Leonard Pitts, Jr.'s Books

Forward From this Moment

Selected Columns, 1994-2008

By: Leonard

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Since 1976, when he was an 18-year-old junior at USC, Leonard Pitts' writing has been winning awards, including the Pulitzer and five National Headliner Awards. This book collects his best newspaper columns, along with select longer pieces. The book is arranged chronologically under three broad subject headings: “Waiting for Someday to Come,” about children and family; “White Men Can’t Jump (and Other Stupid Myths),” about race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and other fault lines of American culture; and “Forward from this Moment,” about life after the September 11 attacks, spirituality, American identity, and Britney Spears. Pitts has a readership in the multi-millions across the country, and his columns generate an average of 2500 email responses per week. His enthusiastic fans are certain to embrace this collection of the best of his newspaper and magazine work, published to coincide with the release of his first novel, Before I Forget. Forward from this Moment is an essential collection from one of America’s most important voices.

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355

Publisher

Agate Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1572846550

ISBN 13

9781572846555

Grant Park

A Novel

By: Leonard Pitts

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Grant Park

A Novel

By: Leonard Pitts

Two Chicago newspapermen grapple with race and the past in this contemporary terrorist thriller by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Freeman. Disillusioned Chicago columnist Malcolm Toussaint, fueled by yet another report of unarmed Black men killed by police, hacks into his newspaper’s server to post an incendiary column that had been rejected by his editors. Toussaint then disappears, and his longtime editor, Bob Carson, is summarily fired within hours of the column’s publication. While a furious Carson tries to find Toussaint—while dealing with the reappearance of a lost love from his days as a ‘60s activist—Toussaint is abducted by two white supremacists plotting to bomb Barack Obama’s planned rally in Grant Park. Toussaint and Carson are forced to reckon with the choices they made as young men, when both their lives were changed profoundly by their work in the civil rights movement . . . Grant Park is 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. Praise for Grant Park “A taut thriller that weaves together a stark look at America’s tortured racial past with a fast-paced tale of terrorist conspiracy and love rekindled.” —Neil Steinberg, Chicago Sun Times “A page-turner, but also one that commands deep reflection on history, racism, and personal choices.” —Blanca Torres, The Seattle Times “Layered, insightful, and passionate. Pitts’s subtly explosive language grips readers with the delicate subject matter and earnestly implores them to understand that “[race] has always meant something and it always will.” The scars will remain, but stunningly powerful examinations like Grant Park can be the salve that helps heal open wounds.” —Shelf-Awareness, starred review

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401

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Agate Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

157284762X

ISBN 13

9781572847620

The Last Thing You Surrender

A Novel

By: Leonard Pitts

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The Last Thing You Surrender

A Novel

By: Leonard Pitts

Three Americans in the Jim Crow South face enormous changed triggered by World War II in this epic novel by the Pulitzer-winning author of Freeman. Could you find the courage to do what’s right in a world on fire? An affluent white marine survives Pearl Harbor at the cost of a black messman’s life only to be sent, wracked with guilt, to the Pacific and taken prisoner by the Japanese. A young black woman, widowed by the same events at Pearl Harbor, finds unexpected opportunity and a dangerous friendship in a segregated Alabama shipyard feeding the war. Meanwhile, a black man, who as a child saw his parents brutally lynched, is conscripted to fight Nazis for a country he despises and discovers a new kind of patriotism in the all-black 761st Tank Battalion . . . Set against a backdrop of violent racial conflict on both the front lines and the home front, The Last Thing You Surrender explores the powerful moral struggles of individuals from a divided nation. What does it take to change someone’s mind about race? What does it take for a country and a people to move forward, transformed? Praise for The Last Thing You Surrender “A story of our nation at war, with itself as well as tyranny across the globe. It’s an American tapestry of hatred, compassion, fear, courage, and cruelties, leavened with the promise of triumph. A powerful story I will not soon forget.” —James R. Benn, author of the Billy Boyle WWII mysteries “Seamlessly integrates impressive research into a compelling tale of America at war—overseas, at home, and within ourselves, as we struggle to find the better angels of our nature. Pitts poignantly illustrates ongoing racial and class tensions, and offers hope that we can overcome hatred by refusing to sacrifice dignity.” —Booklist, starred review

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462

Publisher

Agate Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1572848243

ISBN 13

9781572848245

54 Miles

A Novel

By: Leonard Pitts, Jr.

