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Audition: A Memoir | 
 enlarge | Author: Barbara Walters
Publisher: Knopf
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $19.40
You Save: $10.55 (35%)
New (21) Used (3) Collectible (5) from $19.40
Avg. Customer Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 2
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 624
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.3
Dimensions (in): 9.6 x 6.6 x 1.7
ISBN: 030726646X
Dewey Decimal Number: 070.92
EAN: 9780307266460
ASIN: 030726646X
Publication Date: May 6, 2008 (New: This Week)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New! Ships USPS w/tracking number.
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Product Description
Young people starting out in television sometimes say to me: “I want to be you.” My stock reply is always: “Then you have to take the whole package.”
And now, at last, the most important woman in the history of television journalism gives us that “whole package,” in her inspiring and riveting memoir. After more than forty years of interviewing heads of state, world leaders, movie stars, criminals, murderers, inspirational figures, and celebrities of all kinds, Barbara Walters has turned her gift for examination onto herself to reveal the forces that shaped her extraordinary life.
Barbara Walters’s perception of the world was formed at a very early age. Her father, Lou Walters, was the owner and creative mind behind the legendary Latin Quarter nightclub, and it was his risk-taking lifestyle that gave Barbara her first taste of glamour. It also made her aware of the ups and downs, the insecurities, and even the tragedies that can occur when someone is willing to take great risks, for Lou Walters didn’t just make several fortunes—he also lost them. Barbara learned early about the damage that such an existence can do to relationships—between husband and wife as well as between parent and child. Through her roller-coaster ride of a childhood, Barbara had a close companion, her mentally challenged sister, Jackie. True, Jackie taught her younger sister much about patience and compassion, but Barbara also writes honestly about the resentment she often felt having a sister who was so “different” and the guilt that still haunts her.
All of this—the financial responsibility for her family, the fear, the love—played a large part in the choices she made as she grew up: the friendships she developed, the relationships she had, the marriages she tried to make work. Ultimately, thanks to her drive, combined with a decent amount of luck, she began a career in television. And what a career it has been! Against great odds, Barbara has made it to the top of a male-dominated industry. She was the first woman cohost of the Today show, the first female network news coanchor, the host and producer of countless top-rated Specials, the star of 20/20, and the creator and cohost of The View. She has not just interviewed the world’s most fascinating figures, she has become a part of their world. These are just a few of the names that play a key role in Barbara’s life, career, and book: Yasir Arafat, Warren Beatty, Menachem Begin, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Roy Cohn, the Dalai Lama, Princess Diana, Katharine Hepburn, King Hussein, Angelina Jolie, Henry Kissinger, Monica Lewinsky, Richard Nixon, Rosie O’Donnell, Christopher Reeve, Anwar Sadat, John Wayne . . . the list goes on and on.
Barbara Walters has spent a lifetime auditioning: for her bosses at the TV networks, for millions of viewers, for the most famous people in the world, and even for her own daughter, with whom she has had a difficult but ultimately quite wonderful and moving relationship. This book, in some ways, is her final audition, as she fully opens up both her private and public lives. In doing so, she has given us a story that is heartbreaking and honest, surprising and fun, sometimes startling, and always fascinating.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 15 more reviews...
 Barbara Walters Memoir May 12, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a fast read because it is sad, funny, exciting and you can hear Barbara speak like she was reading it to you. This book Audition: A Memoir makes you realize just what a sense of humor Barbara really has. She is a lovely lady and I loved reading her book.
 So Barbara Walters write a book! May 10, 2008
1 out of 13 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.
Equally Inspirational AUDITION and TEACHING LIFE May 10, 2008
0 out of 5 found this review helpful
I read Barbara Walters' new book in an afternoon and found the author to be, in many ways, a teacher to America. It impresses me as a welcome companion to another recently released book, TEACHING LIFE, as described below along with an interview with the author:
In 1978 one of the author's students died tragically in an automobile accident on her way to his office to talk over her career plans. It was the suddenness of her death, along with the utter loss of so much potential, which left him wondering whether anything he had said in class had made a difference in her too-short life or, for that matter, in the lives of any of his students.
