Friday, October 19, 2012

Christianity Today magazine gives "Gentle Giant" a 4-star review!

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Review: The Gentle Giant of Dynamite Hill

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The Gentle Giant of Dynamite Hill: The Untold Story of Arthur Shores and His Family's Fight for Civil Rights
OUR RATING
NOT RATED  
BOOK TITLE
The Gentle Giant of Dynamite Hill: The Untold Story of Arthur Shores and His Family's Fight for Civil Rights
AUTHOR
Helen Shores Lee & Barbara Sylvia Shores with Denise George
PUBLISHER
Zondervan
PRICE
$17.99
So crowded is the roster of American civil-rights heroes that even quite estimable figures can fade, unjustly, from memory. In this poignant memoir, Helen Shores Lee and Barbara Shores do their part to stop their father's legacy from following a similar trajectory. Arthur Shores, who died in 1996, was one of the first black lawyers to practice in Alabama. Instrumental in the push for desegregation at that state's flagship university, among other legal campaigns, Shores became the first black member of Birmingham's city council in 1969. His daughters recall an abiding faith that propelled his work for racial equality and helped him persevere through several episodes of violence.

Monday, September 3, 2012

The First Book Reviews Come In!!!

Book reviews are always exciting to receive! Here are the first two reviews to come in on The Gentle Giant of Dynamite Hill:

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Arthur Shores Worked the SystemSeptember 3, 2012
By 
Worth E Norman Jr (Birmingham, AL USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Gentle Giant of Dynamite Hill: The Untold Story of Arthur Shores and His Family's Fight for Civil Rights (Hardcover)
The daughters of Attorney Arthur Shores, along with Denise George, tell a compelling story about their father's behind-the-scenes legal work to help remove not only Jim Crow laws from Alabama, but Jim Crow attitudes. Attorney Shores worked the established system of segregation and changed it. Many books have been written about this era in Civil Rights history, but this book centers on the reality of one man and his family during those turbulent years. And that's what makes this book so readable.

"The Gentle Giant" is an easy read and fast-moving. One can hardly put the book down even knowing in advance the very public events that have already been well-documented. Arthur Shores was a steady, consistent, and seemingly low-key actor in the struggle for Civil Rights in his beloved Alabama. He stayed in Alabama, he did not leave. There were many reasons to leave during those years, but Shores' personal convictions, his religious faith, and his high sense of justice guided him in his life and career.

There are several political ironies mentioned in the book, but one must read it to enjoy them.

WORTH EARLWOOD NORMAN JR, author of http://www.amazon.com/James-Solomon-Russell-Pioneering-Evangelist/dp/0786467894/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346686131&sr=1-1&keywords=james+solomon+russell
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5.0 out of 5 stars Gentle, but he carried a gunSeptember 3, 2012
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This review is from: The Gentle Giant of Dynamite Hill: The Untold Story of Arthur Shores and His Family's Fight for Civil Rights (Hardcover)
Two women who have achieved success in their respective chosen fields of law and social service look back at their childhood in black Birmingham under Jim Crow law. They were loved and protected by their parents, who taught them that all men, and women, were created equal. This is an articulate, first-person account, told in simple language of their father, Arthur Shores, the "gentle giant" of the title, and his involvement in civil rights issues from the thirties, when at one time he was the only black lawyer practicing in the state of Alabama. His clients were a Who's Who of civil rights leaders, (Martin Luther King, etc.) Many of the cases he accepted became milestones in the long fight for equal rights. For example, he represented numerous children arrested in the Birmingham Children's March, as well as Autherine Lucy, who was the first black person to seek admittance to the University of Alabama. All this involvement did not come without a price. He was a target, literally, of the Klan. Windows and walls of his home were routinely riddled with bullets and his home was bombed twice; a third bombing was thwarted at the last moment. He was a devout Christian but he kept several firearms in the house and carried one wherever he went, to protect his family from those who wished them harm. The authors recount how national civil rights leaders visiting Birmingham would stay at their home and eat at their table, where they would be safe. It is fitting that this civil rights warrior, who spent so much time jousting with the power structure of the city of Birmingham, eventually became a member of the city councilman, himself. This book reflects the authors' love and respect for both their parents and their pride in the achievements of their father, who unheralded and largely unknown outside of Birmingham made such an important contribution to so many people's lives. It is a very good read!
Thank you to all those good people that take the thought and time to post a positive book review!

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

The Gentle Giant of Dynamite Hill JUST RELEASED!

The Gentle Giant of Dynamite Hill has just been released by Zondervan Publishers! You can order your copy at this website:

http://www.amazon.com/Gentle-Giant-Dynamite-Hill-Familys/dp/0310336201/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1344440687&sr=1-1&keywords=the+gentle+giant+of+dynamite+hill

Available in hardcover and Kindle!

Friday, March 30, 2012

Meet the authors!

Helen Shores Lee & Barbara S. Shores 
(With Denise George)

  Judge Helen Shores Lee serves as Circuit Judge, Tenth Judicial Circuit of Alabama. (She is the first African-American woman to serve in the Civil Division in the Circuit Court of Jefferson County, Birmingham, AL.)
      
     Barbara S. Shores is the Director of the Jefferson County Office of Senior Citizens Services, Birmingham, AL.
      
     Denise George is author of 27 books. She is co-founder and co-teacher of the Boot Camp for Christian Writers seminars (with author Carolyn Tomlin). You can email Denise George at cdwg@aol.com

ANNOUNCING THE NEW BOOK: The Gentle Giant of Dynamite Hill!

The Gentle Giant of Dynamite Hill
(The Untold Story of Arthur Shores
and Our Family’s Fight for Civil Rights)

Helen Shores Lee & Barbara S. Shores (With Denise George)

      These are the firsthand accounts of sisters Helen and Barbara Shores growing up with their father, Arthur Shores, a prominent Civil Rights attorney, during the 60s in the Jim Crow south Birmingham district---a frequent target of the Ku Klux Klan. Between 1948 and 1963, some 50 unsolved Klan bombings happened in Smithfield where the Shores family lived, earning their neighborhood the nickname Dynamite Hill. Due to his work, Shores' daughter, Barbara, barely survived a kidnapping attempt. Twice, in 1963, Klan members bombed their home, sending Theodora to the hospital with a brain concussion and killing Tasso, the family's cocker spaniel. The family narrowly escaped a third bombing attempt on their home in the spring of 1965.
      The Gentle Giant of Dynamite Hill is an incredible story of a family's unfair suffering, but also of the Shores' overcoming. This family's sacrificial commitment, courage, determination, and triumph inspire us today through this story and the selfless service, work, and lives of Helen Shores Lee and Barbara Sylvia Shores.

      Judge Helen Shores Lee serves as Circuit Judge, Tenth Judicial Circuit of Alabama. (She is the first African-American woman to serve in the Civil Division in the Circuit Court of Jefferson County, Birmingham, AL.)
      Barbara S. Shores is the Director of the Jefferson County Office of Senior Citizens Services, Birmingham, AL.
      Denise George is author of 27 books. She is co-founder and co-teacher of the Boot Camp for Christian Writers seminars (with author Carolyn Tomlin). You can email Denise George at cdwg@aol.com.

Book Orders:
You can pre-order the book (and Kindle ebook) on August 28, 2012 at the Amazon.com website: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=The+Gentle+Giant+of+Dynamite+Hill&x=0&y=0.

You can also pre-order the book (and Nook ebook) on August 28, 2012 at the Barnes & Noble website: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/the-gentle-giant-of-dynamite-hill?keyword=the+gentle+giant+of+dynamite+hill&store=book.