9/11: 'Flashlight Worthy' Recommends 9 Unforgettable Books About September 11 (PHOTOS)

When I started Flashlight Worthy Book Recommendations -- a website full of hundreds of lists of great books -- I thought to myself "This will be fun! Book Club Recommendations and Beach Reads."

Little did I realize how eager people would be to see book lists on heavier topics such as The Holocaust, cancer and of course... 9/11.

As someone who adopted New York as my home just two years before 9/11 -- and who watched the first tower fall with his own eyes -- I debated whether to create this book list. In the end though it deserves coverage like any other topic; ignoring it won't make it go away. I think that no matter your literal or emotional distance from Ground Zero on September 11, 2001 there's at least one book on this list for you.

Finally, while in my opinion these are some of the best books about 9/11, I'm sure there are dozens of excellent titles I've missed. If you know of any, drop by Flashlight Worthy and let me know what I've missed.

1 of 9

'102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers' by Kevin Flynn and Jim Dwyer

1 of 10

First Slide

Previous Slide

@

As someone who's made his home in New York for the last 9 years -- and literally watched the first of the Twin Towers fall -- reading about 9/11 can be extremely difficult. This title -- a literal minute-by-minute account from the moment the first plane struck to the moment the 2nd tower fell -- strikes me as the perfect balance of dispassionate, inspiring and honest.

8 Legendary Same-Sex Couples (PHOTOS)

gadgets/slideshows/225673/slide_225673_962522_small.jpg

The 9 Craziest 'Bachelor' Contestants (WATCH)

Processed Food: 9 Nasty Truths About The Meals You Eat (PHOTOS)

What Are The Most Well-Read Cities In America?

The Queen and the U.S.A.: The Future of the Special Relationship

10 American Heroes You Didn't Know About

As someone who's made his home in New York for the last 9 years -- and literally watched the first of the Twin Towers fall -- reading about 9/11 can be extremely difficult. This title -- a literal minute-by-minute account from the moment the first plane struck to the moment the 2nd tower fell -- strikes me as the perfect balance of dispassionate, inspiring and honest.

comments(168)

Total comments: 168 | Post a Comment

1 of 10

 

Follow Peter Steinberg on Twitter: www.twitter.com/flwbooks

Comments

[Ergon]

01:02 AM on 09/13/2010

Wot, no The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9-11 by David Ray Griffin?

[BlueZoo]

03:37 PM on 09/12/2010

With the exception of the last book, a children's book, I couldn't read any of these. It is nine years on now and the pain of that day is still too raw for me. It is a visceral hurt and even watching the re-play of the towers falling cuts through my heart. I asked my 88 year old Aunt what the feelings were after Pearl Harbor, when the only initial reports were through newspapers and radio, and she said they were as raw for her today as they were on 7 December 1941. She was similarly affected when she finally saw the newsreel coverage at the theater of the attack on Pearl Harbor. There are "days that will live in infamy" in our two generations. The dates may be different but these days are proof that an attack, any attack, on the country that you love is taken very personally by many of us. Perhaps, given more time, I will read one of these books. Not yet, though... Not yet.

[ernieb1414]

11:41 AM on 09/12/2010

Please seriously consider 3 other books:
Watching the World Change (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) by David Friend
Here is New York (Scalo)
Portraits 9/11/01: "Portraits of Grief" (Times Books)
http://davidfriend.net/2010/09/911_booksand_911_aps.php

[Pennsanic]

07:42 AM on 09/12/2010

Did any of you read Jonathan Safran Foer's 'Everything Is Illuminated'? I know it's off topic but I hated that book. Too cutesy. Bleck. I couldn't bring myself to buy his "Incredibly Loud & Extremely Close" or whatever it's called.

[MrButtons]

05:04 AM on 09/13/2010

I agree. I thought it was vastly overrated.

[ComicThom]

12:45 AM on 09/12/2010

It's sad how the main stream media- with Huffington Post playing a key role- pretend that the official version of events of 911 are beyond reproach, which it clearly is not. Huffington Post's treatment of this monumental event is a disgrace.

[Last Gasp]

12:59 AM on 09/12/2010

AGREED.

