Devil in the grove : Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the dawn of a new America

This book shined a light on one more gap in my knowledge of American history. It's always interesting to me how the version we're taught in school is so "whitewashed." I have a new appreciation for Thurgood Marshall and the horrors of the American South that my mother grew up in. The author did a good job making the story interesting, but the timeline jumped around a bit, making it a bit difficult to follow since I didn't read it all in one sitting. I often found myself asking, "Wait - has X happened yet?" I would've appreciated a more sequential telling of the story, and the author is a strong enough writer that his prose would've kept it from feeling rote.

This is the best book I have read so far this year, after a slough of amazing books. It should be required reading for every high school history class, especially those in Central Florida. It is profoundly and deeply moving, and had me gasping with outrage and crying with frustration. Wow.