#The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11

[deadpresidents]

Any books you'd particularly recommend outside of US/Presidential history?

I always will take opportunities like this question to recommend Charles Emmerson's 2019 book, Crucible: The Long End of the Great War and the Birth of a New World, 1917-1924 (BOOK | KINDLE). I know it'll sound like hyperbole, but I am not exaggerating: it's one of the best books I've ever read, if not the best. It has stayed with me ever since I finished it, largely because of how absolutely riveting Emmerson's writing style is. I don't know if I've ever read a single book that has told so many incredible stories about so many remarkable people and so many fascinating places. And it does so without ever losing its overall focus or confusing the reader. I love this book and every time I see it on one of my bookshelves I get jealous that I can't read it for the first time over-and-over again.

Another book that immediately comes to mind is Lawrence Wright's Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief (BOOK | KINDLE), which I'm sure many others would back me up on. I'm a huge fan of all of Lawrence Wright's work, so you can't go wrong with any of his other books, particularly The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (BOOK | KINDLE) and The Terror Years: From Al-Qaeda to the Islamic State (BOOK | KINDLE), both of which are journalism at its very best. And I understand you asked about books that didn't have anything to do with the Presidency, but it would be criminal if I didn't also suggest Wright's excellent history of the 1978 Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David (BOOK | KINDLE). The difficult peace negotiations between President Carter, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat are detailed so intimately that Wright originally began writing it as a play, and the storytelling remains just as vivid as if it were being performed on a stage.

By no means is that a complete list of suggestions, but those are the first books that came to mind when reading your question. But, seriously, don't hesitate to read Charles Emmerson's Crucible ASAP!!!

[ms-moon]

Browsing amazon for used school books, losing my mind at the concept of placing a book called "the looming tower: al qaeda and the road to 9/11" on my wedding registry

[point-88]

Lawrence Wright: The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11

The author

Subject

First pages

First 200 pages

And more

And more

Style

The way of thinking 

So

[oceanstone]

Nonfiction Books on History

U.S. History

The Kennedy Heirs: John, Caroline, and the New Generation - A Legacy of Tragedy and Triumph by J. Randy Taraborrelli

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris

A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn

The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright

Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local—and Helped Save an American Town by Beth Macy

What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia by Elizabeth Catte

The Privileged Poor by Tony Jack

Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Davis

The 1619 Project

Art History

Eternal Echoes: Celtic Reflections on Our Yearning to Belong by John O’Donohue

Economics

Ponzinomics: The Untold Story of Multi-Level Marketing by Robert L. Fitzpatrick

Glass House: The 1% Economy and the Shattering of the All-American Town by Brian Alexander

Public Policy: Continuity and Change by Carter Wilson

Fifty Inventions that Shaped the Modern Economy by Tim Hartford

World History

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

Athens: City of Wisdom by Bruce Clark

Literature

Mythology by Edith Hamilton

Political Theory

The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt

Capital is Dead, Is This Something Worse? By McKenzie Wark

How to Be an Anticapitalist in the 21st Century by Erik Olin Wright

The Origins of Capitalism: A Longer View by Ellen Meiksins Wood

The Revolution of Everyday Life by Raoul Vaneigem

Athletics

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics

Biography

Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller

Leonardo Da Vinci by Walter Isaacson

Climate Change

The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable by Amitav Ghosh

Consumed by Aja Barber

[chrisdeanfuller]

The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9-11 Book Review

I read the book, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9-11 by Lawrence Wright, and it was a sobering and sadly fascinating history of one of America's worst days. It won a Pulitzer prize. The book details the events, organizations, and people leading up to 9-11.

What fascinated me the most was how ineffective and unorganized Al-Qaeda was. Bin Laden, in particular, was not intelligent, capable or organized. He had one thing going for him, his persistence. Ayman al-Zawahiri lacked charisma and leadership, but like bin Laden was persistent. Even Islamic theology and scripture (for most Muslims) do not support terrorism or suicide martyrdom.  Bin Laden’s reasoning for going after America was fanciful. What really bothered him were Arab strong men in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and he believed that by severing American support, they would be replaced by his brand of Muslim leadership.  If anything, history has shown that his movement did more to move Muslims away from his thinking and believing.

