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on November 17, 2013
The Blind Side is a great book! It's an inspirational book. A kid, Michael Oher, has grown up in a poor part of town. His mother is in the hospital and all he has is his guardian, Big Tony. A rich, white family feels bad for him and pays for him to go to an evangelical school. He doesn't know how to read or write until the family takes him in to this school, Briarcrest Evangelical private school. He flunks everything until the special ed teacher takes him in to help him. He passes high school there and goes on to play professional football. This story is based on a true story.
on August 12, 2014
I very much enjoyed the movie and now had the opportunity to read in more detail what it took to turn Michael's life around and his adopted family. The book gives insight into real life both privileged and forgotten. The Oher story should have been a statistic, yet the love of a mom that would move mountains prevailed! I confess to not totally understanding football but now see how there have always been someone to guard my blind side in life! This is an inspiring story that needs to be heard!
on March 17, 2015
I'M VERY GLAD THAT I READ THIS BOOK.......MOSTLY BECAUSE I HAVE LEARNED SO MUCH ABOUT FOOTBALL FROM IT. I PICKED IT UP BECAUSE I WANTED TO LEARN ABOUT MICHAEL OHER AND I HAD SEEN A PORTION OF THE MOVIE. I WAS PLEASANTLY SURPRISED TO FIND THAT THERE WAS AN EDUCATION ABOUT FOOTBALL FOR ME IN THESE PAGES. I EVEN IMPRESSED MY HUSBAND BY TELLING HIM SOMETHING HE HAD NOT REALIZED ABOUT COMPENSATION FOR THE LEFT TACKLE POSITION.
on June 16, 2012
I serve on a non profit board that serves children at risk and it was suggested that we read this book . I am glad I did and also saw the movie. They approach the story from different angles but both get to the heart of the matter which is helping children get back on track after they have thrown under the bus. This is a theme that gets played daily in foster family and it is up to those brave foster parents to pick these kids up and get them going again in school, career, sports and cultural activities . The success can small and sometimes outstanding. We have a slogan " From a life of abuse to a life of use" . This book meets that bar and exceeds it and gives us hope for the next generation.
on July 2, 2008
If you liked Moneyball and are hoping this will be its spiritual successor, it's not. It's much more a story of one player, Michael Oher, and his travels through high school and college football (as of July 2008 he's still in college so no pro career to speak of).
I used to work as a lawyer for a pro football team so I read these kinds of stories with some personal interest, but if you're looking for a pure sports book buy Moneyball. If you like Lewis' writing style and his ability to tell a story you won't be disappointed at all. It's a great story and does contain an interesting analysis of the development of college and pro football and especially the role of the left tackle in the new offence. But it's much more personal than Moneyball - much more in the style of Liar's Poker, which becomes explained in the afterword when you discover that he knows the family described in the book personally and so he had significantly more insight into their private lives than an ordinary author.
I used to work as a lawyer for a pro football team so I read these kinds of stories with some personal interest, but if you're looking for a pure sports book buy Moneyball. If you like Lewis' writing style and his ability to tell a story you won't be disappointed at all. It's a great story and does contain an interesting analysis of the development of college and pro football and especially the role of the left tackle in the new offence. But it's much more personal than Moneyball - much more in the style of Liar's Poker, which becomes explained in the afterword when you discover that he knows the family described in the book personally and so he had significantly more insight into their private lives than an ordinary author.
on December 28, 2009
There is not one bad thing I can say about this book. I would give it 10 stars if I could. A truly inspiring true story. I enjoyed this book from page one and finished it in record time. It is a great story and very well written. I was basically interested in Michael Oher's story, but the book includes a lot of knowledge about football, and a lot of facts that aren't obvious when you watch football on TV and listen to the announcers. I wasn't a big football fan before this book, but now I am. There is so much more going on in a game than I thought. Now I'm looking at different things on the field. And you can follow Oher's incredible rise and career since he was drafted in the first round by the Baltimore Ravens.
on January 9, 2014
I wanted to read the book after having seen the movie, thinking the book would provide more in-depth character background. It has the full story line from the movie, but about 75% of the book is football play by play type analysis. Great for a football enthusiast, I'd say, but not for someone who is more interested in the human interest aspect of the relationships among the characters.
on January 7, 2010
I enjoyed Michael Lewis' The Blind Side, but not for the reasons I had expected. First of all, it's not just a heartwarming vehicle for a Sandra Bullock Oscar. It's really partly about the metamorphosis of certain positions in football's offensive and defensive lines, partly about the struggle to find a process for integrating an underachieving, socially vacuous, but physically imposing poor kid into the upper echelons of the Memphis private education system, and the fine lines of perception between help and charity and self-serving motivations.
Put it all together and its an excellent read, but not one that will appeal to every reader. Especially with the expectations that have been set by the release of the movie.
Put it all together and its an excellent read, but not one that will appeal to every reader. Especially with the expectations that have been set by the release of the movie.
on December 28, 2009
My family saw the movie so we decided to get the book; I remembered vaguely reading a New York Times magazine piece that Lewis wrote on the subject some time ago that I assume was excerpted from the book and thought it would be interesting to get the full story. It's an interesting and enjoyable book overall, with one main caveat: the movie for obvious reasons takes the Michael Oher story as the primary focus, while the book is fairly balanced between Oher's inspiring life story and the larger story about the "evolution of a game," namely football, that Lewis addresses using Oher as a jumping-off point. As long as you understand that's going on and aren't surprised you should enjoy the story and the football analysis!
