What do you think?
Rate this book
Let There Be Light: The Inspirational Achievements of a Man Born Blind
This inspirational memoir will provide hope to many of us who feel at times discouraged, stuck in what we think is a helpless situation, bullied on the playgrounds of life, or shunned for being different. Joe Giovanelli was born blind at a time when blind children were often warehoused in special schools and then shunted off to work in sheltered workshops. But not for Joe!
His school-teacher mom pushed for a good education and his dad encouraged Joe’s mechanical aptitudes. Joe became a trailblazer in education of the blind, graduating cum laude from Syracuse University. With an upbeat love for his work, he became a leader in the field of audio and recording.
He was awakened in mid-life by how God had and continues to guide him throughout his life. Perseverance, enriched by his personal faith, enabled him to meet obstacles and move beyond where many would give up. Always ready to entertain others with his musicianship and also wit, Joe endears himself to those privileged to know him. And this delightfully told memoir gives us a new understanding of what it’s like to live day by day blind in a sighted world. And Joe says, “I never felt I needed sight.”
The memoir of Joe Giovanelli is a beautifully crafted story and one of the best told memoirs I have seen in my over 40 years in publishing. It pulls you the reader in just as if you were sitting chatting with Joe – getting to know well the evolving personality and inspiring life story of this remarkable man.
—Stephen Pfleiderer, retired publishing executive
His school-teacher mom pushed for a good education and his dad encouraged Joe’s mechanical aptitudes. Joe became a trailblazer in education of the blind, graduating cum laude from Syracuse University. With an upbeat love for his work, he became a leader in the field of audio and recording.
He was awakened in mid-life by how God had and continues to guide him throughout his life. Perseverance, enriched by his personal faith, enabled him to meet obstacles and move beyond where many would give up. Always ready to entertain others with his musicianship and also wit, Joe endears himself to those privileged to know him. And this delightfully told memoir gives us a new understanding of what it’s like to live day by day blind in a sighted world. And Joe says, “I never felt I needed sight.”
The memoir of Joe Giovanelli is a beautifully crafted story and one of the best told memoirs I have seen in my over 40 years in publishing. It pulls you the reader in just as if you were sitting chatting with Joe – getting to know well the evolving personality and inspiring life story of this remarkable man.
—Stephen Pfleiderer, retired publishing executive
343 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 29, 2010
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 13, 2021
AUDIO magazine, for decades, had its AUDIOclinic column helping readers with audio records, tape, electronics and speaker problems. It was always the clearest, best-written material in the magazine.
I was going through very old issues. There was a picture of the columnist. It was posed "different". As soon as I saw it I knew Joe was blind. It was the way older photographers posed my near-blind friend Newton, so the eyes did not look 'lost'.
As a sighted audio-person I was fascinated by how he repaired radios, read meters, monitored tape length, "differently". How he got through "normal person" schools (in an era when most blind folk were institutionalized and workshopped).
Joe's spiritual journey was complex and twisty. This part interested me less, but it is all well-written and convincing, and can be read on several levels. (less)
I was going through very old issues. There was a picture of the columnist. It was posed "different". As soon as I saw it I knew Joe was blind. It was the way older photographers posed my near-blind friend Newton, so the eyes did not look 'lost'.
As a sighted audio-person I was fascinated by how he repaired radios, read meters, monitored tape length, "differently". How he got through "normal person" schools (in an era when most blind folk were institutionalized and workshopped).
Joe's spiritual journey was complex and twisty. This part interested me less, but it is all well-written and convincing, and can be read on several levels. (less)
Displaying 1 of 1 review