For the love of books...

I love to read.

Always have.

And one thing I’ve always wanted to have was an answer to the question “What is your favorite book?”

Now I have lots of books that I have enjoyed and some books that I LOVED. I’ve read books that I couldn’t put down and books that I thought were thought provoking or funny or insightful. But I never really had an absolute favorite.

Until now.

My answer for that question now is a true story called “Same Kind of Different as Me.” I thought it was an amazing account of a friendship that was both moving and inspirational. I laughed and I cried and the second I finished reading it I wanted to pick it up and start all over again.

Amazon described the book this way:

A dangerous, homeless drifter who grew up picking cotton in virtual slavery.

An upscale art dealer accustomed to the world of Armani and Chanel.

A gutsy woman with a stubborn dream.

A story so incredible no novelist would dare dream it.

It begins outside a burning plantation hut in Louisiana . . . and an East Texas honky-tonk . . . and, without a doubt, in the heart of God. It unfolds in a Hollywood hacienda . . . an upscale New York gallery . . . a downtown dumpster . . . a Texas ranch.

Gritty with pain and betrayal and brutality, this true story also shines with an unexpected, life-changing love.

I’d love to be able to tell you all the ways the book changed me or the parts I found fascinating or humbling or compelling. I even put little sticky note markers throughout the entire book to remind me of particularly striking parts that I thought I could share.

But looking back through them, I have realized that they are all parts of a whole and without the perspective of the entire book, they don’t mean as much. Maybe it’s just because I can’t express in words what all those various parts meant to me. Maybe it’s just that I don’t want to steal any of the books “moments” from you if you choose to read it too.

One reader wrote of the book:

It is a great reminder of the amazing way that our creator God can bring lives and events together in such a way that only He can receive the credit and the glory. He knows, cares for, and loves every individual. Life is not easy, but if we are willing to look for Him and give Him praise, He will show us His very hand at work in our lives.

I would just say that if you haven’t read it, you should.

It will stay with you a long time, maybe forever.

And if you are anything like me, after reading “Same Kind of Different as Me”, you won’t be the same as you were before.