The Unforgettable Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers

Reading about 9/11 again brings back all that anxiety from that day. To learn that the firefighters and police force were ill equipped and fighting just makes it worse. I sincerely hope all forces across the country have learned from this fateful experience and will work together. It's heartbreaking to read about these hero's trying to do their job with one hand tied behind their backs!

This book is a fascinating and very well-written account (sometimes minute-by-minute) the lives of a number of employees and firemen who either survived or perished in the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. It was hard to put it down once I got started.

The New York Times has lead the effort to document the history and cost of the events of September 11, 2001. Their staff have written the "first draft of history" with "Out Of The Blue" (the background of the plot with an emphasize on the Twin Towers) and "Among The Heroes" (the story of the passengers of Flight 93 which fought their hijackers). Now two more NYT writers have added "102 Minutes", an account of those caught up in the Twin Towers on 9-11.

These are simple stories, based on countless interviews and transcripts of phones calls, of those who escaped and those who died that day. The writing is clear, the tales are powerful, the vignettes of survival/heroism inspiring. However, this in not a book to be read in one sitting, for the horror of so many deaths can be overwhelming for the reader. But the dead are honored and remembered in "102 Minutes." It is a book worth reading.

Incredibly well written, and clearly, very well researched. Highly recommended. It's interesting to get a deeper look behind the scenes of the rescue and evacuation effort. What a shame the police and firefighters didn't have a better, more established mode of operating together toward a common goal.

More like respect it. This is hands down the best account of the events of that morning I have seen. It captures the terror and the heroism of the day perfectly. Hightly recommend to anyone that wants to know what true courage is.

This book certainly showed true courage on the part of everyday Americans who helped each other on such a horrific day. It was inspiring and heartbreaking. I will definately reccomend this to my friends.

I bought this book after visiting the 9/11 Memorial in New York. "102 Minutes" was extremely well researched and well written. It brought back the memories and emotions of that day and told the 'story' in an incredibly riveting and compelling way. The stories of heroism and courage brought tears to my eyes as did the stories of 'questionable' building design decisions. "102 Minutes" should be required reading for every American.

For anyone who REALLY wants to understand why so many fireman died in 9/11, why those towers collapsed and why so many people were hopelessly trapped, this book provides a detailed and tragic insight.

When you read "102 Minutes", the entire event lives again.

EVERYONE should read it so time doesn't diminish the tragedy in the collective memory of Americans.

I had been searching for accounts by those in the towers for a while by the time I found this book after having it recommended to me by a friend. It's a harrowing account of that day told through the eyes of those who lived it. Everyone should read it at least once so the truth can be told.

This is an excellent book. I bought while traveling and very difficult to put down once you start it. The accounts put the disaster in a real perspective. I would recommend this book to everyone except to the youngest readers.

"A Night to Remember" is prologue. Surprising similarities are the biggest surprise of this work. Heart breaking tragedy and displays of courage are the page turners. No thriller can match the stories told here. One for the ages.

This book gets you acquainted with individual people who were part of this tragedy. You feel sad for each one. It also gives insight to the towers construction and firefighter status that we didn't know. Very interesting.

102 Minutes puts the reader right into the confusion, shock, fear, sorrow and reality that something horrendous has happened. A day seen from around the world as we watched 2 magnificent skyscrapers succumbed in black smoke. Shocking, speechless, disturbing as we watched buildings and lives decimated. Reading this first hand account puts us inside from the first moments of another day at work, to the utter chaoes of trying to get out alive. I am humbled by the heroism and dignity of those inside the Twin Towers on 9/11. A must read for everyone!!!

For those of us who witnessed and lived through the day of 9/11 and then the aftermath, this is a must-read book. The research and detail is amazing. It's often difficult to read from an emotional point of view, but never from the view of history as it was being made.

102 Minutes provides a lot of information about what happened and insight on the chaos and confusion that occurred inside and around the North and South Towers on 9/11.

The story attempts to document, as taken from interviews, phone records, footage, and film, a minute-by-minute account switching from North Tower to South Tower during the 102 minutes from when flight 11 crashed into the North Tower at 8:46am until it collapsed at 10:28am. As it switches from accounts on the North and South Tower, it also reflects on the both the architecture of the Twin Towers and of the safety procedures in place prior to and after the bombing incident that happened in 1993.

102 Minutes documents through visual diagrams, photos and accounts, what occurred structurally to the buildings and the perceptions of what occurred. It then describes what occurred as described in interviews and phone records from those who both died and survived the attacks. It discusses in some detail accounts of what occurred in floors directly below the impact zone and the condition of the exit stairways and offices. It also provides an account from the only fireman who made it to the impact zone (South Tower 78th floor) which was most interesting to me. Lastly it provides an account on the ingenuity, luck and courage it took for dozens of people to survive.

After finishing the book and careful reflection, I cannot say that it is the "definitive book" on what happened inside the towers. To me, it's more of a set of notes, imagery, and ideas that wasn't developed thoroughly or consistently. The story left me confused at times and often scatterbrained. All in all, the author provided a lot of information but with scattered and inconsistent development of the people and accounts which left me seeing a nothing more than a cacophony of expression. Fewer stories and better development would have been a better approach given the ubiquitous accounts.

I guess although I appreciate certain aspects of this book, mainly the information, which is definitely a catapult for those researching what happened on 9/11, I cannot say that this was a well written book. It reads very unclearly to me because of the excessive "left and right" turns taken, abrupt panning from North to South Tower to ground. The imagery left is like watching a camera person quickly going in all directions leaving the viewer confused and forced to press the pause button to really grasp the imagery. The author could argue that the intent was to create a blurred imagery to make the reader feel the confusion of 9/11 but to me, such a notion would be artistic fodder. Everyone, whether in New York or anywhere in the world as the event was happening, was in a state of blur. From California, where I awoke to a television showing the towers falling, and various repeated angles of the buildings collapsing, I felt equally as helpless as the surviving fireman, or any American felt when the towers collapsed around 1,000 of people in a building holding 1,000s of people.

My point is using a writing technique to portray confusion can only impress a naïve reader at best. I think the story should have been lengthened to provide as much development in order to provide clearer context on what happened that day. The author in my opinion was too aggressive in trying to cram approximately 150+ people's stories in under 300 pages. I also think that the architecture and safety procedures of the building would have been better discussed somewhere in the middle in a single chapter. That way, the context of what actually happened in the building and the safety procedures actually taken would make more sense.

The read was at times gripping and the stories were poignant, moving, and even uplifting but not necessarily in the manner written. 102 minutes is a good starting point for information on what happened at and around the towers on 9/11 but it left me asking more questions which I hope will be answered in other books. My biggest question has been: why didn't a fireman go up to the 100th floor of the South Tower to scout the situation and get an accurate read on the conditions so that better actions could have been taken? Also, would it have been possible to extinguish flames on the North Tower from hoses through a broken window on the South Tower? In the end, any strategy probably would have cost just a many lives.

Perhaps the story of 9/11 is best told story by story. I'll know more as I read other books on 9/11.

Thorough gathering of survivor accounts, eyewitness accounts, interviews with families of the deceased as well as detailed recounting of NYPD, PAPD NYPD and 911 telephone personnel all combine to tell the story of the largest event of terrorism against America. The authors weave the facts and personal moments seamlessly. It is a difficult read, to be sure. But the authors never once delve into the morbid or macabre in order to "enhance" or advance their narrative.

Gives good insight into what went on INSIDE the trade centers on that awful day. As a person who lives in NJ and knew many people affected by this horrible tragedy, it gave a different perspective of what happened on that horrible day. RIP