consented" (he found out shortly before the book was to hit the bookstands!) but how about ALL of his RELATIVES? His wife (though separated, still qualifies as VICTIM), same but different degree - his children, grandchildren and friends. DO they DESERVE to HEAR THIS from SOMEONE OTHER than the Senator??? What is the Statute of Limitation on DECENCY??? In this respect, Walters gets an "F" in Human Decency, which may suggest that some of her empathy in those memorable personal interviews may have been counterfeit. Sorry, Barbara if you can take it as well as give it, the proper thing to do is openly acknowledge your Apology to all those "true victims" in the affair that you hurt in different ways. Then, the admiration and respect that many of us have for you would be truly restored. Consider this: IF your father had an affair with one of those showgirls in the Latin Quarter (which he managed), would you rather hear about it from (a) your father or b) the showgirl? Show us your TRUE GREATNESS by having the courage to eat humble pie in your Eighties! Then, you would ROCK! Live long(er)and well. I am a Fan.... I admire your spunk (better know to you as "chutzpah"???) because it makes you who you are... well, almost.
So Barbara Walters write a book! May 10, 2008
17 out of 60 found this review helpful
So about Barbara and her book coming out why write about marriages and just write a little about her background and about her career and not to meson about these three men she was married to just write quick Biography about her and her story and her career and forget all the murmuring and write a little about her sister and Parents and Grand Parent's and so forth and drop it I think it would been a better book for Barbara and her self and not to put all the joke an it and forget it and the view is so silly that why not turn it an something else then having shooting with Rose O'Donnell and the rest of them and just keep it simple and interview people and just keep it simple for get all the shooting and the joke and silly to talk over each other and nothing is wrong with Elizabeth she has her opine like we all have with the Barbara interview she just ask questions and didn't intercrop any one or made it bad so I don't see any thing with Elizabeth why they just have a topic and interview people that has written a book or done a music CD or some Organization or someone that could give a program make it more interesting to view's and for them Interview someone from a Organization that dose good an the community or some one is interesting then sent around a table and talking it doesn't make bunch since to sent around the table and talk then not to interview people that have a interest.
 Utterly boring May 17, 2008
17 out of 34 found this review helpful
It's a pity that Ms. Walters, an octogenarian, had to write such a fiasco. Each chapters get more boring as you proceeed reading. It show that her ego is bigger than the universe to have the audacity to write such an embarrasing book at such an old age.
Changing the World for Female Journalists May 15, 2008
15 out of 24 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."
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
