In addition to its exploration of the personal experiences of a single day, "One Day" also raises broader questions about the nature of time, memory, and meaning. Weingarten reflects on the fleeting nature of life and the power of storytelling to capture and preserve moments of beauty and truth. He invites readers to ponder the mysteries of existence and to find meaning and purpose in the fleeting moments of our lives. An intrigueing premise fully delivers an unexpectedly fascinating narrative of one "normal" day in the United States.

I'm currently clearing out all of the books that were published in 2019-20 from my title feedback view!

I really enjoyed this book. It makes you realize how much goes on in one single day. You forget that the world is so big, yet so small. This was a fantastic peek into one random day in history and what happened to so many, unrelated people.

What happened in one day in history all over the United States. Who knew what all happened on December 28th 1986.

What a great concept for a book. Many of us can remember a particular day in our lives that had a great impact on us. This book covers one day picked at random and gives us a look at peoples experiences on that day. Some of the stories were very, very good and others were a little boring.

You ever read a book and you do not want it to end? That is how I felt about this book. You never think about what has happened on any given day in multiple locations. This book did just that and boy, was it good reading!! The stories held your attention and made you want to keep reading. I really hope the author will do more books like this. I for one would buy them. Great reading!!!! Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the arc of this book in return for my honest review. Receiving the book in this manner had no bearing on this review.

A unique story line that will pull you into each day of these lives, even though it's the same day. Gene Weingarten has done an excellent job of compiling true examples of life...many lives actually...all happening on the same day. He has included examples of lives lived at every level and every emotion. Each story strikes a cord, all together they serve as an excellent example of life lived fully. An excellent book to gift to anyone that enjoys the human connection that runs through all communities.

When I first picked up this book, I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t this.

Pick one day at random, and tell the innumerable stories. The good, the bad, and the downright ugly, yet each person, picked at random had a story to tell.

Not a quick read, I would suggest one recollection at a time. A chance to savor and to question. An opportunity to realize that what a day of joy could be for one person, could be 24-hours of hell for another all the while the rest of us go on completely oblivious to what others around us are experiencing.

This human-interest book is a peek into the lives of others. An unexpected glimpse into the stories that could be shared if only someone would tell them – and that sir, is what you did.

In Gene Weingarten's book "One Day", he gets strangers to randomly pick a day - landing on Sunday December 28th, 1986. What follows are a series of vignettes, highlighting a an event that happened on that day, and the larger story surrounding that event and the person it happened to. Each chapter is full of remarkably well written, thoughtful observations about the situation. You are left always wanting to know more, to follow the tantalizing tidbits that Weingarten leaves for the reader.
I will be recommending this title to the adult book club in my library, and putting it in family members' stockings this Christmas! Absolutely loved it.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very cool format and idea for a book. What happens if you pick a random day, and research to see what all happened on that day? The author did just that and researched for 6 years to see what happened to people on a Sunday that fell between Christmas and New Year's - December 28, 1986

I enjoyed this and am in awe that the author went though so much detail to put together a book like this.

Recommend!

What a fascinating premise and a well-executed book. I hope it gets a lot of traction, because the overarching message - that ordinary stories are, in fact, what makes life extraordinary - is one that needs broadcasting everywhere. A fun book that still maintains great depth!

Thank you to Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Random House, for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

DNF @ 28%. I really hate to say it, but I had to put this down. The idea was so great, but the execution was lacking.

At first, I was really enjoying the writing, as it discussed a lot of topics that I'm currently learning about in school and I found that to be especially engaging. However, once that part ended I was left with disappointment.

Each story became more boring than the previous (the first one was very strong), and while I applaud the author for putting as much time and effort into this book as he did, I don't applaud him for the oversexualized descriptions of women and some of the commentary against the validity of cultural appropriation.

After both of those offenses, I decided that I couldn't continue. It's truly a shame, as I was very excited about the release of this book. You win some, you lose some, I suppose.