[PanFx]

02:08 AM on 09/12/2010

You expected different from a tabloid[y] web site?

[terrierist]

12:01 AM on 09/12/2010

It's almost funny to see the msm continuing to stonewall their fairy tale version of 9/11 when so many people know better.

[crater123]

09:56 PM on 09/11/2010

You absolutely MUST include "City In The Sky - The Rise and Fall of the World Trade Center" by James Glanz and Eric Lipton, and "Inside 9-11 - What Really Happened" by The reporters, writers and editors of Der Spiegel Magazine. They are expertly done.

[Last Gasp]

01:00 AM on 09/12/2010

if they don't question our government's complicity then they certainly would NOT be "expertly done". they would be more authoritarian drivel like all the books on the list.

[51tiggy]

07:11 PM on 09/11/2010

"Windows on the World" - unforgettable.

[Lemeritus]

06:29 PM on 09/11/2010

102 Minutes - Heart stopping, heart rending, and heart breaking. An excellent read.

[whutch1]

11:38 AM on 09/11/2010

9-11 by Noam Chomsky

[Last Gasp]

12:58 AM on 09/12/2010

interestingly, I went to see Noam lecture in Palo Alto not too long after the attacks. someone questioned him about our government's complicity in the attacks. Noam emphatically said no WAY our government was involved that would be crazy etc etc...BUT...he promptly referred to other governments who did the same thing like the burning of the reichstag for instance, etc etc. Sounded like a nod and a wink to me. He clearly could not put himself out to be labeled as a "conspiracy theorist crackpot looney" etc. anyhow i'd prefer to see some questioning of authority on this so-called left of center website.

[whutch1]

10:47 AM on 09/12/2010

Is it now a left wing requirement to believe in conspiracies? Is it not enough to be against imperialism and corporatism, and to believe in the power of people to govern their own society? From what I can see, Chomsky's main beef with the 911 Truth groups is that they are diverting time and energy away from activism that can be effective, and you know what, he is one hundred percent correct on that. So, he says, "who cares if it happened this way?" That proves our government is capable of unspeakable horror...well we knew that already. The left should be working on organizing in communities and workplaces in order to win victories against mass corporate propaganda.

Go help the Jimmy John's workers organize. Conspiracy or no, this is a far more productive use of your time.

[eric14]

09:23 AM on 09/11/2010

Too harrowing for me. But needed for the future.

[stavros]

04:19 AM on 09/11/2010

I chose to forget about 9/11.
My choice.
If you don't like it, remember: history repeats itself, time and time again.

[HuffpostSuperUser]

04:33 AM on 09/11/2010

"remember: history repeats itself, time and time again". Only because of stupid forgetful people.

[beebst]

09:57 AM on 09/11/2010

couldn't have said it better

[Mikeeee]

02:46 PM on 09/11/2010

That means about 60% of America's population.

[topkatnc]

09:08 PM on 09/11/2010

It's your choice , my friend ..

[wishfulslinking]

02:39 AM on 09/11/2010

I long for the days when we didn't recognize terrorism.

We simply moved on and didn't give ANY publicity to the terrorists - their goal.

[RedDogBear]

09:08 PM on 09/11/2010

I don't know about totally ignoring them but the attention we give them is completely dispraportionate to the threat. Several people died in a gas explosion in Northern CA a few miles from where I live the other day. If that had been a terrorist bomb we would have the Republicans screaming for us to spend billions more on the military and security to make sure it never happens again. But because it was due to our decaying infrastructure, which we have been neglecting since Ronald (make government so small you can drown it in the bathtub) Reagan people shrug it off as an "act of God". The same goes for people who die in preventable mining accidents, preventable oil drilling accidents, etc. No screaming about those victims and how we need to invest more to make sure basic safety rules are in place and in force. Those people are just as dead as people killed by terrorists.

[Arawak]

12:48 AM on 09/11/2010

America's "War on Terrorism" (In the Wake of 9/11) by Michel Chossudovsky is spot on.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=home

[hottingers]

12:41 AM on 09/11/2010

When I think of 9/11 only one book comes to mind: My Pet Goat

[MrButtons]

04:26 AM on 09/13/2010

Nice one!