It was sad that American intelligence organizations did not cooperate well because analysis revealed that sufficient evidence was available to uncover the plot, but it was withheld for different reasons. Finally, it was another reminder how clueless most Americans are of middle eastern/Islamic culture, language and religion. Another reason this war of cultures continues.

[authenticnewshindi]

‘Kingdom of Silence’ revisits Jamal Khashoggi’s death and the history of US-Saudi relations Wright -- who wrote "The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11," chronicling the failures prior to the Sept.

[memecucker]

I'm reading Lawrence Wright's "The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11" right now and I just came across a reference in it to "the ancient bargain between Al Saud and the Wahhabi clergy" which immediately reminded me of your post from earlier, and now I'm wondering if that's just a hilarious coincidence or if that Orientalist trope is actually everywhere and I'm just now starting to see it because you pointed it out

(2/2) Like I'm just laughing to myself thinking of some historians referring to "the ancient uprising of Jacobites against the British crown" or "the ancient settlement of the Cape Colony" or something to that effect, lmaoMm maybe maybe not, since I don’t know the context of the original quote. The 18th century is awhile ago but certainly not “ancient” though there’s a possibility of conscious hyperbole. though speaking of say an “ancient Franco-American friendship” would likewise feel strange unless it’s situated in a particular rhetorical context

[upthecurve]

100 books everyone must read

Most of us always have that one question in the back of our minds; given our limited time and busy schedules, which are the books one must read through to get up the curve? While, the tastes and preferences vary from one to the other, the laundry list provided by Amazon.com takes almost everyone into account.

Hidden away in the books department on Amazon.com, shoppers can find a list of 100 great reads everyone should read in their lifetime, recommended by the Amazon Books editors. The list is impressive and covers a large span of time, weaving together classics like Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations with more modern options like The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins.Below, shop the list of books (listed here in alphabetical order.) 

Happy reading!

1. 1984, by George Orwell

2. A Brief History of Time, by Stephen Hawking

3. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, by Dave Eggers

4. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, by Ishmael Beah

5. The Bad Beginning: Or, Orphans!, by Lemony Snicket

6. A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle

7. Selected Stories, 1968-1994, by Alice Munro

8. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass, by Lewis Carroll

9. All the President's Men, by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein

10. Angela's Ashes: A Memoir, by Frank McCourt

11. Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, by Judy Blume

12. Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett

13. Beloved, by Toni Morrison

14. Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen, by Christopher McDougall

15. Breath, Eyes, Memory, by Edwidge Danticat

16. Catch-22, by Joseph Heller

17. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl

18. Charlotte's Web, by E.B. White

19. Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese

20. Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead, by Brené Brown

21. Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Book 1, by Jeff Kinney

22. Dune, by Frank Herbert

23. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury

24. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream, by Hunter S. Thompson

25. Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn

26. Goodnight Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown

27. Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens

28. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, by Jared Diamond, Ph.D.

29. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, by J.K. Rowling

30. In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote

31. Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri

32. Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison

33. Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, by Chris Ware

34. Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain

35. Life After Life, by Kate Atkinson

36 Little House on the Prairie, by Laura Ingalls Wilder

37. Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov

38. Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel García Márquez

39. Love Medicine, by Louise Erdrich

40. Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor E. Frankl

41. Me Talk Pretty One Day, by David Sedaris

42. Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides

43. Midnight's Children, by Salman Rushdie

44. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis

45. Of Human Bondage, by W. Somerset Maugham

46. On the Road, by Jack Kerouac

47. Out of Africa, by Isak Dinesen

48. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, by Marjane Satrapi

49. Portnoy's Complaint, by Philip Roth

50. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen

51. Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson

52. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut

53. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Doris Kearns Goodwin

54. The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton

55. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, by Michael Chabon

56. The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley, by Malcolm X and Alex Haley

57. The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak

58. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Díaz

59. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger

60. The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother, by James McBride

61. The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen

62. The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson

63. The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank

64. The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green

65. The Giver, by Lois Lowry

66. The Golden Compass: His Dark Materials, by Philip Pullman

67. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

68. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood

69. The House at Pooh Corner, by A. A. Milne

70. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

71. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot

72. The Liars' Club: A Memoir, by Mary Karr

73. The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan

74. The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

75. The Long Goodbye, by Raymond Chandler

76. The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, by Lawrence Wright

77. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien

78. The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales, by Oliver Sacks

79. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan

80. The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster

81. The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver

82. The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, by Robert A. Caro

83. The Right Stuff, by Tom Wolfe

84. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy

85. The Secret History, by Donna Tartt

86. The Shining, by Stephen King

87. The Stranger, by Albert Camus

88. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway

89. The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien

90. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle

91. The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame

92. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami

93. The World According to Garp, by John Irving

94. The Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion

95. Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe

96. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

97. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, by Laura Hillenbrand

98. Valley of the Dolls, by Jacqueline Susann

99. Where the Sidewalk Ends: The Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein, by Shel Silverstein

100. Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak

V GOPALAKRISHNAN upthecurve@gmail.com

[diverseladybookproject]

I’m doing things a little different this month so I can do a final update for the Run Away with the Circus reading challenge and my Snarky Reading Recap. I’m just going to dive right in by giving you the rating system!

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0 Dogs Petted: DNF, I couldn’t get through this book. It’s not a good day.

1 Dog Petted: It was an okay day. I mean, I got to pet a dog. But it could have been better.

2 Dogs Petted: A solid effort. May recommend.

3 Dogs Petted: A really good day, tbh. Would recommend willingly to friends and family.

4 Dogs Petted: Best day. Will be recommending to all the people.

4+ Dogs Petted: A unicorn of a day! Pet all the dogs! Read this book!

I’m going to keep with the formatting from the Run Away with the Circus weekly updates and add the doggies in as I go. Of note, before we get started – July was a little nuts. As I mentioned in one of my reviews, I am currently living in Puerto Rico, and there has been some political unrest here that has led to less time available for me to read this month. Plus, I moved! So there has been a lot going on. Don’t judge too harshly, please. ❤

A Snarky Reading Recap + Run Away with the Circus Reading Challenge

Menagerie: Read a book with an animal in the title: In Progress

Brazen and the Beast by Sarah MacLean [Read the review!]

So… I wrote the review for this one without finishing the book, which is something I RARELY do. And I could only do it for this particular book because a) it’s romance, and the tropes allow me to sort of predict what’s going to happen, and b) Sarah MacLean is always wonderful and I have faith that her books are going to always make me happy in the end. But I didn’t technically finish this before the end of July, so no rating will be given until next month. I know, I KNOW! I don’t do this! But I had reviews to write!

Big Top: Read a book with red and white on the cover: Complete!

Destroy All Monsters by Sam J. Miller [Read the review!]

I can’t describe this one in a couple of sentences – you should read the full review. Sam J. Miller writes so well. He’s become one of my instant-read authors – you know those authors where you’ll buy the book without reading the synopsis? Yeah, he’s on my list now.

Rating: 4 dogs petted.

Cotton Candy: Read a light and fluffy book: Complete!

Betraying the Billionaire by Victoria Davies [Read the review!]

So light. So fluffy. This book was the beginning of all the romance that I read in the month of July, and I have absolutely no regrets about it. The full review will sum things up best!

Rating: 3 dogs petted.

Flyers: Read a book about/set in space: Complete/DNF

The Boy and Girl Who Broke the World by Amy Reed [Read the review!]

Mehh on this one. Another DNF, but I might go back to it at some point in the future. It just wasn’t what I needed in such a turbulent month.

Rating: 0 dogs petted.

Grandstand: Read a hyped book: Complete!

Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover [Read the review!]

I’ve been meaning to read another Colleen Hoover book since I read Slammed back in 2016, but Slammed was so problematic and poorly written that I wasn’t sure I wanted to read another one. I’m glad we read this one for book club, because it was much better! And a really fun, easy read as a palate cleanser.

Rating: 3 dogs petted.

Hello Girls by Brittany Cavallaro and Emily Henry [Read the review!]

