102 Minutes

Those of us who were alive on 9/11 remember exactly where we were and where we watched the endless TV coverage of the horrific attack on the World Trade Center, including the collapse of the Twin Towers. We all think we know what happened.

I was captivated by 101 Minutes because it documented what was going on within the Twin Towers before the collapse of the South and then the North Towers as those trapped above the fire floors and below desperately tried to find a way out. The two New York Times reporters who wrote the book – the… show more.

102 Minutes chronicles the critical moments of the 9/11 attack on New York’s World Trade Center, introducing us to characters whose survival, as often as not, turn on simple luck-of-location and early decisions made by them. Authors Dwyer and Flynn know that it’s necessary to occasionally “press the pause button” between chapters of stomach-tightening tension. They understand that the reader simply cannot sustain this story’s relentless pace without some relief. (It’s a technique that I borrowed for Killer Show, interspersing “lesson chapters” about the economics of rock tours, the science of pyrotechnics, and developments in burn medicine with the… show more.