Reviews

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

angus_mckeogh's review

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5.0

This is my second or third Wright book and I’m convinced he might be one of our best historians currently working. Another phenomenal read. Truly sad stuff. Not just the topic. But to get a glimpse of how it all came about. From the horror and absurdity of religion and the extremists it breeds to the failure of bureaucracy to communicate and share data which ultimately led to the deaths of thousands of people. If you’ve ever wondered how something so twisted was allowed to happen or how someone’s mind becomes so warped they would carry out such a murder; it’s all laid out here. Recommended!

frostap's review

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5.0

TLT is a really phenomenal read: well-written, fascinating, and prescient. It made me realize how very little I actually know about al-Quaeda and the events leading up to 9/11.

dest_kara's review against another edition

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5.0

I am not a huge non-fiction reader, but this book was fantastic! There was so much information I feel like I'd need to read it a second time just to fully soak up all the knowledge within the pages.

jwave08's review

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challenging emotional informative tense medium-paced

4.75

footprof's review

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4.0

I found this to be an interesting account of the events leading up to 9/11. A little wordy at times, the history and perspective were greatly appreciated.

schafer_michael's review

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informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

chambersaurusrx's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.75

nderiley's review

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3.0

I found it hard to follow who all the players were so this book wasn't as enjoyable as Wright's others have been for me. I finished the story frustrated (as intended) with the lack of coordination of our intelligence agencies during this time

61057974's review

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5.0

If every story was told as this one, I would read three books a day.

loujoseph's review

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5.0

Really great. Only wish that I had a sense of how much information the FBI, CIA, etc go through in a day, week or year- the narrative is definitely "in hindsight, this and this and this were missed" but those things would be piled up with the mountains of information they must go through to figure out what threats are real.