I enjoyed reading this book. It was written by, Gene Weingarten, the only two time Pulitzer Prize winner for Feature Writing. As the book description says, "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." He looked into news that occurred on that day and told the story, elaborating on the lives of the people involved. It was most entertaining. I recognized some of the basic story in some of the chapters, but the back story was what made the book so interesting. It's a good read.

This book is a gem. Fabulously written. Loved it

Great book and premise. Reads like TV's Dateline, without oratory and moralistic conclusions. Story of murder leading to a heart transplant hits a home run. Indeed, a thoughtful item for book clubs and dinner talk.

I couldn’t get into this. The first story was the best, then most of the rest were bummer stories. I also didn’t care for the writing style...wondering where the author is going.

Occasionally, someone else’s wonderful idea will come to my attention, causing me to smack my forehead in frustration and exclaim, “Dang, I wish I had thought of that!” “One Day: The Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary 24 Hours in America” by Gene Weingarten is the cause of my latest outburst of cranial violence (Full disclosure: I used a different word than “dang”, however). Maybe it has been done before and I’m simply unaware of it, but when casting about for a book idea, this one must have seemed like a big bowl of “oh, yeah!” Pick a day, totally at random, research the heck out of it, then write it all down, and there’s your book. That is a good . . . no . . . that is a great idea. Through a series of blind draws, December 28, 1986 became the chosen day. Weingarten was a bit disappointed with this date because it happened to be the Sunday between Christmas and New Year’s, a notoriously slow day for news. But, as it turned out, it was perfect for such an endeavor. No cataclysmic historical events happened on that day to overwhelm the intriguing, sometimes compelling, formerly anonymous stories that make up the chapters in this book. This was just another day in America. Not to the people featured in pages of “One Day”, however. Gene Weingarten’s obvious point here is that momentous, life-altering events happen in anonymity to people every day of the year.

This is a remarkable result from an unusual premise. As a history, it is an incredibly detailed look at the currents of world history through the lens of events in a dozen or so non-historical (if not always ordinary) lives. As a look at the human condition it is by turns joyous and terrible, mundane and mysterious. By the end you will know all of the people who walked through parts of their life story on that day in late December 1986 as well as anyone can, perhaps. This book stands alongside the best of Kuralt, Keillor, and maybe Ann Rule.

I was hooked by the premise--find out what happened on a random day to try and answer whether there is such a thing as a normal day--and I was not disappointed. An intriguing depiction of how an "ordinary" day holds moments that affect lives for years to come. 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. Good for book club discussions.