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54 Miles

A Novel

By: Leonard Pitts, Jr.

The free-standing successor and next novel by the author of the critically acclaimed The Last Thing You Surrender, Leonard Pitts, Jr.’s 54 Miles launches forward twenty years to the fateful weeks of March 1965—from the infamous “Bloody 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. Young Adam, who has been raised in Harlem by his white father, George, and Black mother, Thelma, goes back to his parents’ home state of Alabama to participate in the voting rights campaign, only to be brutalized in the Bloody Sunday melee. He is still recovering from this when he is struck a heavy emotional blow, learning for the first time—and in the cruelest way imaginable—of a family secret that sends him spiraling and plunging further into danger. To save him, and any hope for their relationship, Thelma is drawn back, for the first time in twenty years, to the South she both hates and fears, and to a reckoning that may result in an incalculable loss. Meanwhile, Thelma’s brother Luther is also spiraling, but in a different way. Forty-two years after his parents were lynched before his eyes, and twenty years after the man who led the lynch mob walked out of court a free man, Luther has just made a shocking discovery. He‘s found the murderer, Floyd Bitters, helpless and enfeebled in a rest home—unable to move or even to speak. The old man is literally at Luther’s mercy. And Luther, who has never overcome this trauma that defined his life, is suddenly forced to relive it all again as he grapples with the awful question of what justice now demands.

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331

Publisher

Agate Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1572848847

ISBN 13

9781572848849

Freeman

A Novel

By: Leonard Pitts

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Freeman

A Novel

By: Leonard Pitts

A former slave embarks on a hellish journey through the post-Civil War South to reunite with his wife, in this novel by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author. With the news of General Lee’s surrender, Sam, a runaway slave who served in the Union Army, decides to leave his refuge in Philadelphia. He sets out on foot on an almost-suicidal journey through the terrifying, war-torn South to Buford, Mississippi, to find Tilda, the wife he was sold away from fifteen years ago. He knows quite well that his chances are slim . . . Prudence Kent, meanwhile, is heading to Buford on a different mission. The headstrong, wealthy, white war widow is leaving her Boston home to honor her abolitionist father’s dying wish: to open a school for the emancipated slaves . . . And Tilda is headed elsewhere. Her owner, Jim McFarland, is holding her at gunpoint, forcing through the charred remains of his farm and off to Arkansas, in search of a haven that will still respect his entitlements as a slaveowner and Confederate officer . . . An epic, American love story and novel touching on issues we still wrestle with long after official end of the Civil War, Freeman is, as Howard Frank Mosher of the Washington Post writes, “an important addition to the literature of slavery and the Civil War, by a knowledgeable, compassionate and relentlessly truthful writer determined to explore both enslavement in all its malignancy and also what it truly means to be free.” Perfect for fans of Cold Mountain Praise for Freeman “Leonard Pitts has a passion for history and a gift for storytelling. Both shine in this story of love and redemption, which challenges everything we thought we knew about how our nation dealt with its most stubborn stain.” —Gwen Ifill, PBS, author of The Breakthrough “Columnist Leonard Pitts turns out a pretty powerful love story.” —Audie Cornish, All Things Considered “Pulitzer Prize–winning columnist Pitts once again demonstrates his gift for historical fiction . . . . In lyrical prose, Pitts unflinchingly and movingly portrays the period’s cruelties, and triumphs in capturing the spirit of the times through eminently-identifiable lead characters.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

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368

Publisher

Agate Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1572846992

ISBN 13

9781572846999

Forward from this Moment

By: Leonard Pitts

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Forward from this Moment

By: Leonard Pitts

From Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr., his first-ever collection.

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Agate Publishing

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ISBN 10

1932841504

ISBN 13

9781932841503

Racism in America

Cultural Codes and Color Lines in the 21st Century

By: Leonard Pitts

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Racism in America

Cultural Codes and Color Lines in the 21st Century

By: Leonard Pitts

A collection from the Pulitzer prize winning journalist which chronicle race relations and prejudice from the earliest days through the most recent Ferguson riots

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1633534472

ISBN 13

9781633534476

Forward From this Moment

Selected Columns, 1994-2008

By: Leonard

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Forward From this Moment

Selected Columns, 1994-2008

By: Leonard

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355

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Agate Publishing

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ISBN 10

1572846550

ISBN 13

9781572846555

Becoming Dad

Black Men and the Journey to Fatherhood

By: Leonard Pitts, Jr.