"One Day" by Gene Weingarten begins with his concept - what happened, in America, on some randomly chosen day. A Randomly chosen day - December 28, 1986 is the date generated from a few blind pulls-from-a-hat. He bemoans the luck of this - It's the week between Christmas and New Years, it's a Sunday, generally a slow news point and Monday's papers are notoriously slim; it's 1986 - pre-internet. Somehow, despite these barriers, Weingarten writes up multiple unique events that occured that day, following the clock and moving all around the country, to introduce the reader to people and situations of all sorts. Very enjoyable read, interesting scenarios supplemented by great writing and throrough research. Highly recommend.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with this book in exchange for my honest opinion. It will be available on October 22nd.

I was immediately drawn to the idea of this book. I love things that remind us that, although the world is big, we are all part of it and we affect each other’s lives- often in ways we never even know about. When it comes right down to it, the world isn’t as big as it often seems. We all love, fear, grieve, and hope. This books is an excellent reminder of that.

At the beginning of the book, the author lamented the day that was picked. It was during what is normally a slow news week, and nothing of note was known to have happened on that day. However, as this book proved, there is no such thing as an unimportant day.

This isn’t a light read. It will make you think. It will make you question every interaction you’ve had during the day. Was that smile you gave a stranger what gave them the courage to call a suicide help-line? How do “insignificant moments” affect lives down the road? We will never know what’s going on with others around us behind closed doors, what people keep private, but we aren’t islands. This book was a reminder of that.

The writing was superb, the lengths the author went to in order to get first- hand accounts was astonishing, and the book was wonderful. This would make a great Christmas gift. While you’re at it, pick up a copy for yourself.

It was supposed to be an ordinary day for the author to describe He was disappointed by the random choice of the Sunday after Christmas in 1986, thinking that it would surely have been a slow news day about which he would be hard pressed to find interesting things to write. To the contrary, the true stories he found and relayed for us are riveting, both heart-warming and poignant, uplifting and distressing. Beginning with a grueling heart transplant operation soon after midnight, and ending with a Grateful Dead concert before the next midnight, Weingarten gives us a glimpse into a wide range of experiences and emotions..

One Day tells the story of a single day in America, hour by hour, using a date drawn from a hat - Sunday, December 28, 1986. I've been a fan of Gene Weingarten's feature writing and weekly humor chats at the Washington Post for over a decade. I've shared his work with family and friends and watched them all be moved by his writing too. He manages to write about real people in ordinary circumstances in a way that makes them feel just as special and significant as a heart transplant team doing a lifesaving procedure for the first time. You get a little bit of everything in this book, from true crime to inspirational personal profile to romantic comedy to political history. It's an interesting variety, threaded together by interviews with the principal characters in the present tense, who look back at the events with the perspective of thirty-three intervening years. It's very, very well written, although the book as a whole might feel a bit too disconnected by the episodic nature of each chapter. Sometimes bits get dropped into a chapter's timeline that feel like non sequiturs, although they usually do add some color. I read a pre-publication eBook copy, and I found myself hoping that the print version includes a photo insert of the principal figures. I think this would be an excellent book club selection, and I'd recommend it to anyone interested in journalistic feature writing as well.

Clever premise, and expertly executed! I enjoyed seeing where the random date in history would lead. Well done!

Wow. I was hooked by the premise--choose a random day and find out what happened on it to try and answer whether there is such a thing as a normal day--and I was not disappointed. An intriguing depiction of how even a seemingly ordinary day holds moments that affect lives for years to come. Weingarten doesn't waste words, so when a story seemed to be "uneventful" I soon knew a surprise was coming. While some stories were sad, and even devastating, I was left feeling more hopeful about the possibilities of life and with a greater sense of appreciation about what may appear to be the mundane days of my life. Gathering, confirming, and culling the details for this book must've been daunting, but the end result is worthy of such efforts. A great book for book club discussions.

I really enjoyed this collection of stories about one day in America, December 28, 1986. The author did an amazing job at presenting each story and giving us a personal look at the lives of each individual and how that day shaped them and the people around them. With each story he includes what happened on that day as well as the continuing story of everyone's lives years later and into the present day. The stories he finds are gripping, emotional, and extremely engaging and interesting. Gene Weingarten has made sure that December 28, 1986 a previously obscure day for most of us, will be remembered by many from now on.

Gene Weingarten has done a superb job chronicling one random selected day in the life of America. A unique concept that he pull off with aplomb!