Reviews for Ladies Who Punch

by Ramin Setoodeh

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From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

And you thought the The View could get crazy on-screen (Joy Behar and Meghan McCain, we're looking at you). This pull-back-the-curtain story of almost two decades of the groundbreaking talk show delivers. Setoodeh was able to get interviews with almost all the former hosts, as well as View creators Barbara Walters and Bill Geddie; only Whoopi Goldberg declined, but that just leaves more room for her nemesis, Rosie O'Donnell, to tell her side of the story, which she does with relish. All of the big moments are here: Star Jones, aka Bridezilla, taking over the show for almost a year with her wedding plans; Rosie and Elisabeth Hasselbeck having a split-screen fight that was so personal the audience was frightened; Walters' long goodbye, after hanging onto the show into her 80s. But this also gets into the women's psyches; their strengths and their insecurities; the reasons they joined, stayed, and left; their relationships with one another; and their complicated relationship with Walters, who was alternately an icon and mother figure as well as a fierce supporter and duplicitous detractor. Fans of the show may be surprised at how many of the hosts they've forgotten over the years. Nicolle Wallace and Rosie Perez, anyone? This is everything a behind-the-scenes book should be dishy, surprising, and written with the unprecedented help of those who lived it.--Ilene Cooper Copyright 2019 Booklist

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