I live in NYC & today marks the 20th anniversary of 9/11. I thought my (now ex) fiancé died in the attacks.
Allan was on his way to work & stopped to see what had happened with the building near his work. We were on the phone—him looking up at the building & me watching the live news feed—when the 2nd plane hit & the phone line went dead. I thought he died. My coworker standing next to me worried about her fiancé, Edward, who worked in the North Tower. I remember us both looking at each other paralyzed with fear.
I didn’t know Allan survived until he came home 8 hours later covered head-to-toe in the dust of the World Trade Center. Edward, who was a managing director at Cantor Fitzgerald, wasn’t so lucky.
I will never forget
In memory of all of those who lost their lives in the attacks & in subsequent days due to 9/11-related illnesses, I’ve gathered together the best books about 9/11.
Sending love & strength to those that have lost loved ones as well as those of us still traumatized by the events of that day.
The first comprehensive oral history of September 11—a panoramic narrative woven from voices on the front lines of an unprecedented national trauma.
Monumental literature has been published about 9/11, from Lawrence Wright’s The Looming Tower to The 9/11 Commission Report. But one perspective has been missing up to this point—a 360-degree account of the day told through firsthand.
Now, in The Only Plane in the Sky, Garrett Graff tells the story of the day as it was lived—in the words of those who lived it. Drawing on never-before-published transcripts, declassified documents, original interviews, and oral histories from nearly 500 government officials, first responders, witnesses, survivors, friends, and family members, he paints the most vivid and human portrait of the September 11 attacks yet.
Beginning in the predawn hours of airports in the Northeast, we meet the ticket agents who unknowingly usher terrorists onto their flights, and the flight attendants inside the hijacked planes. In New York, first responders confront a scene of unimaginable horror at the Twin Towers. From a secret bunker under the White House, officials watch for incoming planes on radar. Aboard unarmed fighter jets in the air, pilots make a pact to fly into a hijacked airliner if necessary to bring it down. In the skies above Pennsylvania, civilians aboard United 93 make the ultimate sacrifice in their place. Then, as the day moves forward and flights are grounded nationwide, Air Force One circles the country alone, its passengers isolated and afraid.
More than simply a collection of eyewitness testimonies, The Only Plane in the Sky is the historic narrative of how ordinary people grappled with extraordinary events in real time: the father and son caught on different ends of the impact zone; the firefighter searching for his wife who works at the World Trade Center; the operator of in-flight telephone calls who promises to share a passenger’s last words with his family; the beloved FDNY chaplain who bravely performs last rites for the dying, losing his own life when the Towers collapse; and the generals at the Pentagon who break down and weep when they are barred from trying to rescue their colleagues.
At once a powerful tribute to the courage of everyday Americans and an essential addition to the literature of 9/11, The Only Plane in the Sky weaves together the unforgettable personal experiences of the people who found themselves caught at the center of an unprecedented human drama. The result is a unique, profound, and searing exploration of humanity on a day that changed the course of history.
“Remarkable…A priceless civic gift…On page after page, a reader will encounter words that startle, or make him angry, or heartbroken.” —The Wall Street Journal
“Had me turning each page with my heart in my throat…There’s been a lot written about 9/11, but nothing like this. I urge you to read it.” —Katie Couric
Faith. Trust. Triumph.
“I’m sorry,” the doctor said. “He is permanently and totally blind. There is nothing we can do for him.”
George and Sarah Hingson looked at each other, devastated. Their six-month-old son, Michael was a happy, strawberry blond baby boy, healthy and normal in every way except one. When the Hingsons switched on a light or made silly faces, Michael did not react. Ever. “My best suggestion is that you send him to a home for the blind,” the doctor continued. “He will never be able to do anything for himself.”
47 years later, a yellow Labrador retriever puppy was born in the whelping unit of Guide Dogs for the Blind in San Rafael, California. The puppy’s name was Roselle. On September 11, 2001, she saved Michael’s life. This is Roselle’s story too.
