Audition: A Memoir by Barbara Walters
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Book Reviews of Audition: A Memoir
Book Review: WORTH EVERY PAGE!
Summary: 5 Stars
Alright, I grew up with Barbara on TV, how much more could there be to know? 600 Pages Worth?? The answer with her friendly, personal writing style and endless adventures into turning into the TV role model she became is a resounding... YES!
Now is a great time to read it, since she wrote the last section in 2007 --- so you get all the latest news including her take on the revolving seats on The View and her retirement from 20/20.
Many people in their reviews said they found the most interesting parts the discussions about her personal life - husbands, daughter, flings. I found the opposite to be true. Okay - she had a couple of affairs and a few marriages all which ended gracefully. While interesting, hardly the most sizzling news. Even she admits, with some guilt - they came second to her career. And yet, her career was about relationships - making relationships with interesting people that she could either interview or would get her access to interviews.
One of the most revealing things to me was the endless pursuit of the relationships to ensure she had the next "big scoop". It's worth reading - just to learn how a master does that! Her honest impressions of those she met along her route - are very revealing, and expose what she was really thinking behind those interviews.
Name dropping is everywhere - and what make it such fun is she shares her real feelings and interactions about those she met along the way - from the drunken Betty Ford, and the master of glib Tom Cruise to the charm of Castro and the Dalai Lama.
Add in an interesting look at her up-bringing with her entrepeneurial, out-going father, "slow" sister and reserved mother - and you have a recipe for 600 pages worth of good reading.
Book Review: The book I wanted to hate
Summary: 5 Stars
I am an admirer of Barbara Walters. I have always found her interviews to be thought-provoking and intelligent. Further, I am an avid fan of the View and I really like her relaxed style and sometimes almost naughty demeanor. However, when this book came out Barbara Walters (and the whole cast of The View) were shameless in promoting this book. Any trick, any segue to hawk the book went on for weeks and months. I was just so annoyed about hearing about this book, that I vowed that I would never pay for the book, and probably never read it. I do have a Kindle, though, so I softened and paid the ten bucks and I am so glad I did. I knew that Barbara Walters was a pioneer, and I knew that she was accomplished in many ways. What I didn't know was how very, very hard she worked in preparation for her many "auditions". Sometimes I felt physically tired after reading several chapters and I realized it wasn't reading fatigue. I was tired just imagining the long hours of reading, traveling, being separated from her family. I also got a sense of her commitment to ensuring that she remained financially independent and cared for her daughter. It's truly an amazing book. The only flaw I could see is that sometimes Barbara's writing is all over the place and she writes her story just like she tells a story on the View - in Barbaraspeak. But, you get used to it. This is a must read for any woman who complains that she has too much to do. Just imagine yourself as Barbara Walters in the 60s and 70s. You'll stop complaining!Book Review: Well-Done from B. Walters
Summary: 5 Stars
I read almost exclusivley bios and autobois, and this one held my interest, despite my not being a fan of the author to begin with. It's very well-written and extremely compelling to follow along as Walters reviews her girlhood with her semi-famous dreamer father Lou Walters and her long-suffering mother. Most touching are her comments about her sister, Jackie, and her ruminations about the time her career - and the effort to build it - took away from her family, including her adopted daughter and her three husbands. At the end, she stands alone, with only her professional friends, whom she claims are her "family" now, and it is both touching and sad.
There are times Walters fades into self-pity for the professional slights she believes she has suffered, and she also aggrandizes some other feats to the extreme (she mentions how traffic stopped in downtown Manhattan the night her interview with Monica Lewinsky aired. (There is a whole chapter on this interview, a scandal which has almost faded into oblivion because of the years ago it was and the importance the American people now place on it). If one can overlook these small ego indulgences, it is a good read, and I would recommend it for fans of Walters, fans of autobiographies or just plain fans of The View - for some insight as to why Walters is what she is today. It is also interesting that Walters describes her book as a "memoir" rather than an autobiography, as if one sounds more elegant than the other.
Book Review: An excellent memoir
Summary: 5 Stars
Barbara's book is one of the best books I have ever read. I had no prior knowledge of Barbara's childhood and early career days. This book honestly shares the details of her life to all who care to read.
Barbara shares with the reader that her sister Jackie was mentally challenged. Barbara admits to not always treating her sister with the respect that she so deserved. I found this section of the book difficult to read. Suffering from a mental disability myself, I understand rejection from both family and friends. The life of the mentally challenged is a dark and lonely life. I feel for Jackie knowing what had to be in her mind at all times. Putting it simply, she was not like everyone else and I believe she probably knew.
I enjoyed the section of the Specials both the celebrity and poltical versions. Thanks to Barbara I now understand the middle east issues and the roles of the various players involed.
Finally I wish to comment on the Rosie issue. Having read Rosie and Barbara books where this matter is discussed, I believe Barbara version of the story. Barbara discussed this issue in a calm rational fashion. Rosie literally goes on a tantrum losing her validity of what really happened. Barbara was the ultimate lady.
Prasie for Barbara for having written such an enjoyable, well written memior.
Book Review: A Classy Honest but Painful "Coming to Grips with Life"
Summary: 5 Stars
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