Review of Same Kind Of Diffrent as me

Same Kind of different As me
• Genre: Biography story
• Author: Ron Hall & Denver Moore
• Overall rating: 7.5 of 10
• How I heard about it: Booksneeze.com
• Suggested Audience : Christians above the age of 10 that are in the mood for a motivational read about how God can work through anyone.

Wow! When I first got this book I was not thinking I was going to like it. First of all it was a story that did not involve war or missions in other countries. But rather this story was based right here in America about a homeless black man and a rich art dealer. Now I am no fan of art usually and I also usually don’t read this type of book, Most of the Biographies I read involve famous missionaries or marine war heroes. But fulfilling my commitment to read and evaluate this book I opened the cover with an open mind, and yes, I think this one might make my top 25 list after all.
Let’s get the Critiques out of the way first before we start talking about the really good parts of it. The format is a little tough to follow at first. When one opens up the cover and begins in the first chapter the reader meets Denver a young black boy in Louisiana living on a plantation and he talking like a slave. What I mean by that is proper grammar is out the window, words are intentionally spelled wrong and some slang terms are used, which is exactly how a share cropper from the 1960’s would talk but it does serve as a bit of a distraction. This is coming from the little boy that cursed the grammar rules from the time he learned them but this went a little overboard. Next the book uses the word “nigger” several times. Right or wrong it was the life that Denver Moore knew; he was a called that by “da man” from the moment he was born. The word while a bit uncomfortable for a modern well to do white man to read repeatedly dose do a number to bring one back to a time and place where that was what blacks were called and illustrates why that word has come to mean what it has. The final critique I have for this piece was more of what can be considered a formatting flaw. There are a LOT! of chapters. The book ends on page 235 at the end of chapter 67!! Do the math that’s an average of less than 4 pages a chapter and there were a lot of page breaks because of the chapter ending. Many chapters were literally a page and a half and chapter 21 is barely that. It seems like a dumb critique for a book but it really did get a little annoying the book probably could have been about 170 pages if it weren’t for all the page breaks and spacing from the numerous chapters. In comparison the Book “Against All Odds” is 216 pages and has a mere 13 chapters.
Alright now to the book…wow for being completely out of my normal genre I was thoroughly impressed. Denver grew up as previously stated on a plantation and participated in a practice known as share cropping basically a legal form of slavery that went on in the United States as late as the 1970s. Shocker right? But the details of Denver Moore’s early life are literally that horrific and the word poverty seems like an understatement. Small shacks with no windows, outhouses working all day and all night on the farm and always being in debt to “da man” they were technically paid for their work but they were often paid in store credits and were charged for their houses and it usually left them in debt to their employer. It was defiantly a tough life but from Denver’s prospective it was all he had ever known and his attitude towards life is remarkably positive throughout the whole thing.
Next we meet Ron Hall as a college student his life quickly takes off, the opposite direction Denver’s life starts heading. Ron meets a lovely wife and gets a job as an investment banker shortly after college he finds that he has a real eye for art and begins to earn a little extra money on the side consigning art works to galleries and private buyers.
So how the lives of this millionaire and homeless bum finally meet is an act of sheer provenance but after several big life decisions from both parties they eventually meet at a homeless mission in downtown Fort Worth. The ensuing story is one of persistence and prayer that God uses both men to influence his kingdom in a huge way. After the ice in Denver and Ron’s relationship is finally broken they face another major Problem Ron’s wife of nearly 30 years is diagnosed with colon cancer the rest of the book is incredible, near tear jerking account of a hard fought battle with cancer in which God is glorified in so many ways in the end.
The book was very impressive overall. First of all it did not come from career authors just 2 normal men telling their stories to anyone that will listen. Second it truly is an inspiring story, but it is not a super human story about God asking some incredibly driven individual to perform some outlandish dangerous task in a foreign country. I love those stories in their own rank. This is a much more normal story that takes place right here in the US and most people can see how God can use you no matter where you are or what situation you find yourself in.