Rating: 
Summary: 9/11 Reference
Review: A hardcover book spanning almost 700 pages. It contains short bios and pictures of the victims that perished at the World Trade Center on 9/11/01. Keep in mind, the list of people is very long, and this book covers approximately 50% of them. Whether the people were lawyers, doctors, clerks, cooks, computer techs, or volunteers... they are all treated as equals here. The pictures are small and sub-par quality (like they were taken from a newsapaper). With only half (approx 2000) the people featured, would we assume a "Volume II" would follow?
Rating: 
Summary: We Will Never Forget!!
Review: A sad and inspiring journey through that fateful day.
Rating:
Summary: The Human Side of 9/11/01
Review: Everyone remembers the terrible events that took place on September 11, 2001. We have all viewed the images on television and in print, showing the airplanes striking the buildings, the fire, and the collapse of the World Trade Center. We have seen firefighters and rescue dogs searching for bodies trapped in the rubble. And we have seen politicians talking about the attacks and what must be done to prevent such an event in the future. But one thing that we don't see very frequently is information on the human victims themselves. That is, until now. In this book, the New York Times has taken on a great task: Assembling together a full volume showing pictures and personal information on each of the victims who died during the attack on September 11, 2001. The Times originally started to do this in the actual newspaper itself, highlighting the different victims with a section called "Portraits of Grief". It was from these portraits that the book was derived from. Most (but not all) of the victims are pictured in the pages of this book, with a small, black and white photo of the person's face, followed by a brief summary of the person's life, career, family, etc. The portrait information isn't extensive, but it manages to let you, the reader, know at least a little bit about each of the victims, complete with quotations from family members expressing how their lost husband/wife/child, etc. touched their lives in a positive way. Besides the photos of people, there are other pictures in this book, with most of them dedicated to the funerals, remembrance gatherings, and other grief- related events. You won't find pictures of the smoking buildings in this book. It centers instead on the people. Overall, this book is a nice effort on the part of the people at the New York Times. Approx. 143 people took part in the creation of this book, and their names are all listed in the back. It was a commendable effort and while I would have liked the book better if the pictures had been in color, I still think this is a book worth owning. My copy sits on my coffee table right now, reminding me of all the human tragedies that took place on the fateful day of September 11, 2001.
Rating:
Summary: A glimpse into the lives lost
Review: I brought this book a few weeks ago and have started to read each and every portrait. In the three weeks that i have read i am only up to the letter C. Its tough to go through these portraits to see what America really lost that day - some amazing people. However, i find it my duty to get to know a little something of everyone who was lost that day. It tugs at the heartstrings but it makes me feel more patriotic with each portrait i read. And i will continue to pull this book out from the bookshelves through the years so that i never forget.
Rating: 
Summary: Is it allowable to write a negative opinion of this book?
Review: I dearly wish that the portrait of my father, Simon V. Weiser, were more accurate. To latch onto an insignificant fact and make it the centerpiece and title of the portrait perhaps made the reporter's job easier, but did not do justice to my father's life.
Rating: 
Summary: Journalistic Efficiency Triumphs Over Substance
Review: I dearly wish that the portrait of my father, Simon V. Weiser, were more accurate. To latch onto an insignificant fact and make it the centerpiece and title of the portrait perhaps made the reporter's job easier, but did not do justice to my father's life.
Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful Tribute
Review: I read many of these portraits when they appeared originally in the New York Times. Reading them became a daily habit almost a meditation for me. I would read the stories and then keep these people in my heart all day long. Sometimes I will hear a name of someone and remember having read about them. This book is overwhelming to me. SO many lives interupted. The scope of the loss of life that day is dramatically illustrated just by the shear size of this book. But I get the same feeling reading the portraits again as I did when they were originally published. We lost some really extraordinary people that day.
Rating:
Summary: Hard To Take
Review: I try to get through a page a day. We owe it to the Lost to remember them and the NY Times has done a great job to transform numbers to faces and lives.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful and beautiful, but why not all?
Review: I've been overpowered by the beautifully written NY Times series of portraits of 9/11 victims, so I've hoped mightily that the portraits would be collected in book form for remembrance and posterity. What stunned me when I received the book last night is that the Times appears to have rushed a book to print with only those portraits published through 2/3/02 - a fact not indicated anywhere on the cover or in the title, or (based on a quick skim) in the introductory text. The Times web site states that only IF the book goes to a second printing will portraits after 2/3 be included. What was the rush??? It seems to me that the Times should have made it clearer that these were selected portraits, or better, included ALL the persons covered in the series - and if that delayed publication a few more months, even in September, all the better and more fitting. That is my sole, though major, complaint about this book. Otherwise, the portraits continue to be powerful and beautifully written remembrances of the innocent victims of dastardly, cowardly, immoral, and evil acts.
Rating:
Summary: Quantity over Quality
Review: If you had to reduce your life to one paragraph or even someone you loved, it would be difficult. So is the case for the Portraits 9/11/01. Though we get to see a photo and a glimpse into their lives, it doesn't have the space to delve deep enough into each life. Unfortunately, we have this problem because so many passed away that day. It might have been better to do a one-page tribute to each life, even if meant publishing more than one book. I do give credit for the enourmous task the reporters did in assembling such a mass of information when emotions were raw. One thing the editors did was group families and friends together so you could see that some of the tragedies were indeed worse for some than others. Bottom line: would I buy it again? Probably not.
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