This is the inspirational story of the life of holocaust survivor Dr. Ruth Westheimer. Throughout an early life of adversity, Dr. Ruth keeps on soldering through without a hint of self-pity.

At the age of eight, Dr. Ruth was evacuated, with hundreds of other children, from Germany to Switzerland. She lived in an orphanage for Jewish children, and did heavy house-cleaning for half the day and attended school for the other half. She never saw her parents or grandmother again.

At 17 Dr. Ruth emigrated to Israel to live on a Kibbutz, where she was exploited. Living in a tent, her job was cleaning full-time, and no one suggested forther schooling. After a year she left the Kibbutz and supported herself in various jobs and attended school.

The account of her years in France and her early years in the US is riviting. Dr. Ruth's strong spirit shining through every situation is inspirational.

Great autobiography of Dr. Ruth! So many things that I didn't know about her: fled Nazi Germany at age 10, never saw her family again, lived on a kibbutz in Israel, was a soldier for the Haganah, then came to the USA, where she found her career and true love.

Very open and candid, and also tragic at times. It's a book I couldn't put down, once I started reading it! Highly recommended!

I read the book mostly to read about my favorite writers (Pauline Kael, Joseph Mitchell, Lillian Ross) and their experiences at the New Yorker. I wasn't disappointed. But the book also introduced to A.J. Liebling and John Hersey and host of other fine writers that I hadn't a clue about. On top of that, it's just a doggone fine history of the greatest literary magazine in U.S. history. Hats off to Ben Yagoda for another fine work

Writing a book about the New Yorker must be one of the world's most complex tasks. The subject is a semi-live, organically strange, symbolically rich, ever shifting protean being that stays still like a rock and at the same time is in perpetual motion. That Ben Yagoda was able to capture its likeness in a portrait made of words is in itself utterly amazing: but that this portrait is a work of art, quite independent of its subject matter, is a small miracle for which we should all be grateful. Like other readers who have commented, I could not put the book down; and this work will reverberate with me for many months, or even years. As I read, I started jotting down a small list of New Yorker writers whose work I "must" read (again or for the first time). By the end of the book it was a long list that will easily see me through 2001. This is a great book and a reference work that will be frequently consulted.

I have had an ongoing love affair with The New Yorker since I was ten years old. First I read just the cartoons, then the reviews, and finally an obsession with the entire magazine.

Ben Yagoda is the first account I have read that does not have a personal agenda or bias. His research is meticulous and presented in such a lively manner that the reader never feels bombarded with dry facts and statistics. He brings to center stage a fabulous cast: from founder, Harold Ross, A. J. Liebling, E. B. White, James Thurber, Lillian Ross, John Cheever, Ernest Hemingway, J. D. Salinger, John Updike to the last "real" New Yorker editor-William Shawn. Mr. Yagoda's talent brings them to life, sets them in the context of The New Yorker, and they greet you from around every corner.

Mr. Yagoda lets us see why and how The New Yorker wielded such a remarkable influence in its heyday from the '30's through the early '60's. The standards set for fact checking, daring fiction, and in-depth "fact" pieces were hard to emulate. I well remember entire issues set aside for arcane subjects. I always gave the prize to Ved Mehta for writing excruciatingly long articles about subjects of which I had absolutely no interest. Yet I eagerly awaited Mehta's biographical sketches. That was part of The New Yorker's charm; they gave their writers the freedom to try different venues. The magazine was famous (or infamous) for their ruthless editing. One of my favorite quoted memos was from Vladimar Nabokov who wasn't so much outraged that The New Yorker had tinkered with his text, but amazed. "Never in my life has such a thing happened." said the bewildered Mr. Nabokov.

"About Town" is a fascinating read that can also be used for a reference book. It is scrupulously indexed and cross-referenced. This is the definitive biography of The New Yorker. Highly recommended.

This is probably the best biography of Will Rogers currently available. It is comprehensive, insightful, well researched, and balanced. My only complaint with it is that it ends somewhat abruptly. Yagoda touches briefly on the legacy of Will Rogers after his death, but he could have said a great deal more. Rogers's death evoked profound mourning across the US and the rest of the world, and it would have been nice if he had focused a bit more on that. His analysis, however, of why Rogers gradually ceased to be what he was in his own time--arguably the most popular American who ever lived--is very helpful. I had always found his comparative demise to be quite perplexing, and Yagoda does a superb job of explaining this phenomenon.

One of the greatest virtues of the book is that it does not, like many books on Rogers, engage in hagiography. Will Rogers was a very good, compassionate, honest man. Any book on his will show that. He had his faults, but as presented by Yagoda, they do not diminish the man, whatever it may do to the myth. For instance, Yagoda insightfully points out that while Rogers was rightfully lauded for his wisdom and insight, his thought was marred by an inability to comprehend genuine evil. One is left wondering what Rogers's response to Hitler's behavior in the years just after Rogers's death, and what he would have been able to say about the moral complexities of the Second World War. On the other hand, I would very much have welcomed Rogers as a voice of reason during the days of the Communist Witch Hunts.

Anyone interested in Rogers is strongly encouraged to read this book. I would also like to recommend the first chapter in Lary May's THE BIG TOMORROW. This book is a study of the social dimensions of American cinema from the thirties through the fifties. The first and best chapter is about Will Rogers, and remains the best thing that I have read about Will Rogers. I strongly recommend both books.

this is a great book, it has so much information on life in turn of the century America and vaudville. Also interesting stories of cowboys and indians in will rogers life.it drags alittle in places but for the most part is very enjoyable.

I heartily recommend this book not only to those interested in Will Rogers but also anyone interested in the evolution of American popular culture. Yagoda does an excellent job of writing about the people and events shaping Will's life and work. He does not succumb to sentimentality (perhaps going overboard in trying to prove that Will was not perfect). My only regret is he could have researched Cherokee culture and history more thoroughly, which would have explained a great deal more about Will and his family. Otherwise, very compelling reading.

Dr. Ruth has written a wonderful book about the American family. As she herself states, the very definition of family is a difficult one -- but she wonderfully elucidates the stresses, strains and successes of the modern american family. One can almost hear the little "tee-hee" in her voice as she uses her own life story to buttress her position that government, business and the family members themselves need to put family first -- for to do so enhances each of the aforementioned areas. I especially enjoyed her excursions into Judaism and Jewish values, which offer the world a sorely needed moral foundation by which to live. I only wished that her recommendations for further reading (and net-surfing) had been placed at the end of each chapter. I found their placement in the middle of chapters rather jarring. All in all, I think that this is a marvelous book for parents to read. Share it with someone you love. Jordan Parr