Here we have the memoir of an over-achiever, for sure. Walters is not a scintillating writer, but it’s still an interesting memoir, because she’s experienced so much history firsthand. She’s not afraid to reveal times when she felt inadequate, and there are a lot of them.

She persevered in spite of the fact that nobody really took much account of her at first. She was just a girl on TV, basically someone to pour the coffee, and she had to work incredibly hard to be taken even slightly seriously. The title refers to the fact that Walters always felt that she was auditioning, that she never felt all that secure in her job.

Walters explores the psychological reasons for this with great honesty. We learn about her childhood, her marriages, her stormy relationship with her daughter. She doesn’t reveal anything very steamy, and most of the characters in this book, from family members to celebrities, come across as nice, sometimes just mildly nice and sometimes really nice. If she didn’t like them, she doesn’t dwell on them. She retains her professional objectivity no matter what’s going on. She comes across as a very nice woman.