Every moment in Michael Hingson’s and Roselle’s lives seemed to lead up to this day. When one of four hijacked planes flew into the World Trade Center’s north tower on September 11, 2001, Michael Hingson, a district sales manager for a data protection and network security systems company, was sitting down for a meeting. His guide dog, Roselle, was at his feet. Paired for 21 months, man and dog spent that time forging a bond of trust, much like police partners who trust their lives to each other.
Michael couldn’t see a thing, but he could hear the sounds of shattering glass, falling debris, and terrified people flooding around him and Roselle. However, Roselle sat calmly beside him. In that moment, Michael chose to trust Roselle’s judgment and not to panic. They were a team.
Thunder Dog is a story that will forever change your spirit and your perspective. It illuminates Hingson’s lifelong determination to achieve parity in a sighted world and how the rare trust between a man and his guide dog can inspire an unshakable faith in each one of us.
Years in the making, this spellbinding, heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting narrative is an unforgettable portrait of 9/11
This is a 9/11 book like no other. Masterfully weaving together multiple strands of the events in New York, at the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, Fall and Rise is a mesmerizing, minute-by-minute account of that terrible day.
In the days and months after 9/11, Zuckoff, then a reporter for the Boston Globe, wrote about the attacks, the victims, and their families. After further years of meticulous reporting, Zuckoff has filled Fall and Rise with voices of the lost and the saved. The result is an utterly gripping book, filled with intimate stories of people most affected by the events of that sunny Tuesday in September: an out-of-work actor stuck in an elevator in the North Tower of the World Trade Center; the heroes aboard Flight 93 deciding to take action; a veteran trapped in the inferno in the Pentagon; the fire chief among the first on the scene in sleepy Shanksville; a team of firefighters racing to save an injured woman and themselves; and the men, women, and children flying across country to see loved ones or for work who suddenly faced terrorists bent on murder.
Fall and Rise will open new avenues of understanding for everyone who thinks they know the story of 9/11, bringing to life—and in some cases, bringing back to life—the extraordinary ordinary people who experienced the worst day in modern US history.
Destined to be a classic, Fall and Rise will move, shock, inspire, and fill hearts with love and admiration for the human spirit as it triumphs in the face of horrifying events.
“Better and more comprehensive than any prior account.... Those of us who lived through those days will find the book cathartic; those rising generations who were too young to remember 9/11, or who weren’t yet born, will find it revelatory.” —John Farmer, senior counsel to the 9/11 Commission
“The horror and heroism of 9/11 are brought to life in this panoramic history. ... The result is a superb, harrowing retelling of this most dramatic of stories.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
The inspiring and uplifiting true story about 9/11 in a small Canadian town that will restore your faith in humanity…
When 38 jetliners bound for the United States were forced to land at Gander International Airport in Canada by the closing of U.S. airspace on September 11, the population of this small town on Newfoundland Island swelled from 10,300 to nearly 17,000. The citizens of Gander met the stranded passengers with an overwhelming display of friendship and goodwill.
As the passengers stepped from the airplanes, exhausted, hungry and distraught after being held on board for nearly 24 hours while security checked all of the baggage, they were greeted with a feast prepared by the townsfolk. Local bus drivers who had been on strike came off the picket lines to transport the passengers to the various shelters set up in local schools and churches. Linens and toiletries were bought and donated. A middle school provided showers, as well as access to computers, email, and televisions, allowing the passengers to stay in touch with family and follow the news.
Over the course of those four days, many of the passengers developed friendships with Gander residents that they expect to last a lifetime. As a show of thanks, scholarship funds for the children of Gander have been formed and donations have been made to provide new computers for the schools. This book recounts the inspiring story of the residents of Gander, Canada, whose acts of kindness have touched the lives of thousands of people and been an example of humanity and goodwill.
