The idea of creating a scrapbook of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks may seem like a morbid idea at first, but with more media coverage than almost any event in world history, the urge to collect and correlate some of the thousands of images and words is almost irresistible. At least the editors of A Diary Between Friends have chosen a tasteful angle from which to memorialize the event for book buyers. Rather than focusing on the senseless tragedy and carnage, the book offers a collage of intimate first-person accounts, poems, speeches, and photographs and drawings from hundreds of American and Canadian citizens brought together by the day’s events.

The tone here is both consoling and heroic, beginning with testimonials to the kindness shown to passengers stranded in Canadian airports and ending with a moving letter from Paul Cellucci, the American ambassador to Canada. In the letter he thanks the people of Canada for their help and solidarity, calling the countless gestures of support the “images of a generous spirit, of unbounded kindness, and of the best of what it is to be human.”