9/11 books: Which should you pick up?

3. 102 MINUTES:
The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers
by Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn
W.W. Norton, 224 pp.
This harrowing reportage of what happened inside the World Trade Center on the morning of 9/11 by investigative reporters Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn is being re-released with a new postscript.

4. THE ELEVENTH DAY:
The Full Story of 9/11 and Osama bin Laden
by Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan
Ballantine Books, 603 pp.
With the benefit of 10 years of research and access to recently released documents, journalists Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan offer a fresh and comprehensive account of the events of 9/11.

5. TOP SECRET AMERICA:
The Rise of the New American Security State
by Dana Priest and William Arkin
Little, Brown & Co., 320 pp.
Is America’s security system getting better – or simply bigger – since 9/11? Washington Post reporters Dana Priest and William Arkin tackle this question in a book built from a provocative series of their articles published last year by the Post.

6. AFTER THE FALL:
New Yorkers Remember
September 2001 and the Years That Followed
edited by Mary Marshall Clark, Peter Bearman, Catherine Ellis,
and Stephen Drury Smith
The New Press, 263 pp.
In their own words, a broad cross section of New Yorkers – taxi drivers, school teachers, artists, religious leaders, immigrants, and others – talk about 9/11 and its impact.

7. THE LEGACY LETTERS:
Messages of Life and Hope from 9/11
Family Members
by Tuesday’s Children, edited by Brian Curtis
Penguin, 272 pp.
This collection of letters by family members of 9/11 victims honors those lost in the attacks even as it celebrates individual lives moving forward.

8. THE LOOMING TOWER:
Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
by Lawrence Wright
Knopf Doubleday, 576 pp.
This Pulitzer Prize-winning work by New Yorker writer Lawrence Wright remains the best 9/11 backgrounder available.

Marjorie Kehe is the Monitor's book editor.

Join the Monitor's book discussion on Facebook and Twitter.

Previous

1 | 2