“A remarkable true story...a must read for everyone.” —Huffington Post
“DeFede has written a wonderful and engaging account that reaffirms the remarkable humanity and kindness that flourished in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.” —Gerald Posner, NY Times bestselling author
At 8:46 a.m. that morning, 14,000 people were inside the World Trade Center just starting their workdays, but over the next 102 minutes, each would become part of a drama for the ages. Of the millions of words written about this wrenching day, most were told from the outside looking in. New York Times reporters Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn draw on hundreds of interviews with rescuers and survivors, thousands of pages of oral histories, and countless phone, e-mail, and emergency radio transcripts to tell the story of September 11 from the inside looking out.
Dwyer and Flynn have woven an epic and unforgettable account of the struggle, determination, and grace of the ordinary men and women who made 102 minutes count as never before.
“A masterpiece of reporting . . . [102 Minutes] contains one story after another of harrowing escapes, immense heroism and heart-rending loss . . . Brilliant and
troubling.” —The New York Times
“It’s just one of those great books of reporting, and you read it almost at one sitting with your hair on end. It tells you something about 9/11 that you may not have known before, and it does it by marshaling facts.” —Garrison Keillor
“A heart-stopping, meticulous account . . . I suspect that you, like me, will read this book in a single suspenseful sitting, even though we know the ending.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Insightful, compassionate . . . unmistakably affirming.”—The Sun (Baltimore)
“Searing, poignant, utterly compelling.”—Rick Atkinson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author
A NY Times Bestseller. Named A Best Book of the Year by the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post Book World, Chicago Tribune among others
Nine-year-old Oskar Schell has embarked on an urgent, secret mission that will take him through the five boroughs of New York. His goal is to find the lock that matches a mysterious key that belonged to his father who died in the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11. This seemingly impossible task will bring Oskar into contact with survivors of all sorts of an exhilarating, affecting, often hilarious, and ultimately healing journey.
“Energetic, inventive, and ambitious…an uplifting myth born of the sorrows of 9/11.”—Boston Sunday Globe
“Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a miracle, a daybreak, a man on the moon. It’s so impeccably imagined, so courageously executed, so everlastingly moving and fine.”—Baltimore Sun
“A funny, wise, deeply compassionate novel that will renew readers’ faith that the right book at the right time still has the power to change the world.” —O, The Oprah Magazine
The John J. Harvey fireboat was the largest, fastest, shiniest fireboat of its time, but by 1995, the city didn’t need old fireboats anymore. So the Harvey retired, until a group of friends decided to save it from the scrap heap. Then, one sunny September day in 2001, something so horrible happened that the whole world shook. And a call came from the fire department, asking if the Harvey could battle the roaring flames.
In this inspiring true story, Maira Kalman brings a New York City icon to life and proves that old heroes never die.
“Kalman does some extraordinary things in this beautiful picture book. She takes the fireboat’s history and puts it within the context of a city that has endured, framing the enormity of 9/11 so young readers, and even small children, can begin to grasp what happened. Her artistry is as compassionate as it is brilliant. Wonderful, sweeping images of New York icons bring the city to life; detailed images of the Harvey do the same for the boat. . . . It is vivid, but the stark, sensitive rendering is also somehow easier to absorb than the horrible photographs burned into our hearts. By focusing on the boat and the people who worked on it, loved it, and placed it at the service of their city, Kalman casts a blessing far and wide. . . . A hundred years from now, when people want to know what we told our children about 9/11, Kalman’s book should be among the first answers.”—Booklist, starred review
“Fireboat does many things. It sets forth an adventure, helps commemorate an anniversary, offers an interesting bit of history, celebrates the underdog, and honors the fire-fighting profession. Children and adults will respond to it in as many ways.”—School Library Journal, starred review
“Among the many literary tributes to 9-11 heroism, Kalman’s is particularly exciting, uplifting, and child-sensitive. . . . Revisits the tragedy without the terror and conveys pride without preachiness.” —The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books