Rating: 
Summary: What a find
Review: A colleague at work gave me a copy of Boyle's book and it came with a rave which made me immediately suspiscious. I hear raves and assume I won't like it. Well, I'll trust this colleague's opinion from now on. Braving The Waves is one of those can't put down books. You know the towers are going to fall but Boyle tells such a good story, introduces such great people, you hope somehow they won't fall.
The people of Rockaway can't be forgotten, shouldn't be forgotten, and now they won't be forgotten. Thanks to Boyle. He hasn't written any other books as far as I know. I hope he does soon.
Rating:
Summary: Braving the Waves: Rockaway Rises -- And Rises Again
Review: Anyone who's heard of Rockaway and it's inhabitants knows that Kevin Boyle has his fingers on the pulse of the community. This is a MUST READ book.
Rating:
Summary: FROM THE EDITOR'S STANDPOINT
Review: Charlie Heeran calls his father, a retired firefighter who owns the Harbor Light tavern in Rockaway. Go the roof, his father says, the helicopters will rescue you. Tommy Carroll gets assigned to another firehouse, then another. He's not with his
regular company when the buildings fall. He's not sure who the other guys are as he runs down a parking lot garage, a dark heated cloud chasing him. Deputy Chief Hayden survives the fist collapse and dives behind a fire rig as the north tower falls.
People in Rockaway stand at the sea wall and watch the buildings collapse. Neighbors, friends, family. They're all there. Some people survive, some don't.
By now, we know these people, this place. Good people hurting. You want the pain to pass. And then it's another beautiful day. It's Veteran's day and there's a loud noise
overhead.
When American Airlines Flight 587 nosedives into Belle Harbor, it lands 100 feet from the Harbor Light. And what do the people in this town do? ---they all run to the fire not away from it.
It's clear that Boyle loves Rockaway and the people in this book---and doesn't try to hide it. Sentimental? At times. Yet, even with his unabashed affection for the people and place
he's crafted a page-turner. He manages to make this one part page-turner, one part tribute.
Rating:
Summary: In agreement with a review
Review: Got this from Education Notes by Norman Scott:
From the very first sentence to the last word, Boyle's book is extraordinary in every way. Compelling reading, it reads like a novel. You know the trade center is coming down and you know the plane will crash, but you still hope against hope it won't happen.Not only does Boyle attend to the events of 9/11 and 11/12, but he weaves in the history of Rockaway and the amazing sense of community people who live there feel about the place. That sums it up for me.
Rating:
Summary: FANTASTIC - from a Firefighter
Review: I just finished Kevin Boyle's book, Braving the Waves, and in my opinion it's fantastic! I lived through these tragedies and didn't think I wanted to read about them again but once I picked up his book, I couldn't put it down.
Boyle gets inside the heads of the people he writes about. The firemen I know and respect won't open up or talk at all to reporters but they talk to Kevin because he's one of them, one of us. It choked me up half a dozen times.
This book is a must read for everyone, the people from Rockaway who lived through the tragedies and outsiders who want a real insider's view. People who weren't there will feel like they were standing in the concrete dust of the WTC and smelling the burning jet fuel of Flight 587 after reading it.
-George Johnson
Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: I've been out of Rockaway for a long time now, but Boyle put me right back on the boardwalk. And just when he makes us comfortable being back at the beach, he takes us to lower Manhattan on September 11. I've read a lot of eyewitness accounts but this as real as it gets. He follows the day of a bunch of firefighters and some "regular" people and it goes from bad to worse. Because Rockaway lost so many people the place is devastated but not broken. The people are trying to get on with their lives. And just like that a plane crashes in Belle Harbor. Some of the same people who were there on 9-11 rush like mad to the plane crash. Some of them run on foot because they're that close to it. It's just unreal stuff. But Boyle puts it all together.
There are great stories here and some unbelievable people. I give this a big thumbs up. You will too.
Rating:
Summary: A MUST READ
Review: THIS BOOK SHOULD BE ON THE SHELF OF EVERY AMERICAN
AND ON EVERY HIGHSCHOOL READING LIST. IT WILL SERVE AS
A REMINDER THAT THE SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACK WAS A PERSONAL
AFFRONT TO EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING AMERICAN FOR
GENERATIONS TO COME.
Rating:
Summary: Please read it
Review: This is a book that should be read. The writer, Kevin Boyle, first brings us back to a different time and place. September 10th. He makes us know these people as real humans, not just victims. And not just heroes for that matter. Braving The Waves is about a community and how it responded to 9/11 and the plane crash that hit Rockaway two months later. Boyle makes us feel the ocean breezes and the strength of these people. He writes about Rockaway's history and how it ties into present day. It's not just a 9/11 book, it's not just a fireman's book, it's not just a book for Rockaway. It's a book for us all.
Rating:
Summary: Please read it
Review: This is a book that should be read. The writer, Kevin Boyle, first brings us back to a different time and place. September 10th. He makes us know these people as real humans, not just victims. And not just heroes for that matter. Braving The Waves is about a community and how it responded to 9/11 and the plane crash that hit Rockaway two months later. Boyle makes us feel the ocean breezes and the strength of these people. He writes about Rockaway's history and how it ties into present day. It's not just a 9/11 book, it's not just a fireman's book, it's not just a book for Rockaway. It's a book for us all.
Rating:
Summary: An astounding story about a truly American neighborhood...
Review: This moving book tells the story about the Rockaway neighborhood of New York and the dual tragedies it dealt with in 2001. Being a neighborhood with a large number of firefighters, the neighborhood suffered grievously in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. As is that was not enough, two months later a large commercial jet crashed in the middle of the neighborhood, claiming more of its citizens. Regardless of these tragedies, Rockaway survives and indeed thrives. This story about a true American neighborhood is a must read! Highly readable, once you start this book it is difficult to put down.
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