Books I Read: Summer 2004 Edition

Explore the top books I read during Summer 2004 in this curated list. Discover must-read titles, reviews, and recommendations from the 2004 summer reading edition.

The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (Authorized Edition) Cover
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The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (Authorized Edition)

by National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States

The eagerly awaited release of The 9/11 Commission Report has caused an avalanche of press coverage, but nearly all of the media commentary has omitted one important attribute of this instant bestseller: its readability. For once, our government has produced a report designed for the public that it purports to serve. By comparison, the Starr Commission Report was a confusing hodgepodge cobbled together for lawyer clones, and the Warren Commission Report resembled a hastily constructed mountain of data. By contrast, The 9/11 Commission Report is a model of narrative clarity. Reading it, one gains a better sense of every stage and dimension of these truly terrifying events; from the rise of Bin Laden and Al Qaeda to the collapse of the World Trade Center and its aftermath. Like a full-throttled detective story thrust into real life, it renders the near misses and muffed opportunities that enabled the plot to reach fruition. With sensationalizing or overgeneralizing, the report s authors have given us a document that illuminates the planning and possible countermeasures to these terrible acts. Every American should read this book: After all, we are its target audience and its sponsors. R. N. Wilson
My Soul Looks Back in Wonder Cover
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My Soul Looks Back in Wonder

by Juan Williams

One of the most pivotal moments in American history is brought to light through stirring, thought-provoking eyewitness accounts from people who have played active roles in the civil rights movement over the past 50 years.
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ID: 0871139170
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Truth & Beauty Cover
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Truth & Beauty

by Ann Patchett

What happens when the person who is your family is someone you aren't bound to by blood? What happens when the person you promise to love and to honor for the rest of your life is not your lover, but your best friend? In Truth & Beauty, her frank and startlingly intimate first work of nonfiction, Ann Patchett shines a fresh, revealing light on the world of women's friendships and shows us what it means to stand together. Ann Patchett and Lucy Grealy met in college in 1981, and, after enrolling in the Iowa Writers' Workshop, began a friendship that would be as defining to both of their lives as their work was. In her critically acclaimed and hugely successful memoir, Autobiography of a Face, Lucy Grealy wrote about losing part of her jaw to childhood cancer, the years of chemotherapy and radiation, and then the endless reconstructive surgeries. In Truth & Beauty, the story isn't Lucy's life or Ann's life, but the parts of their lives they shared. This is a portrait of unwavering commitment that spans twenty years, from the long, cold winters of the Midwest, to surgical wards, to book parties in New York. Through love, fame, drugs, and despair, this book shows us what it means to be part of two lives that are intertwined. This is a tender, brutal book about loving a person we cannot save. It is about loyalty, and about being lifted up by the sheer effervescence of someone who knew how to live life to the fullest.
My Sister's Keeper Cover
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My Sister's Keeper

by Jodi Picoult

Written with grace, wisdom, and sensitivity, this novel is about a teen who was conceived as a bone marrow match for her sister Kate, and what happens when she begins to question who she really is.
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ID: 1565848705
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Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office Cover
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Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office

by Lois P. Frankel

Frankel is a recognized expert in the fields of workplace behavior and female empowerment, and the president of Corporate Coaching International. She shows that half of the American workforce is made up of women, and they still earn 76.5 cents to every dollar earned by men.
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ID: 0316150460
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ID: 1582343772
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ID: 0743229479
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ID: 0345469356
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