Report from Ground Zero

I used to work in WTC building #7 until I moved to LA about a year before 9/11. I never felt so out of place as I did for a few weeks after 9/11 as I watched the recovery and clean-up efforts from Ground Zero from California. I wanted to know everything I could which is of course impossible unless you were there. This book gives you incredible insight to the bravery, courage, strength and gut-wrenching horrors of those who were there to find, clean-up and recover.

As the brother of a New York City firefighter, I felt is was my obligation to read this book. It is a moving tribute to the survivors as well as the deceased. Please read it to understand the quality of the men who were lost and the hope that I still have because of the strength of character of those who survived. Have your teens read the book to understand that a person is defined by their strength of character, their commitment and integrity, and not by the money they earn. This book is about the members of the FDNY and some on the NYPD and their experiences of this monumentally tragic day. The book isn't intended to be an all-encompassing journal that recounts the thousands of stories and the experiences of the civilians who experienced first hand those events. If you expect it to be that, then you will be disappointed. If you are looking for a book that focuses on the impact of the rescue workers, with a glimpse of the brotherhood that is the FDNY, then this well written, relatively quick read is perfect.

I commute into DC everyday and I like to spend my time listening to audios. I am one of those people that have not been able to hear or see anything about 9/11/01 that doesn't bring tears to my eyes or makes my heart ache. I work at a bookstore and happened to read the inside jacket of the hard-cover edition and I thought, "This sounds like something I can handle." Dennis Smith, a retired FDNY firefighter, wrote the book with compassion, respect and love for not just the victims, but also their families, the rescue workers and for everyone who was affected in one way or another.The audio contains personal accounts from people who were directly involved. Most of the stories are from firefighters and they are told so eloquently it's amazing. I believe there are approximately six different readers for the CD edition and the emotion they infuse into it is incredible. This story talks about the wonderful "brotherhood" amongst firefighters and the emotional and physical toll they went through as humans.The stories made me grin in parts and made me cry in others. It helped me to begin to deal with my feelings about that day and gave me, I don't know if hope is the right word, but a warm fuzzy feeling.I do believe that if you are personally familiar with the "brotherhood" of firefighters (my father is a volunteer firefighter in our community) this will strike a chord of understanding.I just can't say enough good things about this. You won't be disappointed in this cd.

I was very much against picking up any books about the events of September 11th, due to the fact that I felt most would just be the same stuff I had read online and in magazines, but this book really was a wonderful and tough read.Dennis Smith is a amazing storyteller. He went and asked many of the firefighters who had survived the attacks to describe the events to him and some of the storys that were told were very tear-jerking and tough to read. Some of the storys that the firefighters told will be stuck in my head forever.I loved how he did the first part of the book with the storys of the firefighters and there storys and then how in the second half of the book he described the days and weeks following the events. All the firehouses he visited and the time he spent at Ground Zero helping to find fallen brothers and other people who died in this attack and also the funnerals and memorials he went to for some of the firefighters.I don't think there will be many books about Sept 11th that will live up to this one. This one was beautiful and sad and many other things all together in one book.

"Report from Ground Zero: The Story of the Rescue Efforts at the World Trade Center" by Dennis Smith provides a poetic-journalistic look at a tragedy which still continues to shake America. You'll find the book stronger in intensity than any photographic collection of September 11, 2001.His descriptions are more than photo-realistic versions of what he saw, but brings forth the anguish and passion, and the smell of wet ash and burning debris. Smith manages to connect with the reader beyond the hype and politics. You will not be able to read this unaffected.The people in the high-rises, on the planes, and the policemen and fireman all were real people. Even the foolish young men who hijacked the planes, the ones who believe Bin Laden... all real people who died pointlessly. Smith draws out the real, draws out the essence as well as the actual accounts of the awful events.I fully recommend "Report from Ground Zero: The Story of the Rescue Efforts at the World Trade Center" by Dennis Smith.Anthony Trendl