Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Gene Weingarten explores the events of a random day in U.S. history, offering a diorama of American life that illuminates all that has changed-and all that hasn't-in the past three decades.
Gene Weingarten is a Washington Post journalist. He writes
long-form stories as well as Below the Beltway, the weekly
syndicated humor column. His previous books include I’m With
Stupid: One Man. One Woman. 10,000 Years of Misunderstanding
Between the Sexes Cleared Right Up (with Gina Barreca); The
Hypochondriac’s Guide to Life. And Death; Old Dogs: Are the Best
Dogs; and The Fiddler in the Subway, a collection of his best-known
work. Weingarten is the only two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize
for feature writing, for examining the phenomenon of parents who
accidentally leave their children to bake to death in hot cars, and
for an experiment in which he arranged for famed violinist Joshua
Bell to busk incognito outside a Metro station in Washington, to
see if anyone would notice.
He lives in Washington, D.C.
One of the 50 Best Nonfiction Books of the Last 25 Years
Slate
One of the Top Ten Works of Journalism of the Decade—Arthur L.
Carter Journalism Institute, NYU
A Best Book of the Year
The Washington Post
Slate
Parade
New York Post
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
“The book adds up to something greater than the individual
stories…Weingarten taps into the wonder of what it is to be
alive.”—Mike Hill for the Associated Press
“An absorbing snapshot of America.”—The New Yorker
More Praise for One Day
“As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become less interested in elaborate
fictions or spectacular histories and just want to know how life is
lived. I want a book about how other humans get things and lose
things, and deal with both, how they cope and how they fail and how
they live and how they die. This is the book I’ve been waiting for.
The people described in this book are wonderful and flawed, some of
them evil, some of them impossibly good. But none of them have
lived the kind of lives that normally get told in books, and in
finally seeking them out and telling their stories, Gene has done
them, and us, a priceless service.”—Peter Sagal, Host, NPR's "Wait
Wait... Don't Tell Me!" and author of The Incomplete Book of
Running
“Extraordinary tales from an ordinary day,
masterfully fashioned. Because Weingarten is such a compelling
storyteller, it’s easy to overlook how much A+ journalism
undergirds “One Day." Every detail, every quote, is not just
the answer to a question; it’s the answer to precisely the right
question.”—Garry Trudeau, creator of Doonesbury
“I loved this book. I ripped through it in an evening. I couldn’t
put it down.”—Petra Mayer on NPR's Here & Now
“An excellent book…humble yet profound.”—Guardian
“[Weingarten has] uncommon storytelling gifts...The two-time
Pulitzer winner and Washington Post columnist takes a
single day in history and weaves together multiple stories of
tragedy, revelation and wonder. One Day is full of scenes and
wordsmithing that can make a reader elbow her partner in the ribs
and force him to listen to a read-aloud. That’s the hallmark of
memorable feature writing. More, please.”—Washington Post
"One of the Best Books of 2019"—Washington Post
“A captivating portrait of a day in the life of the United States
by a much-honored Washington Post journalist... One of the finest
plain-prose stylists in American journalism, Weingarten tells his
elegantly structured stories without sentimentality or melodrama...
A slice of American life carved out by a master of the
form.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Everybody loves a good story, especially when it's told by a
master storyteller. This collection should have wide appeal,
whether read straight through, cover to cover, or dipped into for
an occasional article.”—Booklist (starred review)
“[One Day] is a stunt, a dare, but it’s also proof of the
belief that animates all the books on this list: There are stories
everywhere. The nonfiction writer’s job is to look long and hard
enough to find them, and to tell them with enough empathy and care
to bring them to life.”—Slate
“By paying close attention, Mr. Weingarten opens our eyes to the
potent meanings of everyday stories all around us…As the minutes
tick by toward midnight, Gene Weingarten’s powerful retellings
elevate the ordinary to the extraordinary and yield to an awakened
sense of awe.”—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“One Day…includes a serial killer, a famous band, a helicopter
crash, and a tragic fire. But it also includes more prosaic stories
that testify to the premise of the book: Stories are everywhere,
and every one is interesting; all it takes is a reporter dogged
enough to find people’s stories, and tell them.”—Slate
“A trove of compelling human-interest pieces with long
reverberations.”—Publishers Weekly
“Much more than a gimmick…full of riveting
tales.”—Washingtonian
“A brilliant concept deftly researched and presented…an inherently
fascinating read. Thoughtful and thought-provoking.”—Midwest Book
Review
“A master storyteller...a helluva good look at The Human
Experience…a collection of ripping yarns.”—The Star
Tribune
"Ace writer mines tales from a random Sunday...to organize a book
bristling with drama. The journalistic version of a swan dive
off a tall ladder into a teacup."—Chicago Sun-Times
“This snapshot of the nation on one particular day is one that
deserves pride of place in America’s family album.”—Daily Beast
“One of Fall 2019's Biggest Books...Weingarten, who has won two
Pulitzers for feature writing, tells it as few can.”—The
Philadelphia Inquirer
“5 Books not to Miss...A fascinating conceit.”—USA Today
“Dramatic narrative nonfiction…offer[ing] a new perspective on
world history.”—USA Today
“Fall books for your must-read list...It is a great book. It’s
not about anything huge, it’s not uncovering murder mysteries
or anything, but it makes connections about people’s lives in
America at that time that reverberates today.”—Minnesota Public
Radio
“What makes One Day so extraordinary is how Weingarten combines
dogged, detailed reporting with beautiful, flowing prose. You
seldom see those two attributes combined in one writer.”—The
Antelope Valley Press
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