Who’s looking for a winter project??
Leonard Pitts Jr. is one of the most underrated authors of our time.
I first read Freeman way back in 2015, pre-bookstagram. Freeman was a masterpiece, I knew I had stumbled upon someone special. Fast forward to 2020 when I read a second book by him, The Last Thing You Surrender which may have impacted me even more?!
AND I RARELY (if ever) SEE ANY OF HIS BOOKS HERE.
So, in an effort to spread the word and get his books in more people’s hands I am setting up a Leonard Pitts bud read in which we will read these five (he has two others but they are proving difficult to get my hands on).
So here they are, in the order in which we’ll read them:
Before I Forget - 4.26 Goodreads rating This powerful novel of three generations of black men bound by blood – and by histories of mutual love, fear, and frustration – gives author Leonard Pitts the opportunity to explore the painful truths of black men’s lives, especially as they play out in the fraught relations of fathers and sons.
Freeman - 4.34 Goodreads rating (reread for me) An eye opening look into the aftermath of the Confederate Armys surrender and Abraham Lincolns assassination. Infused with a myriad of historical details, a sweeping backdrop of Americas ravaged and war torn South, and a brilliantly devised multiple character plot line, Freeman breaks apart what you thought you knew about post-Civil War America. An epic tale of love and war, this novel resonates with humanitys depth of longing and hope in the most atrocious circumstances.
Grant Park - 4.26 Goodreads rating (reread for me) A page-turning and provocative look at black and white relations in contemporary America, blending the absurd and the poignant in a powerfully well-crafted narrative that showcases Pitts’s gift for telling emotionally wrenching stories.
The Last Thing You Surrender - 4.65 Goodreads rating (reread for me) A historical page-turner. A great American tale of race and war, following three characters from the Jim Crow South as they face the enormous changes World War II triggers in the United States.
54 Miles - 4.52 Goodreads rating The free-standing successor and next novel by Pitts, Jr. 54 Miles launches forward twenty years to the fateful weeks of March 1965–from the infamous “Bloo Sunday” march at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma on the 7th to the triumphant entry into Montgomery on the 25th that climaxed the voting rights campaign–and the families who find themselves confronting the past amid another flashpoint in American history.
So who is rea to discover the beauty of this underrated author? If reading them all feels daunting, feel free to just choose one. The group will be very casual, no schedule is in place just yet.
Toni Rocchetti is a copy editor helping authors strengthen their narratives, deepen character arcs, and find the story that is already in the draft. She reads 80+ books a year across literary fiction, memoir, and nonfiction — and writes about what she is learning along the way. Work with Toni →