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Becoming Dad

Black Men and the Journey to Fatherhood

By: Leonard Pitts, Jr.

The fatherless black family is a problem that grows to bigger proportions every year as generations of black children grow up without an adult male in their homes. As this dire pattern grows worse, what can men do who hope to break it, when there are so few models and so little guidance in their own homes and communities? Where can they learn to “become Dad?” When Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Pitts—who himself grew up with an abusive father whose absences came as a relief—interviewed dozens of men across the country, he found both discouragement and hope, as well as deep insights into his own roles as son and father. An unflinching investigation, both personal and journalistic, of black fatherhood in America, this is the best, most pivotal book on this profoundly important issue.

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274

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Agate Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

157284602X

ISBN 13

9781572846029

Before I Forget

By: Leonard Pitts

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Before I Forget

By: Leonard Pitts

This powerful debut novel by an award-winning journalist explores the challenges of fatherhood for three generations of black men.

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364

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Agate Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1932841431

ISBN 13

9781932841435

Grant Park

A Novel

By: Leonard Pitts

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Grant Park

A Novel

By: Leonard Pitts

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401

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Agate Publishing

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157284762X

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9781572847620

Becoming Dad

Black Men and the Journey to Fatherhood

By: Leonard Pitts, Jr.

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Becoming Dad

Black Men and the Journey to Fatherhood

By: Leonard Pitts, Jr.

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274

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Agate Publishing

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ISBN 10

157284602X

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9781572846029

Baptist Questions, Baptist Answers

Exploring Christian Faith

By: Bill J. Leonard

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Baptist Questions, Baptist Answers

Exploring Christian Faith

By: Bill J. Leonard

Respected Baptist historian and theologian Bill Leonard takes readers through the theological and practical questions that are important to Baptists. In a clear style and with great sensitivity to the varieties of beliefs among Baptist bodies, Leonard considers the big questions of faith. These include Baptist beliefs about God, Jesus Christ, the Bible, salvation, and the Christian life, among others. Drawing on historic statements of Baptist belief, contemporary history, and his own background and deep scholarship, Leonard provides reliable and accessible discussions of these issues. His work will be highly illuminating for Baptists of all denominational groupings as well as for others interested in the core of Baptist theological convictions and their various expressions. Leonard's is a strong and trusted voice, and this book will be a welcome resource.

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138

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Westminster John Knox Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0664232892

ISBN 13

9780664232894

54 Miles

A Novel

By: Leonard Pitts, Jr.

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54 Miles

A Novel

By: Leonard Pitts, Jr.

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331

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Agate Publishing

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ISBN 10

1572848847

ISBN 13

9781572848849

Freeman

A Novel

By: Leonard Pitts

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Freeman

A Novel

By: Leonard Pitts

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368

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Agate Publishing

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1572846992

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9781572846999

Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide 1993

By: Leonard Maltin

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Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide 1993

By: Leonard Maltin

Widely acclaimed as the biggest, best, most authoritative book in its field, this guide has been updated for 1993 and now includes a new feature--a symbol to designate movies available on increasingly popular laser discs. Features 300 new movie summaries, plus expanded coverage of films available on video for home viewing.

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1552

Publisher

Plume Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

0452268575

ISBN 13

9780452268579

Book's by Leonard Pitts, Jr.

Forward From this Moment

Forward From this Moment

Grant Park

Grant Park

The Last Thing You Surrender

The Last Thing You Surrender

54 Miles

54 Miles

Freeman

Freeman

Forward from this Moment

Forward from this Moment

Racism in America

Racism in America

Forward From this Moment

Forward From this Moment

Becoming Dad

Becoming Dad

Before I Forget

Before I Forget

Grant Park

Grant Park

Becoming Dad

Becoming Dad

Baptist Questions, Baptist Answers

Baptist Questions, Baptist Answers

54 Miles

54 Miles

Freeman

Freeman

Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide 1993

Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide 1993

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