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 enlarge | Author: Michael Lewis
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy Used: $0.78
You Save: $24.17 (97%)
New (41) Collectible (12) from $4.90
Avg. Customer Rating:  150 reviews
Sales Rank: 7014
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.1 x 1
ISBN: 039306123X
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.332092
EAN: 9780393061239
ASIN: 039306123X
Publication Date: September 2, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: EX-LIBRARY; used item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned for refund. Buy with confidence - your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics!
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| Customer Reviews:
 overrated book August 24, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
this is really a book of three parts: 1. one the emergence of the left tackle position in the nfl and how that happened (bill walsh). 2. michael oher taken in by the tuohys. and 3. michael oher becoming high school football sensation and blue chip recruit.
1. is interesting
2. is heartwarming
3. actually starts to totally undermine 2. i went from thinking the tuohys were great people who wanted to help a poor going nowhere kid to thinking maybe the tuohys were in on some master plan to bring big mike to ole miss. this is ultimately where the book fails, the scheming; also the book is entirely rushed at the end and has no sort of conclusion since oher is still a work in progress at a currently bad football school but seems to be highly thought of by nfl draft gurus. one hopes oher makes it but it seems a difficult road, in the nfl they won't diagram plays for you with kitchen chairs or ketchup bottles and the offenses are extremely complex.
all in all i wouldn't recommend this book it starts with promise but about halfway through you really lose faith in everyone concerned in the book and so it leaves a bad aftertaste.
 This book is fabulous and has many angles to enjoy August 14, 2008
My mom recommended this book to me and I finally saw it at the library and put it on the bottom of my reading pile. But when I started reading, I read it very quickly because it is so engaging. This is a book about football, but it is also a book about race and class relations, generosity, luck, and life. It challenges you to think about how far you would be willing to go to help another person and what might happen if you actually did that. Outstanding.
 Ante-Bellum Nostalgia July 23, 2008
0 out of 8 found this review helpful
I saw the author interviewed by Barry Kibrick on the local community college television station. They disgussed the issue of the prohibition against organizations cultivating young potential college-ball recruits with gifts and aid and ["perhaps"] whether this was the motivation in adopting a child from the inner city, it was left unclear, of course BECAUSE IT WOULD BE A MONSTROUS THING TO ADOPT A CHILD SPECIFICALLY TO SERVE YOUR ALMA-MATERS FOOTBALL TEAM!!! This issue is deftly dealt with as an unconfronted secondary matter which really doesn't require that much attention--RIGHT!? This book delibrately avoids a hard look at a real manifestation of SLAVE CULTURE! The act itself renders secondary the childs life to a brief time on a college football team. It is saying that it is less important that a child has a history that is his own, that of his parents and grand parents, and not the history of the rich people who lived across town and were so proud of their third rate college team they just had to have a player--some kind of pet-mascot hybrid whose training program and life perspective and system of values can be molded in any way to suit that end enforcable by law--like a slave. Why? Because in their heart of hearts they believe in slavery. Like Milton Freidman says in "Capitalism and Freedom," [Robinson Crusoe, without his man Friday is not free, because he must fend for his own survival.] It becomes clearer as your read what Freidman means by this... it isn't the freedom of the wage earner that is of value protecting, nor those tied to a salary, or even the freedoms of those with a modicum of wealth, but those who've really created freedom like say in the tens and hundreds of millions of dollars, or even better, billions of dollars worth of wealth. What Freidman shares with most other economists in this regard is this... he chooses to empathize with those most likely to offer him a career and not those who comprise the bulk of humanity. Like this book, "The Blind Side," which acknowldges social strife in the inner city just so far as it hinders a couple of ghoulish gnomes and the recruiting hinderances of their favorite college team! Screw this book, screw Michael Lewis and Barry Kibrick!
Excellent writing; fun story... July 6, 2008
My husband made me read this book. I wasn't looking forward to it. After about 10 pages I was hooked. I knew nothing about football going into this book and absolutely loved it. I got it for my brother for his birthday and he was obsessed. He got it for our father...he's hooked.
Great story of overcoming odds while teaching about the sport of football.
Everyone will enjoy this one!
Football, meet economics. Economics, meet football. July 5, 2008
On the surface, this is a book about Michael Oher, a poor teenager in Memphis, whose size and speed turn him into one of the country's top football prospects. Michael Lewis, one of the greats at mapping the intersection between sports and economics, expands the story to include much more. He demonstates why the frenzy occured over someone like Michael Oher (the Left Tackle covers the Quarterback's blind side, a huge gap after Lawrence Taylor showed exactly how fragile the multimillion dollar QB investments can be) as well as how people try to jump on the bandwagon.
The book is at it's finest when it shows the conflicting loyalties of people "helping" Michael Oher improve his life. What are the true intentions of the coach who also is looking for a ticket to a college coaching career? A mentor looking to assist his alma mater? Or even the unwritten - an author looking for a topical subject.
The book is a very easy read, and hard to put down. And you won't ever look at those offensive lineman the same.
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