Her death was not only a great misfortune but also a defining moment for the author. For the first time in his life as a teacher, and he had been at it for only five years, he realized in the weeks that followed that he wasn't in the classroom for myself. He was and remains there for the students, all of whom are giving him three hours a week of their most precious possession -- their time. What he says and do should make a difference in their lives. The worst thief is a bad teacher.
In a recent interview with Samantha Bravo he answers some pointed questions about the book:
1) In TEACHING LIFE: LETTERS FROM A LIFE IN LITERATURE, each letter to Kelly addresses a different aspect of education, literature and life. How did you decide which topics to address? How do you think the book's
organization of these topics affects the reader?
The topics suggested themselves to me as I moved ever deeper into the project. I knew I had to write "When a Parent Dies," for example, because the day after my father's funeral I returned to my class to discuss Hamlet and saw my father sitting in the back of the room. The chapter on "Marriage" suggested itself because I was struck by how many of my colleagues across the country wrestle with balancing the academics with family life. Many questions emerged over the years from discussions with my parents, both educators, as well as from my students. Overall I answer questions that many teachers (and students) ask of themselves and that I continue to ask of myself.
2) Why did you choose to format the book as a series of
letters?
To avoid the risk of coming across as "preachy" or dogmatic. That's not my style. Writing letters "to" a former student was an indirect way of reaching my potential reader. Also, this format helped me to establish a warm, personal tone that is the voice I try to maintain in the classroom. I am speaking to teachers, yes, but I am also speaking to students as well as to the general public - and I don't want to alienate them.
3) In the book's summary it says that "'Teaching Life"
is an effort to impart lessons to the next generation
of teachers." Would you also agree that these lessons
are equally benefiting to students who read this
book? What sort of insight should a student expect to
gain in contrast to a teacher?
Yes, most definitely. Letters as personal as these permit the student to slip away from present concerns, open the door, and step inside the secret life of a teacher. Happiness is a gift, not a right, and most of us as teachers have been so gifted. Perhaps some students themselves will carry from the book the thought of entering this noble and personally rewarding profession. At the very least I hope they will find here some useful suggestions for getting all they can from their educational experiences.
4) You say that Kelly has become a metaphor for all your
students. Could you explain this in more depth?
Every semester my classrooms are filled with Kelly's - bright, eager-to-learn men and women who are giving me three hours a week of their most precious possession - their time. What I say "to" Kelly in the letters I say to all of my students: make the most of your allotted time, seek the best in everything you do, and keep growing. My challenge is to find a way to connect with them, to encourage them to care about the material, to think about some of the deep issues of life, and to have a good time while doing so. That's part of what keeps me coming back day after day, month after month, semester after semester. Though Kelly didn't live to realize her potential as a teacher, my experience of knowing her and thousands of students like her continues to inspire me every day.
5) Thirty years after Kelly's death, why did you believe
that this was the right time in your career to publish
"Teaching Life?"
There were many months, even years when I didn't know when (or even IF) I would complete the book. Coincidentally I did so while approaching my 35th year of teaching. To borrow from Samuel Johnson, I believe that into every teacher's life there comes a "time to be in earnest." This is such a time for me.
Star Jones is right May 10, 2008
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
I think I agree with Star Jones. Why is BW coming out with this right now?
I've admired the woman, but she's tarnished that with all these tales of adultery and poor parenting. While my admiration was obviously an illusion, why can't people allow a good, positive illusion to persist?
A two star review probably reflect my disappointment in the woman. Maybe the book itself should be more of a 3.5 star for readability. But it did leave a sour taste for me.
Honest, Profound, and Heart-felt... May 10, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
A true pioneer in her field. Engaging, honest, and easy to enjoy for hours at a time. You will like her even more than you did before reading this bookOne Man's Love Story - A Near-Death Experience!
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