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Nov 06, 2008

MB rated it:

This was a book group selection, not my own selection. I didn't like it, I thought the style was atrocious, and ultimately I didn't believe one of the narrators (the art dealer). I thought the "modern day slave's" story was absolutely fascinating, but the rich white art dealer was too busy telling us how much better a Christian he was than anyone else. His faith did not sound sincere to me; I felt like he was constantly clubbing me over the head with it.

Please note: some of More...

8 comments like (17 people liked it)

Jun 01, 2009

Jackie rated it:

Its awkward to read a memoir when you don't like the subject. It's awkward to read religious propaganda from a religion you don't subscribe to or ever intend to subscribe to. And it's really awkward to feel the terrible sadness of a real person's death while gawking at the absurdity of her family and friends' visions of angels and spirits.

I have to admit I started off with the idea that I wasn't going to like Same Kind of Different As Me. I'd read some reviews and they were largely p More...

5 comments like (15 people liked it)

Mar 23, 2008

Nandi rated it:

I am currently reading this book; I saw it in Walmart and I didn't pick it up then, but I just had to get a copy of this book. I'll hold judgement for now but from what I've read, I am touched. No, it may not be the most well written book, it may not be this or that, but if it touches lives, I'm down for it anyday and from what I see here, that's what it's doing.

Well, I finished this within a day and I tell you, I wanted to grab a hanky and cry when Debbie died. One thing that struc More...

0 comments like (10 people liked it)

Feb 23, 2009

Faith rated it:

When I was at FSU, a girl came up to me in the public restrooms and started chatting with me. She was very nice and friendly, but at the end of the conversation, just like that, she invited me to go on a Christian retreat with her. I was very put off by this. She'd maybe talked to me for 2 minutes and proceeded to invite me to a whole weekend activity as if we were old friends.

That's kind of how this book made me feel. Just as I'm getting to know the characters and their backgr More...

0 comments like (8 people liked it)

Feb 11, 2009

Sheryl rated it:

i had no idea this was printed by a division of nelson, a christian publisher or i would not have read it. but i am glad i did as it raised more questions than it answered and was fantastic on so many levels. the mystery, magic and miracles described...the fascinating story of denver...a modern day slave, and the question of the value of prayer for anyone, believer or not was thot provoking for the hardline evangelical. but denver's life, dialect/speech and history was the highlight. the cha More...

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

Nov 15, 2011

booklady rated it:

A recommendation from my daughter's college roommate, an Evangelical Christian who doesn't even like to read, but she was squeezing this book in between Thermal Dynamics and Bio-Chemical Engineering homework, college life, church and a boyfriend. It seemed a high endorsement.

Same Kind of Different as Me is a true story about how God likes to bring people together for His own purposes. In this case, we have a former cotton-picker, turned runaway, street man, ex-con, who meets a we More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 22, 2009

Nancy rated it:

The first thing I noticed about this book is that it was reviewed by Barbara Bush, and her review made me throw up in my mouth a little. (In case anybody is interested, when I hear the name "Barbara Bush", I hear again Barbara's voice on the radio during the aftermath of Katrina, saying how the shattered former New Orleanians at the Houston shelter "never had it so good." I will never forgive her for that. And Laura! Laura couldn't even remember the name of the hurricane) More...

8 comments like (4 people liked it)

Apr 21, 2008

Kim rated it:

I think the concept for this book was great. But whoever helped the two main characters tell their stories added so much fluff for "dramatic content" that the story was almost ruined for me by the end. I think if Denver Moore and Ron Hall had just told their story simply it would have been a wonderful book. I had a hard time believing that anyone actually said any of the dialogue by the time I finished.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 21, 2009

Leslie rated it:

I don’t know what it is about my book club picks this year. They seem to be taking a religious, emotional turn at full speed around a curve with no side rail. Perhaps it’s because of the difficult times we are facing. Perhaps people are drawn to inspirational tales of overcoming obstacles and wanting to discuss them in an open forum. So far, 3 of the last 5 books we’ve read have dealt with death on some level and it’s not even Halloween yet. Not Sherlock Holmes solving a mystery type of dea More...

