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Same Kind of Different As Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together
Ron Hall, Denver Moore, with Lynn Vincent, 2006
Thomas Nelson Publishers
224 pp.

In Brief
Meet Denver, a man raised under plantation-style slavery in Louisiana in the 1960s; a man who escaped, hopping a train to wander, homeless, for eighteen years on the streets of Dallas, Texas. No longer a slave, Denver's life was still hopeless-until God moved. First came a godly woman who prayed, listened, and obeyed. And then came her husband, Ron, an international arts dealer at home in a world of Armani-suited millionaires. And then they all came together.

But slavery takes many forms. Deborah discovers that she has cancer. In the face of possible death, she charges her husband to rescue Denver. Who will be saved, and who will be lost? What is the future for these unlikely three? What is God doing?

Same Kind of Different As Me is the emotional tale of their story: a telling of pain and laughter, doubt and tears, dug out between the bondages of this earth and the free possibility of heaven. No reader or listener will ever forget it.. (From the publisher.)

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About the Authors
Denver Moore grew up on a plantation in Red Parish, Louisiana, where he lived in a shotgun shack as a modern-day slave until he escaped to freedom at the age of thirty. Freedom brought the uneducated and financially destitute Denver the gift of homelessness, which eventually led to ten years in the legendary Angola Prison for armed robbery. After his release, he ended up back on the streets, as a hardened criminal who frequented the Ft. Worth, Texas, Union Gospel Mission.


Ron Hall grew up in Haltom City, outside Fort Worth, Texas. He attended college, earned an MBA, got married, had kids, became an international art dealer selling million-dollar Picassos, and volunteered to help serve dinner once a week at Ft. Worth's Union Gospel Mission, with his wife Deborah. (Both bios from Wittenburg Door.com)

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Readers Say. . .
(When there are few [in this case, no] mainstream online reviews for a book, we turn to helpful ones from Barnes & Noble customers.)

Beautiful : This book makes me want to go out and change something. It makes me want to be a better human being. Not just for the sake of being a good person but to make an everlasting impression on just one soul who, in turn, will leave an everlasting impression and allow the continuous ripple of God's love to reach the unreachable. One person can make a difference.
Reviewer - 5/1/09


Worth Reading! : If you liked The Shack by William P. Young then you will also like the moving tale of two people's lives who come to a crossroad where there lives are brought together by a woman in their life. So much history behind the story as well as what life is like for the unfortunate and how people cope whether rich or poor. Hard to put down as you get woven into their lives.
Reviewer - GinaC2, 4/27/09


Great book that makes you put your life in perspective : I have so enjoyed this book. I was given this book to read by a dear friend. I kept putting it off because of the title and description of the book. Once I picked the book up I could not put it down. I read it on the plane ride home. Excellent. I have since bought ten copies of this book and sent it in all directions with the instructions that it must be passed along to others. The book is very inspirational and makes you look at yourself and your family. The love that Ron has in this book for his wife and friend is so sweet. His honesty is genuine and it is so what others feel but do not voice. As a Chrisitian, it puts life in perspective on why we are on earth and gives the honesty on how the world forms us not to do what we have been sent to do. This book makes you want to reclaim your focus. I currently live in the Midwest. My friends here have had a hard time believing the slavery issue and the segregation issues that went on in the later years in this book. Being from the South, it has been a great conversation maker and brought people to understand that issues that they thought left in the 60's really did not. I have had some enlightening conversations about when I was in high school - Mississippi doctors' office in the Delta were divided with a black side and white side and that was in the 1980's. I have enjoyed the many lunch conversations that I have had with this book after friends have read it. I have also enjoyed watching my friends change their focus in life from being all about me to what can I do for others
Reviewer - 4/20/09


A Same Kind of Different As Me is a very good book and quite an easy read. It is a wonderful story about the coming together of very unlikely strangers, a homeless and dangerous black man, a rich art dealer, and his beautiful wife. It is also an incredible story about faith, friendship, compassion, and the power of love. The story begins with Denver, a very poor black boy, who worked on a plantation picking cotton for "The Man". "The Man" owned the land, and he gave them everything the "slaves" needed to get them by for the year. And at the end of the year you would go to settle up, and somehow you always still owed "The Man". Somehow that would still go on year after year. Everybody in Denver's extended family had passed away leaving Denver, a poor black boy, homeless. He then hopped on a train to Fort Worth which would lead to poverty, drugs, crime, and landed him in Angora prison. Once out of prison he meets Ron and Debbie, who are very wealthy art dealers who work at the mission every Tuesday. They truly get to know Denver which develops a seed of an incredible friendship. Debbie gets diagnosed with liver cancer shortly after their meeting. During her last days she brought together the souls of two men from opposite ends of society. Together they dealt with the devastation of her illness and passing. Telling the story in their own words, Ron Hall and Denver Moore alternate between warming and pulling on your heart strings. The unique two/author style and the open and candid way in which these men write add up to an engaging, emotional, and beautiful reading experience. You'll have to read it to truly understand the miracles that occur in this book! It's a great heart warming story. I give it a solid 10 out of 10! So read it! wonderful audio adaptation, read disarmingly by Michael Prichard. We hear
Reviewer - JaKobe, 4/19/09

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Book Club Discussion Questions

Sorry—the publisher has not made any questions available for this book.

But don't despair. Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:

   • Generic Discussion Questions
   • Read-Think-Talk About a Book

Also, consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started:

1. At the beginning of the book, what kind of person is Ron Hall? How would you describe him (how does he describe himself)? Why does he agree to volunteer at the homeless shelter, and what is his initial reaction in doing so?

2. Talk about the trajectory of Denver Moore's life. What events have landed him in the homeless shelter? Discuss the differences between his life and Ron Hall's. What is Denver's world view?

3. Talk about Deborah Hall? What inspires her life? What does she think of Denver Moore?

4. Eventually, Denver and Ron, two men who have lived vastly different lives, become close friends. What do the two see in one another? What draws them together?

5. What are the symbolic implications of the conversation about how white men fish, especially their catch-and-release method? What does that conversation say about each man, and what is the underlying message that Denver is trying to pass onto Ron?

6. What is the meaning of the book's title, "Same Kind of Difference as Me"? What does it refer to?

7. How do both men change by the end of the book? What do they learn from or teach each other?

8. This is a story about how hate and prejudice can be overcome by love and grace. How difficult is that achievement in most of our lives? What can this book teach us?

9. Does this book inspire you? If so, in what ways?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)