Serving up a helping of the Winter 2016 Okra Picks!

Preachers and pornographers, prisoners and protesters, conspirators and country shop keepers. . .these are just some of the cast of characters you’ll find in yet another season of fantastically varied and nutritional southern literature. The 2016 Winter Okra Picks have just been selected by southern independent booksellers – a spicy and seasoned helping of thirteen great books representing the best in forthcoming southern lit, according to the people who would know.

All the picks have a strong Southern focus and are publish between January and March, 2016, and all of them have fans among Southern indie booksellers; people who are always looking out for the next great writer who should be on your plate and in your TBR stack. So it is very likely the next time you visit your local Southern indie bookstore, someone will hand you one and say, “You’ve got to read this!” Read them before they hit the bestseller lists and impress your friends with your impeccable taste and literary savvy!

The 2016 Winter Okra Picks

The Third Reconstruction: Moral Mondays, Fusion Politics, and the Rise of a New Justice Movement
by Reverend William J. Barber II and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
Beacon Press, January 2016
Nonfiction, 9780807083604

Fallen Land
by Taylor Brown
St. Martin’s Press, January 2016
Fiction, 9781250077974

A Mysterious Life & Calling: From Slavery to Ministry in South Carolina
by Rev. Charlotte S. Riley, edited by Crystal Lucky
University of Wisconsin Press, January 2016
Nonfiction, 9780299306748 

The Feathered Bone
by Julie Cantrell
Thomas Nelson, January 2016
Fiction, 9780718037628

Forsaken
by Ross Howell, Jr.
New South, February 2016
Fiction, 9781588383174

The Secret to Hummingbird Cake
by Celeste Fletcher McHale
Thomas Nelson, February 2016
Fiction, 9780718039561

My Father, the Pornographer: A Memoir
by Chris Offutt
Atria Books, February 2016
Nonfiction, 9781501112461

The Opposite of Everyone
by Joshilyn Jackson
William Morrow & Company, February, 2016
Fiction, 9780062105684

No Shred of Evidence
by Charles Todd
William Morrow & Company, February, 2016
Fiction, 9780062386182

The Serpent King
by Jeff Zentner
Crown Books for Young Readers, March 2016
Juvenile Fiction, 9780553524024

Hanging Mary
by Susan Higginbotham
Sourcebooks Landmark, March 2016
Fiction, 9781492613626

No One Knows
by J.T. Ellison
Gallery Books, March 2016
Fiction, 9781501118470

Dimestore
by Lee Smith
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, March 2016
Nonfiction, 9781616205027

Okra Picks are chosen every season by Southern Independent Bookstores. For more information visit sibaweb.com/okra.