The Only Plane in the Sky: The Oral History of 9/11

This audiobook had a profound impact on me. I listened to it over a few weeks because there was a lot to get through and digest but I would 100% recommend it. An incredible documentation of loss, trauma and ultimately the triumph of the human spirit.

I started this book last year after the 20th anniversary and had to put it down. It's a tough read. I picked it back up a few days ago as a promise to myself to finish it before the date came again. Everyone remembers where they were the day the planes hit. This book tells you the story of what it was like for the people who were actually there. The people who descended 80+ floors before the collapse, and seeing firefighters going up. The airline employee who got the call from Todd Breamer on flight 93. Then his widow who explained the employee calling with Todd's message and final words, “Let's roll.” The people on Air Force One with President Bush, the firefighters who survived the collapse because they were in a stairwell. The capture and death of Bin Laden a decade later. It's all here and it is an astonishing collection. It is fascinating and devastating. It makes you proud to be an American. If you want to know what it was really like- pick up this book. Take your time with it. It's masterful. 5⭐️

There's a reason why this book is rated so highly, and quite frankly, it deserves every single star.

I've never read a book like this that has such an enveloping, all-encompassing way of conveying the terror and grief and hope of that day. Viewpoints are often only a few sentences (up to a paragraph) long, but it creates a snappy and through 360 degree view of how the events unfolded and how each story intertwined. There's very little author interference; the viewpoints are presented as-is.

I felt raked over and absolutely exhausted when I finally turned the last page and closed this book. It is heavy. It is inspiring. It is a must read.

This was such a powerful book. I don't think I realized the significance of the events or their effect.

Whew. I feel like I have been pushed underwater and held down, struggling to get back up into the air. The experience of reading this book, reading page after page after page of stories and perceptions and thoughts about 9/11, was devastating, troubling, horrifying, all-encompassing, with occasional moments of great beauty and transcendence. I don't think I have ever read a book that has been such a deeply emotional experience. I feel like I have been immersed in the day, as if I have somehow been able to be on each plane, inside each building, with the president and the military, and watching with the people on the street.

I felt the format, where there are short sentences or paragraphs from various people scattered throughout under different chapters, made it too hard to keep track of any one person's story enough to get emotionally invested in the individual stories. I would have preferred for it to be easily to follow one person's thread. But for a general overview of all that was going on that day it is good.