By Faith, Not By Sight Review

The older I get, the more interested I am in biographies, which is why I wanted to read Scott MacIntyre's book "By Faith, Not By Sight".

MacIntyre is a guy who is only a couple of years younger than me, but the obstacles he's overcome in his life are absolutely incredible. It turns out that he was actually on American Idol several seasons ago, and although I did not watch the show, after reading his story I'm intrigued to watch some old videos of that season. Scott MacIntyre was born blind, and yet while I was reading the book of his life story I kept thinking, "What can't this guy do?" Fortunately he was born to parents who had great faith, and also believed they would do him a disservice by treating him differently than his siblings. Therefore, he learned to ride a bike alongside his brother. He jumped off of cliffs into huge water pools with his dad. He skis, he swims, he is a prodigy on the piano and supposedly has an amazing singing talent, although I do have yet to hear him perform (I have got to find his stuff on YouTube!)

As if Scott didn't have enough issues dealing with his lack of sight, as well as all the things that go along with being a child prodigy (he was in college at the age of 14), at 19 years old he found out his kidneys were failing. A large part of the book is about his journey with that. His family didn't want him to have a transplant because they felt like it was too risky. When reading about his health issues and the nerve-wracking situations he was in while on dialysis, I felt like screaming at him just to get the transplant. This section of the book was more interesting to me than it might be to someone else, because my mother is a liver transplant recipient. I'm sure she had some of the same feelings that he did, but knowing her outcome (very positive) made me read his story and I felt like shaking him at times!

It was a great story. He has done amazing things and met amazing people. The background information on American Idol was interesting too, even though I've never been a huge fan of the show. I would recommend this book. He has great humor, incredible faith, and the style of the book is very easy to read.

I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.