Customer Rating:  
Summary: Lives lost but never forgotten
Comment: September 11th 2001(9/11) will be remembered for being one of the worse terrorist attacks in history but what should also be remembered and never forgotten is the 3,000 lives that were lost that day and the countless number of selfless people who went well beyond the call of duty to save many lives, some of them at the cost of their very own.
102 minutes takes you into the lives of some of these 3,000 people and describes their fight to survive inside the World trade Center's North &South towers after the attacks.
The fact that no one above the impact zone in the north tower survived and only 14 survived above the impact zone in the South tower, this bears testimony to what a horrific struggle this must have been.
The book also offers an insight into the fragmented relationship between the New York police and fire departments and how different they both were and how hard both departments found it to work together.
The book starts off very gently with the introduction to a handful of people who like we do all everyday; begin their normal daily routine as they did like any normal day.
As you move rapidly though the early chapters you begin to learn about many other people who worked in the tower and why at the first sign of the attack most people thought that their had been another bomb explosion like the one that hit the World Trade Centre complex in 1993, it wasn't until some of them went to rescue other people on other floors that the full gravity of the situation actually stuck home.
During the middle chapters the full horror of the situation these people faced really hits home to the reader and you as you read along you realize what a gruesome struggle to survive it was.
One of the most gut wrenching facts that the book brings home to the reader is that the people who remained alive in the floors directly above and below the impact zones in both towers had to make a horrible decision and it was to either burn to death or smash the window and jump to the death because there was no-way for them to escape as all most every exit route that was available to them had been destroyed by the plane.
This book is horrifying in its detail but it was a book that needed to be written to help you realize their were people in them towers that day not numbers and they all had life's, hopes and dreams and in 102 minutes some of them lives were destroyed forever.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Well researched very readable chronicle
Comment: This book tackles the human experiences within the twin towers from the first plane hitting to the second tower falling.
In a typical American style, the book starts with a series of statistics and technical detail but very quickly picks up on the people involved and then continues throughout the book to address the challenges faced by the people escaping and rescuing and how they dealt with them.
I couldn't help feeling a huge frustration about the described lack of co-ordination and communication. An agreed and well communicated strategy would have saved many more lives, although it still seems a miracle that so many people did survive.
I thought the book might feel vaguely voyeuristic although I was wrong. The human tragedy was very sensitively handled and the book should be read by everyone.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent! At times you think you are actually there!
Comment: A truly remarkably excellent book, so well written and at times you battle to come to grips that every bit of it really happened, every person in the book is a real person, every act of heroism is fact, one of those books that you wished never ends, by the end of it you want to know more and more so you will not be surprised when you find yourself doing your own research afterwards on the net. Its not very often that I find a book that grips me from the word go, one of those that you cannot put down, you've gotta keep going, as if each page of the book becomes a floor of the World Trade Center and a race against time, do not be surprised if you find your self still reading this book at 3am because you just couldn't put it down and you just wanted to know what happened next, apart from the absolute tragic end which we know all too well...
Customer Rating:
Summary: Thought Provoking!
Comment: I chanced upon this book after returning from a trip to New York last year during which I visited ground zero and St Paul's Chapel. I found it extremely harrowing to read but at the same time extremely thought provoking. As well as highlighting some of the mistakes in the construction of the buildings, it also highlights problems with the rescue efforts, and above all amazing individual heroism and bravery and tells you stories which have never been heard. Focusing on stories and accounts from survivors, rescue workers and the families of those who died it is a genuninely well written and realistic sounding account of what really happened. A must read for anyone who watched the events of that day unfold x
Customer Rating:
Summary: Things You Didn't Know
Comment: On September 11th 2001 whilst all this was happening I just assumed that there was no-one in the buildings when they fell. I expected everybody to have been evacuated with no problems.
This book tells the story of the people in the towers and how they were stuck, journeys down the stairs and information that you wouldn't believe.
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