[Poll Ballot] The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett M Graff - 5 Stars

[Sue]

I didn't really pick this up specifically as a thriller, but it's tagged that way so I'm including it under this folder.

This is an amazing book! I can see why many people included it in their top ten from 2019. The stories of so many people who experienced 9/11 were put into chronological order. Stories came from both expected and unexpected sources. The expected were survivors, family members of both survivors and victims, first responders and rescuers, and politicians.

Unexpected were the stories from children of all different ages and how they learned of the events of 9/11. A number of people who were 4 or 5 years old describe 9/11 as one of their earliest memories. Also unexpected were some stories of people throughout the country who weren't directly impacted and yet had vivid experiences from that day.

Also really interesting was how the people directly involved had little/no knowledge of the scope of what happened until later.

The author describes in a prologue how it seems everyone has their own unique story from that day and the days/months that followed. And this was an attempt to tell some of those stories.

I gave this book 5 stars and 5 Kleenexes.

[Shelly]

I also think this is an amazing book! I really liked the way it started on 9/10 as a sort of prologue.