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

I've heard raves about Graff's 9/11 oral history since it was published in 2019, but the truth is, I was scared of it. I was flying from Europe to New York on 9/11, and knew these pages contained both the details of what I already knew and plenty I didn't yet know. But this book reemerged on my radar and for reasons I cannot articulate, I felt like it was time. This is an oral history of 9/11, beginning with observations about the "severe clear" of the September blue sky and ending in the weeks following the attacks. Graff and his team conducted more than 500 interviews for this project, and they've been assembled to narrate the events of that day across the United States and especially at the attack sites as it was experienced in real time. This was not an easy read, but I'm so glad I finally read it. Breathtaking, important, sobering, profound—all the superlatives apply.