102 Minutes

9/11 evokes so many emotions and this book evokes emotion as you read about extraordinary heroism and about extraordinary mistakes. Mistakes made many years before that sombre day in September of 2001. The writers achieve a rich balance between details, personalities,and decisions. The book is a primer on what can go wrong and right in an exceptional emergency. The book has resonances with Deep Survival by Laurence Gonzales. Some civilians in the Twin Towers followed procedure, stayed at their posts, and died. Others listened to deep instincts and fled to survive. Many of those killed had no choice: their spot in a building left them with no options. And of course, firefighters and police officers rushed to rescue and assist in a place that was about to experience an event outside of everyone's experience. The authors play no favorites in detailing the short cuts made in the construction of the Twin Towers, compromises that made the buildings vulnerable to collapse during an intense fire. The book is compelling, thought provoking, depressing, and hopeful all at the same time.

On a day that many of us will never forget, Dwyer and Flynn, give the reader a “behind the scenes” view of things that went wrong on 9/11. Without blaming anyone, because hindsight is 20/20 they show the reader how info was missed by the CIA and FBI (tho read The Looming Towers for a deep dive on that) and how communication was unsent by a lack of proper radios that would connect the fire, police, and Port Authority. They also talk about how the towers collapsed from the intense fires. Their writing is easy to understand and compelling and a must for anyone who remembers that day or is learning about American History.

I haven't finished this book yet but that's only because I have a BIG problem with falling asleep while reading. I assure you if I didn't have this problem, I would've finished the book in one day. My sleeping problem never annoyed me this much until I started reading this. I've never wanted to keep reading a book so bad but after about 10 pages I start nodding off.So far it's a great book. I can tell this book was a great challenge to write and I am shocked it's not as thick as the Bible. It captures so many experiences as is, but you just know as you read it that it could only be 2% of all experiences in the tragedy. That is not to down play this book. It's truly an amazing feat to meld these stories together down to the very second of when it happened.I'm about 5 chapters in and each chapter is going minute by minute from the first strike. So the first chapter is 8:46am, and the second chapter is 8:47am. (Prologue starts at 8:30am.) All of these people's experience in that ONE minute. There's a lot of jumping from person to person which was confusing at first, but once you stop trying to remember all the names you catch on to who is who.I was expecting this book to be about only people who fought their way out and made it alive, because how could they have so much info down to the second of what they were doing if they weren't ever seen again? Well, they compiled all phone calls, messages and eye witnesses. This is the story of people who didn't make it out as much as people who did. Truly tragic.Another thing I appreciate about this book is that it doesn't go into the conspiracy theories and politics surrounding 9/11. They left all the disputable crap out of the book which is probably the most respectful thing about this book. I know that some people will still dispute everything in the book, like it's just words on paper it means nothing. But this is rich with factual history when it was built and why everything happened as it did. It goes into the fire code that didn't exist when the towers were built to the window design made for fear of heights. It has maps and diagrams and photos which was really helpful. I actually wrote down a few key notes on my bookmark to keep an idea of the whole picture.It doesn't quite "pull you into the building like you're there as a person" like some books do. I don't think that's at all possible in the first place. It explains the person's name, their career, a little back story, what floor they're on and who they're with in that minute. It does this with every person that comes into play. So it kinda jumps back and forth between Who They Are & What They Are Saying and Doing.It's hard to explain what I'm trying to say. Like, you get sucked into the book in what they are doing (you can see it in your mind) and then brought back to earth when it goes to the next person.I want to be sucked into the whole thing and I feel selfish and rude for saying that, but I just have to say it because I can see this being difficult to read for younger people or people who just don't like reading.Youd almost have to be really interested in 9/11 to get into this book. I've done so much research on it and I wasn't directly affected by this event but I saw it like everyone else. Life moved on and one day I just wanted to look back on it. At that point I almost became obsessed with it. I say almost because it didn't consume my whole life but a big piece of it. I wasn't one of those people going into the conspiracy theories. I just wanted to know everything about it that was fact. I've watched every video, searched every transcript and one day I guess there was nothing left to see. Yet, I still to this day feel so empty about it. This book however is filling some of the emptiness. It's a whole new perspective on the event. In every minute there's what feels like years and years of experiences.I think it's safe to say that the authors are respectful of the victims and don't go into dramatised morbid perspectives. One sentence that stuck out to me was when someone described what they heard on the other side of a wall... "yelling and commotion, but not panic". I could hear those noises in that sentence and it was people working together to get out. That was the goal. If the, "but not panic" wasn't there I probably would've heard yells of pain and anguish. I think most people think of one horrific picture of screaming and blood and crying. While that did exist, the buildings weren't filled with total panic, blood and anguish.It was profound for me in that moment to understand the vast differences from floor to floor and even room to room. An entire company upstairs decided it was time to leave immediately, while downstairs there was no sense of urgency to leave the building.I'm only 5 chapters in and I have felt feelings and thought things that I didn't before. It's a fresh look that leaves me feeling less sick about "what was it like"... We all know how the book ends and I think any human is left feeling empty after that. I just think that people need to attempt to understand the horror of being inside trapped or almost out of the building when it's too late. It's just that human empathy is so short when it comes to 9/11 so we try to grow it.It's a great book and I almost want it to be in schools as a mandatory read.