OOOOOOKAAAAAYYYY don’t hate me, but I did the same thing with this book that I did with Brazen and the Beast… I haven’t finished it yet! I was getting down to the wire for the reviews I’d committed to, so I’m more than halfway through both of them and I just have to FINISH! Because they’re both so good! This is another one that I just trusted from the point I got to onward in order to write the review because I love both of these authors. I WON’T DO THIS AGAIN, I SWEAR. Rating coming next month!

Ringmaster: Read the first book in a series or a standalone: Complete!

The Looming Tower: al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright [No review planned on the blog]

I listened to this one on audio, and it was very interesting, and clearly super well-researched. Lawrence Wright knows what he’s talking about. It was such an excellent expose on Bin Laden and al-Qaeda, and I cried the entire time he was talking about the day of September 11th. If you’re interested in how al-Qaeda and some of the other big terrorist groups came to be in the years leading up to 9/11, this is a really good option. I would highly recommend, if you can stomach it.

Rating: 3 dogs petted.

Wicked and the Wallflower by Sarah MacLean [Read the review!]

SO GOOD. SO GOOD. SO GOOD. Oh, sorry, we’re not singing Sweet Caroline? But seriously, this book is just exactly my thing – the grump and walking sunshine. Omg, I just LOVE that trope so much. So anyway, read the review if you want!

Rating: 4 dogs petted.

A light month, but sometimes that’ll happen. I anticipate more light months ahead as life gets busy again, but it’ll taper off at some point. It always does, and I always come back, because I love the book reviewing life.

Happy reading!

Run Away with the Circus Reading Challenge Final Update + A Snarky Reading Recap – July 2019 I'm doing things a little different this month so I can do a final update for the Run Away with the Circus reading challenge and my Snarky Reading Recap.

[texasmagicalrealism]

The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 buy now $13.04 Winner of the Pulitzer PrizeA gripping narrative that spans five decades, The Looming Tower explains in unprecedented detail the growth of Islamic fundamentalism, the rise of al-Qaeda, and the intelligence failures that culminated in the attacks on the World Trade Center.

[lyndsyslnmrrsn]

Books I Read in 2018.

This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance

Jesus Feminist: An Invitation to Revisit the Bible’s View of Women by Sarah Bessey

The Man from the Train: The Solving of a Century-Old Serial Killer Mystery by Bill James and Rachel McCarthy James

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

Joan of Arc: A History by Helen Castor

The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright (audiobook)

Dear Madam President: An Open Letter to the Women Who Will Run the World by Jennifer Palmieri

Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay (audiobook)

I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown

Outside the Lines: How Embracing Queerness Will Transform Your Faith by Mihee Kim-Kort

God Save Texas: A Journey into the Soul of the Lone Star State by Lawrence Wright

Big Game: The NFL in Dangerous Times by Mark Leibovich (audiobook)

My Life as a Goddess: A Memoir Through (Un)popular Culture by Guy Branum

Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again by Rachel Held Evans

[cultml]

Osama bin Laden predicted it and his prophecy appears to be coming true. In his book, "The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11," Lawrence Wright quotes bin Laden as saying: "Look at Vietnam, look at Lebanon. Whenever soldiers start coming home in body bags, Americans panic and retreat. Such a country needs only to be confronted with two or three sharp blows, then it will flee in panic, as it always has."

[tensileacuity]

The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (2006) - Lawrence Wright

[zayzaycom]

Preview The Season Finale Of Hulu's Critically Acclaimed Series "The Looming Tower"

Preview The Season Finale Of Hulu’s Critically Acclaimed Series “The Looming Tower”

Hulu has made the season finale episode of The Looming Tower available via Hulu’s Screening Room. The Looming Tower finale streams Wednesday, April 18, only on Hulu!

The Looming Tower. The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 is a historical look at the way in which Al-Qaeda came into being, the background for various terrorist attacks and how they were investigated, and the events that…

[heatheryoun-blog]

The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Unabridged) - Lawrence Wright | Nonfiction ...

The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Unabridged) Lawrence Wright Genre: Nonfiction Price: $23.95 Publish Date: January 1, 2000 Preview: ℗© 2000 Tantor Audio