Lillian Ross's books "Picture" and "Portrait of Hemingway" were listed as two of the top 100 best-of-the-century works of Journalism compiled by 36 judges working under the aegis of New York University.

Lillian Ross has given movie fans and those with a serious interest in film an extraordinary book about the final days of the studio system--and shows exactly why it collapsed. A few years later the independent film-maker emerged, and another book details that experience. Interestingly enough, both books deal with Audie Murphy. Like the Ross book, A THINKER'S DAMN by William Russo recounts the foibles of movie-making, this time in Saigon with Joe Mankiewicz in 1957. Each provides a timeless impression of a bygone movie era.

An entire book on the creation of John Huston's "The Red Badge of Courage." What's most amazing is that Ross seems to be a fly on the wall. She attends big meetings with Hollywood execs. She is along with the gang during casting, shooting, editing, and previews. This is reporting like reporting was meant to be. It is such a good first-hand account, that people uninterested in movies will find favor with it.

I was moved to write this review after reading this wonderful book with my three daughters, ages 4 to 12. As a parent, I am always looking for books that stimulate discussion as well as entertain. Ross' stories truly bring these heroines to life, and Teis' illustrations are superb. Together, they create a vivid world that brings ancient lessons of courage, hope, and inner strength to modern times. The author thoughtfully provides introductions to each story which help to set them in cultural and historical context. I hope this beautiful book meets much success, it certainly deserves it.

I just got this book for my birthday. I am 11 years old. I liked this book a lot because the women in the book seemed real to me. You never really hear about what was going on for the women in the Bible. I always wondered! This book brings them to life and helps me understand what it was like for them back then. There are a lot of beautiful illustrations too. They are so beautiful! I like to draw and the book gave me a lot of inspiration to become an artist.

Gently written by Lillian hammer Ross, Buba Leah And Her Paper Children is a truly charming children's picture book story about a quiet Jewish family. Visiting her great aunt Buba Leah, little Chava hears Buba Leah speak fondly of her paper children, which prompts Chava to wonder: What are paper children?, And where could they be hidden? The gentle, countryside-manner of the full-color artwork by Mary Morgan beautifully enhance this captivating and highly recommended picture book story for young readers.

Ross, a capable but often pedestrian reporter and writer (her quirks and tics quickly grow tiresome), has overstuffed the book with specimens of her own "Talk" pieces. Much more talented "Talk" writers are woefully unrepresented here.

Or maybe airplane reading. For those not familiar with The Talk of the Town feature in the New Yorker, it is a short, 1000 word-or-so essay on some feature of the current NY scene. The writing is often clever(rarely, too clever eg Garrison Keillor, but this could be predicted) and many great writers have taken a turn at it.

Part of the charm of the volume are the older pieces where now-famous names and places are introduced as newcomers and one gets a real feel of Manhattan in the 20s and 30s.

I'm not usually a fan of The New Yorker. I can never get through the whole thing and when trying, often feel bogged down. But, everyone says The New Yorker represents good writing, so I picked up For The Fun Of It to see if it would actually show me what "good writing" is. It did!

This book is filled with fun vignettes from The New Yorker starting in the 1920s and going through the year 2000. Each piece is a page or two and describes an interesting encounter with a New York personality.

You can read about the store that gave Mae West her corsets (1930), Gimbels' venture into live pony-selling (1947), what taxi drivers think is funny (1977) and about "a terrible new smell" that turned up in Tribeca (1992). Or read about "The Guy Who Makes President Clinton Funny"(2000.) And these examples barely scratch the surface. The pieces are written by such notables as James Thurber, Lillian Ross, Brendan Gill, Robert Benchley and even Johnny Carson ("Proverbs According to Dennis Miller"(2000)).

There are one or two clunkers, but they're in a definite minority. I really recommend this book to anyone who appreciates and likes to read about the quirky, creative and independent personalities that comprise New York City and, what the heck, America. The book's span of 70 years makes it even more fun and interesting. This book would be a great gift, too.

As a true Hemingway fan, I found this book to be neither entertaining nor insightful... However, the afterword that follows it is quite interesting and contains a few fascinating stories. I recommend Hemingway's own book "A Moveable Feast" for anyone who wants to truly understand America's greatest writer.

Lillian Ross has the eye and ear of a reporter and the writing ability of a distinguished novelist. This feature on Hemingway, originally a NEW YORKER piece, is a delight for fans of Ross and fans of Hemingway of which I can be counted as both.

The story begins as Miss Ross meets Hemingway at Idlewood Airport (now JFK) in New York City in 1950. Ross spends the next two days going to museums, shopping, and meeting Hemingway's friend Marlene Dietrich and Editor Charles Scribner.

She's so unobtrusive in the story, you forget that she was actually in the room. When Hemingway talks to her, it's like a character has stepped out of a novel to speak with the author. You get this feeling because "Papa" is so much himself that he doesn't seem to be hiding his true personality from a member of the press corps.

I learned a good deal about Papa in this short book. You will too.

This slim volume covering a mere two days with Hemingway will take about an hour or two to read. However, it's merit is that it is presents us with a 'bird's eye-view' of Hemingway's later years, the alcholism, his relationship with his wife Mary, his son, and some of his old friends. It also gives us a glimpse of his feelings about his writing in his own words. For those who have enjoyed Hemingway's fiction and read biographies of his life, this book is a must.

