Tuesday Review, Same Kind of Different as Me

A good friend of mine loaned me a couple of books and said I needed to read them. I usually ask people if I can borrow books, not the other way around, so this took me by surprise. Pleasant surprise. It's a beautiful thing to be known as a reader.

Same Kind of Different as Me, by Ron Hall and Denver Moore, is a great read. The first 40 or so pages are decent, but don't necessarily hold you. Once past that, OMG. There's no turning back.

ALERT!!! If you read this book, DO NOT look at the photos in the center of the book until you're done reading it! They spoil the second half of the book!

Yes, photos. Meaning this is a true story. And the beauty of Same Kind of Different as Me? It does not in any way read like a biography. It reads like a novel.

There are two voices, both men from the south, raised in vastly different environments. The book flashes back and forth between it's main story line and their growing up experiences. Dallas is probably my favorite of the two men, since I grew up near his home in central Louisiana. Had absolutely no understanding of his upbringing as a sharecropper's son/grandson.nephew, but he unfolds it well.

It's difficult not to give anything away. One man is wealthy, the other homeless. This book is the connecting point between the two. And I cried through most of the second half of the book. Getting through it was tough. And worth it.

Five stars - I highly recommend this book. Know that the authors are Christians, so their views come through. It's well done. I hope you have the opportunity to try this one on for size.

Until I write again ...

Flea