I have just finished this book and can't stop thinking about it. When I was on my way to work that awful morning, I too noticed the headlines in the papers, and the TV was turned on at the office. I had picked up a couple of books about the WTC from Amazon, but could not bring myself to read further about the collapse of the twin towers. Now after a number of years have gone by, I saw this book on Amazon and decided to read it.This book is a sensitively and respectfully written account of what it would have been like inside the towers once they were hit. Every time a person was mentioned, I flipped the pages to the back section and scanned the "Lost" list of people in the North and South Towers, and list of firemens names. People you wanted to live did not, and other people you wanted to live, did.The thing that stood out so amazingly, was the selflessness of the ordinary person. Others helping those who were struggling. For example, Stanley Primnath who witnessed the plane entering his floor and jamming the wing into the wall of his office. Then Brian Clark hearing his calls for help, helped Stanley all the way down to the ground floor and outside. Both were saved. Both are now lifelong friends. There is Josephine Harris who could not go on any longer and wanted to be left behind, but the firemen who were with her helped her down the stairs. Once the building started to collapse, they were trapped on the stairs, but survived and were pulled out of the rubble. Josephine Harris and her firemen became firm friends. There is Frank di Martini who selflessly scanned floor after floor looking for people, so he could tell them to leave the building. Sadly he did not make it out himself. The man in the red bandana who saved others but did not make it out. Someone in the book mentioned "choices". You must decide. You choose one way and there is a way out, you choose another way and there is no way out. You must make a choice.The one thing I did find sad, but this problem is now rectified I believe, is the co-ordination between Police, Fire Department and other services.Such a well written book. At once a eulogy for loved ones lost, and a testament to loved ones saved. An abundance of friendships found and kept. A stunning and completely heart breaking read.

It gives a human perspective on how the events of 9/11 took place. Gut wrenching but at the same time historically necessary

It was very fitting that I chose this book in September 2016 to read. You see every day people can make decisions that will some day effect thousands of others in a most hurtful way. We praise the fire persons for their effort, Only to see that they make have been the demise of their own life. The dis function of all those involved may have caused the most destruction and personnel grief. It seemed like it was the every day people that helped each other the most that day. Certainly glad I read this book it brings some closure on 9/11. For those families that lost members, I will always remember that day and be thinking of you always.

Very early on in this book the authors make a statement that comes partly as a shock, partly as a revelation:"... simply to declare that the hijackers alone killed all those people gives them far more credit as tacticians than they are due. The buildings themselves became weapons... so, too, did a sclerotic emergency response culture in New York that resisted reform..." At least 1,500 people in the trade centre - and possibly many more - survived the initial crashes but died because they were unable to escape from their floors or elevators whilst the buildings stood. Those people were not killed by the planes alone any more than passengers on the "Titanic" were killed by the iceberg. With 102 minutes in the north tower, and 57 minutes in the south, thousands of people had time to evacuate, and did. Those who did not escape were trapped by circumstances that had been the subject of debates that began before the first shovelful of earth was turned..."The men who made decisions governed by financial profit rather than safety when the World Trade buildings were designed, emerge as the real villains of the drama. They reduced the number of escape routes so that they had more space to rent out. They used untried technologies that were never tested for their effectiveness in fire and heat. The terrorists may have been the final catalyst for the deaths on 9/11 but it was these money-grubbing faceless bureaucrats who were the real killers. We see how chances to improve safety were squandered after the 1993 bombing, how faults in communications between the Fire brigade and the Police were never overcome... We also discover how the role of civilians in the saving of lives was played down in order to cover up the squandering of firemen's lives.This is a powerful book that unfolds the drama, the frustration, the tragedy and the sacrifice with the clinical precision of a scalpel. We watch the events unfold with the same horror we first saw them... but this time there are names attached to those who struggled for survival in the twin towers and we are in there with them, breathing in the fumes and feeling the heat... and fear. Individuals make decisions that lead to life or death, others are saved by coincidence and accident. If this was fiction would we believe it?

As advertised and arrived quick!

good