I personally found this book to be a good documentation of the death of Price Daniel Jr. and the subsequent events that followed. Vickie Daniel,the wife of Price Daniel Jr. was charged with murdering her husband Price Daniel Jr. Ganiel had been a State Representative and had also served as the Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives. He was defeated by Mark White in a race for Attorney General. His father had served as Governor of Texas. Vickie was put on trial for the murder of her husband. She was represented by the Haines firm. This was a spectacular trial that eventually wound up with Vickie's acquittal. She was next taken to court by the Daniels family over her children.She was once again represented by the Haines fir, The Daniels family were represented by J.K. Zeke Zbranek(who now serves as a District Judge in Liberty County). Once again Vickie Daniels emerged victorious. This is a very interesting book that you can really get into. Read it.

An old man's granddaughter is getting married and he undertakes a journey to be at her wedding. On the way he falls asleep three times and dreams of a king who will help him get to the wedding...for a price. This book has some Jewish tradition interwoven with good illustrations. Good for K-3 multicultural learning.

Poor Shawn! He seems to have had impeccable taste in everything save mistresses. The misbegotten issue of their liaison is this unique instance of a grotesque lapse in editorial judgement. I cannot imagine prose as wretched as this surviving his meticulous blue pencil from anyone sufficiently detached from him to be regarded as a writer worthy of regard on the basis solely of his work.

Oh dear but I wish this book was written by the "other woman"---in this case, William Shawn's wife. The author, well known New Yorker writer Lillian Ross comes across as a probably horrid, self absorbed user, which is not, I'm sure, what she intended. While the book is very interesting when the subject is Mr. Shawn and the workings of the New Yorker, everytime she gushes about their enduring love (which she does, endlessly) her writing is banal beyond belief. One thinks, reading much of this book, that perhaps she was only a top writer once--when he was her editor. One of the truly fascinating characters in this book in Wallace Shawn. Perhaps someday he'll write his version of this story.

What a simple, ballsy book! - and what depths of our moral and ethical bankruptcy its publication reveals. It is gruesomely fascinating to read the torrential reviews of this modest work, the jaundiced posturing of broadsheets that queue for the standards of the New Yorker, the poison of the moralists, the lack of compassion. This is a love story, patently not written for money or influence or approbation but as a heart essay, the kind of statement of confessional honesty that confronts the nada of the "civilized" predicament and offers the innocence of humanness as a code of hope. Love and conformity rarely blend. Since recorded history, the dilemma of awkward love has chewed as much newsprint as the mystery of life itself. How inconvenient, true love. Romeo and Juliet, John and Yoko, Hef and his harem. It happens, is all we know. What is interesting about this book is Ms Ross' self-mortification in diving into the crucible from the highboard of "cultured" publishing. Obviously she knew what was coming; and yet she persevered. True love imparts courage and stupidity in equal measure, but there is more at work. Bill Shawn carries the burden of legend. Lillian Ross, one senses, felt impelled to reveal him as a man, flawed (he was the one who felt pathologically "here but not here"), and aching in his inability to express his personal truth in the novel he couldn't write. As a work of literature, even gossip, this is slight. But as a paean to Shawn it glitters with the absurdity and vitality of devotional love and the lengths partners go to maintain it.

Lillian Ross's contributions to the Talk of the Town and to the full-length piece are estimable, but she was never one of great talents at the magazine. She has a real flair, though, for recycling her old work. The more you reread it, the thinner it becomes.

The title references 'journalism'. Maybe, but this is not weighty journalism. These are nothing more than puff pieces regarding (mainly) pop culture icons of the past and present. There is certainly nothing wrong with that - but call it what it is. I also felt cheated. It appears the original articles are not reprinted in whole, but are abridged, and only utilized as examples of journalistic writing styles by Ms. Ross. That's OK too - but I was fooled. (And if they are reproduced in whole - then I feel doubly cheated). And I was disappointed. I was repeatedly reminded that Ms. Ross is a great writer and journalist. Yet I find her writing to be clumsy and stilted. E.B. White she is not. Fine. Each writer has his or her own style. But a 'great' writer? I have been let down. I'm really not trying to slam Ms. Ross or her book. My dissatisfactions may be that since I don't read "The New Yorker" often, I am not so intimate with 'The Talk of the Town' section. I guess the column is merely for light reading and consists of 'fun' writings. Great! Just please don't continue masquerading it as journalism. When I think of journalistic writings, I think more of the Theodore White, William Shirer and David Halberstam variety. But these selections are more of the Larry King class - pure softball. In the end, it is an enjoyable book if you're interested in short airy articles on people such as Chaplin, Hemingway, Norman Mailer, John Huston, Benny Goodman, Robin Williams, et al. And there are also easygoing pieces on Adlai Stevenson, Hubert Humphrey, Robert Kennedy, and so on and so forth... A nice pleasurable read, but lacking depth.

Author Lillian Ross has been writing for the New Yorker for half a century, creating profiles and essays which have won her an audience of admirers. Reporting Back questions the attributes which contribute to good reporting and good journalism, with Ross' years of experience backing pieces which blend humor with sharp observation. Journalism students will find this revealing.