Forget Self-Help

In addition to the book being named one of twelve self-help books to read in 2018 by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution,[7] it also was selected by the Georgia Radio Reading Service as a book to be recorded by audio so that visually impaired Georgians could hear the book.[8] The book received widespread media attention in the Southern United States, being featured by five newspapers in Alabama,[9][10][11][12][13] one magazine[14] and eight newspapers in Georgia,[5][15][16][17][7][18][19][1] one newspaper in North Carolina,[6] one newspaper in Mississippi,[20] one newspaper in Tennessee,[21] one newspaper in Virginia,[22] two newspapers in Louisiana,[23][2] and one newspaper in Arkansas.[24] It was featured by the national press in St. Paul, Minnesota's Pioneer Press,[4] Oklahoma's City's Daily Oklahoman,[25] and Hartford Connecticut's Hartford Courant.[26] In the South, papers received it well. Some reviews include one from Louisiana's American Press, with the paper calling it, "Thought-provoking … firing on all cylinders." [2] South Georgia's Valdosta Daily Times called it, "An unforgettable volume." [19] Georgia's Douglas Enterprise commented that, "This is a book you will not forget, you will pick up this book over and over." [18] Arkansas's Sun Times said, "This book will make you think twice about the status quo." [24] From a national perspective, the book was reviewed favorably by St. Paul Minnesota's Pioneer Press with the paper saying that, "The author's insights and suggestions on how we can try to live the Golden Rule when our nation is so divided should provide lots of conversation openers at book clubs at church study groups." [4]

In an interview with Donna Price of the American Press, when asked why he included both Robert E. Lee and Martin Luther King Jr. in the same book, Fellows remarked, “The reason I have both in my book is that I can see people of all races benefitting from both men. I believe that if they were both living today, they would have been fast friends. I have framed pictures of both Lee and King in my condo in Atlanta.” In the same interview, Fellows would go onto explain that reading Lee's quotes during his first depression benefitted him greatly. He also told Price that "he was convinced that (King) was the most intelligent human being ever to live."[2]

Approximately one month after the Charlottesville car attack, in an op-ed in The Westside Journal, Fellows revealed Robert E. Lee's little-known stance on the confederate statues where, when declining an invitation to erect statues from the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association, Lee said “I think it wiser not to keep open the sores of war, but to follow the examples of those nations who endeavoured to obliterate the marks of civil strife and to commit to oblivion the feelings it has engendered.” [27][28][29] In the op-ed, Fellows later on would go on to say that, "I do agree with Lee in that we should take down all Confederate statues. I ultimately believe this because as white people, and as Atticus Finch would encourage us, we need to step into the skin of black people and realize why they might be offended by the statues still being there. We need to live out the Golden Rule."