What I'm reading ...

I have started Rough Music by Patrick Gale. I have enjoyed this author's work before. Here's the blurb:

Julian as a small boy is taken on the perfect Cornish holiday. When glamorous American cousins unexpectedly swell the party, however, emotions run high and events spiral out of control. Though he has been brought up in the forbidding shadow of the prison his father runs, though his parents are neither as normal nor as happy as he supposes, Julian’s world view is the sunnily selfish, accepting one of boyhood. It is only when he becomes a man – seemingly at ease with love, with his sexuality, with his ghosts – that the traumatic effects of that distant summer rise up to challenge his defiant assertion that he is happy and always has been.

The Only Plane in the Sky: The Oral History of 9/11 - by Garrett M. Graff

This book sort of reminded me to the Apollo 13 movie - I knew the outcome of the events, but I was on the edge of my seat. I found the story, told through the eyes of people who were there, absolutely fascinating. It gave me a whole new perspective on the events of that day, but also on how America sees itself. Some of the reading was harrowing and emotional; that was inevitable and I am glad that the prospect didn’t put me off of reading the book.

The book includes some commentary on the events to contextualize the accounts of the witnesses. From this I learned some fascinating trivia/details:

• The World Trade Center was comprised of seven buildings, not just the twin towers. They were all destroyed.
• The South Tower was the first sky scraper ever to collapse.
• The WTC fires burned for 99 days.
• The Pentagon is the world’s biggest low-rise office building.
• The Pentagon not only has five sides, but has five stories and five rings of offices.
• The segment of the Pentagon that was hit was the least occupied and most resistant to the attack. It had recently been refurbished to make it more terrorism-proof and reoccupation had only just started.
• A Boeing 747 can go up to 45000 feet. They did this with Air Force One so that any attack would need to be from below, which could be spotted and only certain other aircraft could achieve this altitude.
• It was suspected that there might be more highjacked planes, other than the four that were known. A number of planes did not respond immediately to the grounding order.
• It was difficult to be sure about where a hijacked plane might be, as they turned off their transponders. All the key radar systems were facing away from US, as it was assume that attack would come from outside of the country.

What I'm reading ...

I have started The Only Plane in the Sky: The Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett M. Graff. Time for non-fiction and, although I do not expect this to be an easy read, I clearly recall the events of that day from my own perspective and I find the idea of a bigger picture interesting. Here’s the blurb:

Of all the books about 9/11 one has been missing until now - a panoramic narrative from the men and women caught up in the unprecedented human drama of that terrible day.

The Only Plane in the Sky is nothing less than the first comprehensive oral history of 9/11, deftly woven and told in the voices of ordinary people grappling with extraordinary events. Drawing on never-before-published transcripts, recently declassified documents, new and archived interviews from nearly five hundred people, historian Garrett Graff skillfully tells the story of the day as it was lived.

It begins in the predawn hours of airports in the Northeast, where we meet the ticket agents who unknowingly usher terrorists onto their flights. In New York, first responders confront a scene of unimaginable chaos at the Twin Towers. From a secret bunker beneath the White House, Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice watch for incoming planes on radar. In the offices of the Pentagon, top officials feel the violent tremor as their headquarters come under attack.

We hear the stories of the father and son working on separate floors in the North Tower; the firefighter who rushes to the scene to search for his wife; the telephone operator who keeps her promise to share a passenger's last words with his family; the chaplain who stays on the scene to perform last rites, losing his own life when the Towers collapse; the teachers evacuating terrified children from schools mere blocks from the World Trade Center; the generals at the Pentagon who break down and weep when they are barred from rushing into the burning building to try and rescue their colleagues.

The Only Plane in the Sky is a unique, profound, and searing exploration of humanity on a day that changed the course of history, and all of our lives.

Stardust - by Neil Gaiman

This proved to be a much more straightforward read than I had expected. Although suspending belief, in order to accept fantasy, is challenging for me, well-written fantasy makes it easier. And this book is as well written as the author’s reputation would lead you to expect.

There are lots of characters and places, but I did not get particularly lost and some of the interesting connections between things and people became apparent to me at the right time. All in all: worth the effort.

Think of it as “Alice in Wonderland meets Black Lives Matter” ...

What I'm reading ...

I have started Stardust by Neil Gaiman. Time for fiction again and this book came to hand. Even though fantasy is not my favourite genre, I have enjoyed this author’s work before and he has an excellent reputation. Here’s the blurb:

In the sleepy English countryside at the dawn of the Victorian era, life moves at a leisurely pace in the tiny town of Wall. Young Tristran Thorn has lost his heart to the beautiful Victoria Forester, but Victoria is cold and distant as the star she and Tristran see fall from the sky one evening. For the prize of Victoria’s hand, Tristran vows to retrieve the star for his beloved. It is an oath that sends the lovelorn swain over the town’s ancient wall and into a world that is dangerous and strange beyond imagining...

How Not To Be a Boy - by Robert Webb

When I started this book, I wanted something that was not too tough a read. I figured that a memoir authored by a comedy writer [for that is what the book is - the exploration of what it is to be male or not is used as a hook for his story] should fit the bill. I was concerned, however, that it might be too heavy on comedy with not enough substance. I need not have been concerned. The story is well written [though the moving around in time can be slightly unsettling] and it felt very candid; he does not shy away from discussing some very personal issues, like his sexuality and his relationship with alcohol. All in all it succeeded in being a good read and, as I hope from any biography, it gave me a glimpse of a world quite different from my own.