Reliable Rec's #1

Like a lot of avid readers, I have a long list of 'favorite books' that I frequently talk about and recommend to friends. So, I decided to start pulling out old favorites and sharing them! Some of too good to just be sitting in my Goodreads list.

My first Reliable Recommendation is Crashing Through: A True Story of Risk, Adventure and the Man Who Dared to See by Robert Kurson. Crashing Through is a fascinating story about a man who lost his sight in an accident as toddler and finds himself with the choice to restore his sight.

Kurson spends the first half of the book getting the reader to know Mike May. After loses his sight at age 3, his parents raise him with the same expectations they have for their other children. A natural daredevil, Mike grows up taking risks; even breaking downhill skiing records. He has a successful career and is happily married. Then, in a chance encounter presents him with the opportunity for surgery that can restore his vision. As he contemplates the surgery, he struggles with questions about how his life will change.

There are only 20 documented cases of people who regain their sight after a lifetime of blindness and each one experienced unexpected consequences. After weighing all this, Mike, the risk-taker that he is, decided to undergo the surgery. The second half of the book details the results of the survey and how his vision works today.

In addition to telling Mike May's personal journey, Kurson educates the reader on how vision and the brain interact and the history of the small number of people who walked Mike's path.

I found Mike May's story fascinating and Robert Kurson is one of my favorite nonfiction writers.