One Day

The Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary 24 Hours in America

By: Gene Weingarten

Narrated by: Johnathan McClain

“One of the 50 Best Nonfiction Books of the Last 25 Years”—Slate

On New Year’s Day 2013, two-time Pulitzer Prize–winner Gene Weingarten asked three strangers to, literally, pluck a day, month, and year from a hat. That day—chosen completely at random—turned out to be Sunday, December 28, 1986, by any conventional measure a most ordinary day. Weingarten spent the next six years proving that there is no such thing.

That Sunday between Christmas and New Year’s turned out to be filled with comedy, tragedy, implausible irony, cosmic comeuppances, kindness, cruelty, heroism, cowardice, genius, idiocy, prejudice, selflessness, coincidence, and startling moments of human connection, along with evocative foreshadowing of momentous events yet to come. Lives were lost. Lives were saved. Lives were altered in overwhelming ways. Many of these events never made it into the news; they were private dramas in the lives of private people. They were utterly compelling.

One Day asks and answers the question of whether there is even such a thing as “ordinary” when we are talking about how we all lurch and stumble our way through the daily, daunting challenge of being human.

Fantastic from beginning to end

Wonderful premise executed beautifully. I wish I could listen to the entire thing in one day and imagine all the things that occurred while I was listening-next time.

simple but simple

simple book on a great idea but nothing special, misses some terrible details about Bobby Ryan's insane father

Beautiful

My only complaint; too short. What a beautiful work of art. I laughed, I cried, I held my breath, I restrained myself from Googling endings and when I felt like he was starting to wrap it up, I screamed "wait... no! this is just going to be the end of part 1 or something right????"

Perfect for anyone; great gift idea.

Eye Opening read

such a unique and powerful work. a showcase of the genius of journalism and the vastness of humanity.

One day you won’t forget

Weingarten is an under-appreciated (and yes, that’s with the two Pulitzers) genius. His writing is beautiful, his guts extraordinary. That would be enough, but there’s more. There’s always more, and Weingarten knows it, and THAT is his true genius. He’s the rare reporter, the rare person, who finds what he’s looking for and keeps looking.