Third Quarter Outside Reading Book Review

The Blind Side by Michael Lewis. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 2006
Genre: Nonfiction/Biography

The book starts off talking about Tom Lemming who traveled the country searching for the best high school football players who would be eligible for a scholarship to college. One day, he got a tape which had Michael Oher playing football on it. Lemming could not believe his eyes so he had to go out and meet Oher himself and from there he learned of his incredible story. Michael came from a poor family and his mother was addicted to drugs and had continuous children so Michael was always on the run. He stumbles upon Leigh Anne Tuohy who takes him in and cares for him. He gets enrolled in school but gets very poor grades. That becomes a problem as he wants to play football in college so with the help of his new family and his tutor Miss Sue he overcomes all of the struggles of his life and becomes able to play football for Ole Miss and now Michael Oher is currently playing football for the Baltimore Ravens.

"Lewis is the finest storyteller of our generation, and this is his best book. Supposedly about football...it's actually an extraordinary story about love and redemption." -Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point and Blink.

The book is nonfiction and tells about the story of Michael Oher as well as facts about football and the author, Michael Lewis was able to write it due to countless years of research and interviews. It brings you on a journey through Michael's life and there are some pretty brutal moments from poverty, drugs and abuse. You are in awe at how generous some people can be as Leigh Anne gives Michael an education, food, shelter and most importantly a family. The book uses elements of religion, racism and love and morphs it into an incredible story.

"The lady said she was just trying to establish the facts of the case, but the facts didn't describe the case. If the Tuohys were Ole Miss boosters-and they certainly were-they had violated the letter of every NCAA rule ever written. They'd given Michael more than food, clothing and shelter. They'd given him a life." (202)

I had to choose a biography and while searching for one, I stumbled upon this book on a bookshelf and I had heard about the story before and the buzz on the movie so I knew it was a great story to begin with but I never thought that it would be so powerful. The story really showed you how a good deed goes a long away. It is up to you to do the right thing. This book has really inspired me to help out people more and to be a better person. Since I am not a sports fan and don't know much about football, I was a little skeptical but the book makes non-sports fans enjoy the story just as much because Lewis uses a very simple and easy way to describe the basics and I really appreciated that.