2 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 03, 2008

Katy rated it:

The Denver part of the story was very interesting but, I found Ron to be selfish and uninteresting. I could careless about how much he (Ron) was spending on new homes, cars ect. Denver's life was heart-breaking and I really enjoyed reading about his life

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Apr 02, 2009

Gary rated it:

Admittedly the broken english title "Same Kind of Different as Me" piqued my interest and boy did I enjoy this book. It is an autobigraphy of two men and the miraculous events that were orchestrated bringing two vastly different lives and lifestyles to intersect in a purely heavenly moment. Something every reader should get out of this book is a deeper understanding of homeless people and a greater mystery of providence. If you feel you have been given a bad hand and would like to d More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 16, 2011

Amanda rated it:

I began reading this for one book club but ran out of time. But then the other book club I'm in picked this book too. Guess it is time to start reading this all the way through this time.

I'm glad I was presented with another opportunity to read this book. I'm not sure if I would have picked it up to finish again if it hadn't been for the selection to read this with my other book club. It still did not make it into my top book picks but it still served the purpose of a good read a More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 16, 2009

Jessica rated it:

While I enjoyed Denver's passages, Ron's passages left me with an uneasy, almost offended feeling. There is a point where he is talking about enlisting and he speaks of an incident with a woman he smoked pot with. Twice within the same paragraph he refers to her simply as the "fat chick". I was completely taken aback and aghast at such a juvinile and mean spirited statement that he felt the need to reiterate a few sentences later. There is another passage he talks about his $500 Europe More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 29, 2009

Erica rated it:

This was a book that made me think about the people that I come into contact with and what I can, or have, learned from them. It made me ponder if I have ever really added some sort of value to someone else's existence. I have not had an experience like the relationship in the book (coming together with someone from the opposite side of the track), but I do have people in my life that I can't imagine not having met. It is a rare occasion when a book makes me cry but I found myself choked up a More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Mar 25, 2009

Grant rated it:

The bottom line is that this book tells a good tale (a bonafied true story!) about a homeless black guy and rich white guy who become best friends through the pluck and persistance of the latter’s freakin’ angelic wife. The story is remarkable, and it has left a real mark on the city of Ft. Worth, TX. I’m not saying that it’s for everyone, but anyone who ever laid a claim to a hope in The Lawd could use this book as quick test of the state of their soul. (I know mine could use some work.)
More...

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 19, 2008

Joyce rated it:

I wish I could say I liked the book. I felt ambushed about half way through when it became a cancer story. Perhaps that doesn’t make sense, but having lost one of my sons to cancer and then a few years ago my brother, it is hard to read stuff like that without somehow steeling myself for it first. In any case, I just didn’t care for how it was written, even beyond the cancer part of the story. Maybe a bit too much of patting themselves on the back. I don’t know. I did not feel like it was that w More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 08, 2008

Kris rated it:

A wonderful true story, especially in today's rush-rush world where we barely notice those around us. A truly inspiring story of how one woman's love, motivation and faith connected two very unlikely gentlemen and part of a city.

Set mostly in Fort Worth, TX it was especially interesting for me to read something set so close to home.

This book was a learning experience for me on so many levels, but it espeically opened my eyes to things I had no idea went on in our rec More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jul 02, 2008

Kathryn rated it:

I don't know that I enjoyed this as much as most of my book club (though the book club where we disscussed it was a great night). I enjoyed the spirituality of it and the glimpse into a different kind of worship than I practice. There were parts that I really did enjoy reading like where Denver drives to Colorado with a truck loaded with more things than he's ever owned. Maybe I'm just the most cynical person, but I just kept wondering why they wrote the book. What was the aim in writing it? The More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 16, 2007

Melissa rated it:

I've had this book for a few weeks. It had been suggested to me by a few people and then someone actually bought it for me. I finally started reading it Sunday afternoon and finished it that night. I'm not a terribly fast reader at all, I just couldn't put it down. The two narrative voices are completely different and the reader is completely drawn into each narrator's story in appropriate measures. I would be just as moved if I didn't work in a Rescue Mission. It's an amazing story of how More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 06, 2007

Marci rated it:

I recently read this book for a book club I am in. It is a true story co-written by two very different men that God brought together in a very unusual way. The first man is a former share-cropper (pretty much modern day slavery). He was raised in rural Louisiana and suffered much because of his race and poverty. He ended up homeless, uneducated and in prison. The second man is a Texan, white, rich and is an art deal. He had the "American Dream" life in every way. However, God saw these More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 03, 2009

Steve rated it:

I'm not sure what to say about this other than I found myself skimming the last 100 pages. There are certainly a lot of compelling and inspirational pieces to the story, but I have to say I felt like the two main characters were somewhat delusional in their religious beliefs and faith, and that a lot of suffering could have been avoided by a few reality checks along the way. The revelation that seemed to most amaze everyone concerned was that a black man and a rich evangelical white man could b More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 11, 2008

LaLa rated it:

ok - so this is kind of a hokey book. I mean, it's joint authored by this very rich christian white man and this very homeless christian black man and it's about thier relationship. So you can understand. A little hokey. But I was really blown away. I mean, how many homeless people do you and I have relationships with? and meaningful ones? ones where they come and live in our house? where we go to the presidential inaugural ball together?
I'm just saying.
As far as a guide for h More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 25, 2008

Meghan rated it:

An easy read about a great friendship between two men from very different backgrounds who come together through their faith and really through a dream the one man's wife has about a homeless man. The book is very much a spiritual book. It is not pushy in any way.....purely a story of how faith moves people during happy, lonely, fearful, sad times.

Warning/spoiler...there is a person in this book who dies of cancer. It is a vivid account of death and dying which I wasn't prepared f More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 07, 2009

Jen rated it:

This is a double memoir of two very different men and how their paths cross. One is a very wealthy white man, the other is a homeless black man. The two become unlikely best friends. I really enjoyed Denver's story as he was a sharecropper in Louisiana for the first part of his life. The book has a highly religious theme that I didn't care for, but it didn't turn me off either. The description of Debbie's death was particularly difficult to read.

I enjoyed it overall and recomme More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Mar 30, 2011

Debra rated it:

Everyone should read this one. I laughed, I cried.. it was amazing.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 11, 2008

Erin rated it:

I just read this while my Mom was visiting us b/c she wanted it back before she left. I had heard about this book but it didn't seem like my kind of book. However, I was wrong and really enjoyed reading it and following the stories of these 2 men and how God used them to serve others. And to see these men grow into the men of God that He has always wanted them to be was wonderful. There were some tough things to read about that happened to Denver. But it was a great true story that encourag More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Mar 01, 2009

Nora rated it:

I'm amazed at how God weaves our life in a way that allows us to accomplish His will here on earth. This story about Ron Hall an affluent art seller and Denver Moore raised as a slave in a time when everyone was supposed to be "free". Debbie Hall is willing to share God's greatest gift with the unemotional, guarded, smelly homeless community. Debbie sees people the way Jesus did. Ron steps out to help Debbie to love the unlovable because he wants to spend time with his wife,nothing mor More...

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Jan 06, 2009

Kirstin rated it:

The alternating viewpoints of Ron (the wealthy art dealer) and Denver (the homeless former share cropper) helped keep this story moving along just as I would start to get irritated by one or the other. I was duly saddened by the poverty that exists in our country (and a bit appalled at both the amount of money spent on art and the amount that can be earned by reselling it). I was impressed at the willingness of the Hall family to reach out and help the homeless and befriend Denver. I was amazed More...

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Jan 22, 2012

Chrissy rated it:

I started reading this book before bed and ended up not going to sleep until I was done. Denver Moore grew up in tragic circumstances as a modern day slave to plantation owners in Louisiana. Sharecropping changed black men from slaves to indentured servants--different in name only. Denver left the fields of Louisiana for the rails and the streets. At some point he ends up in prison in Lousiana, and then back to the streets of Fort Worth, Texas, where he lives life as a hardened homeless man. More...

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Nov 08, 2011

Michael rated it:

Wow.

Most of the books I read are either books to help you through life, faith based, sports related, and so forth. True story books haven’t been the first book I grab off the shelf.

As a reviewer of books for Thomas Nelson’s BookSneeze.com program, Same Kind of Different As Me wasn’t my first choice, but I went ahead and decided to review, since it was different than the other books available for me to review.

I have not had something move me the way this story did in More...

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