GREAT READS

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

Lawrence Wright.

We have all heard the expression "nonfiction that reads like a novel,"but it is rare for nonfiction to be as gripping as the best suspense fiction.  The expression is, however, right on point with Lawrence Wright's extraordinary book.  Dramatic and gripping, The Looming Tower follows the men whose ideas and lives became Al-Qaeda on the winding and chilling paths that led to their awful success and our haunting tragedy--9/11.  And it also follows the few Americans, working in the FBI, CIA, and other parts of our national security apparatus, whose growing sense of danger and imminent attack was never quite enough to create the critical mass necessary to prevent the disaster.  If you read international suspense, the spy novels of John Le Carre or Martin Cruz Smith, or great historical or political nonfiction, you will find this book compelling and vitally important reading. 

Recommended by Denise Davis