The first official 9/11 victim

Posted Sep 5, 2008 by Kevin Walker

Updated Sep 5, 2008 at 01:50 PM

New York Daily News columnist Michael Daly has written a new book on Father Mychal Judge, the first official victim of 9/11. Judge rushed to the World Trade Center that day with firefighters, and died when the buildings collapsed. Daly takes a detailed look at his life, from his childhood in Brooklyn to eventual fame as a beloved preist known for working tirelessly with the homeless and AIDS victims. The book — The Book of Mychal: The Surprising Life and Heroic Death of Father Mychal Judge — came out earlier this week.

Also new is A Map of Home by Randa Jarrar, a coming of age story about a girl who grew up in Kuwait, the daughter of an Egypitian-Greek mother and a Palestinian father. The book promises to show readers “Arab culture as we don’t know it.”