Summer is the season for Okra. . .Picks! Southern Indie Booksellers have chosen their favorite Southern books of the summer, a literary harvest of forthcoming hand sell hot picks and future bestsellers.

All the Okra Picks have a strong Southern focus and publish between July and September, and all have fans among Southern indie booksellers. Eighteen forthcoming titles—including fiction, nonfiction, young adult and children’s literature—have been picked by booksellers as the Southern books they are most excited about. The answer to every reader’s favorite question – What should I read next? – can be found here.

JULY

Don't You Ever: My Mother and Her Secret Son  by Mary Carter Bishop
Harper | 9780062400734 | 27.99 | July 2018

Willa of the Wood  by Robert Beatty
Disney-Hyperion | 9781368005845 | 16.99 | July 2018

Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe  by Jo Hackl
Random House Books for Young Readers | 9780399557385 | 16.99 | July 2018

The New Inheritors by Kent Wascom
Grove Press | 9780802128171 | 26.00 | July 2018

The Lost Country by William Gay
Dzanc Books | 9781945814525 | 26.95 | July 2018

The Wrong Heaven by Amy Bonnaffons
Little Brown and Company | 9780316516211 | 26.00 | July 2018

AUGUST

Dopesick: Doctors, Dealers, and the Drug Company That Addicted America  by Beth Macy
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers | 9780316551243 | August 2018

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780735219090 | 26.00 | August 2018

Surviving Adam Mede by Shannon Klare
Swoon Reads | 9781250154378 | 16.99 | August 2018

The Line That Held Us by David Joy
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780399574221 | 27.00 | August 2018

Rush by Lisa Patton
St. Martin’s Press | 9781250020666 | 26.99 | August 2018

The Holy Ghost Speakeasy and Revival  by Terry Roberts
Turner | 9781684421633 | 16.99 | August 2018

SEPTEMBER

One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy  by Carol Anderson
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781635571370 | 27.00 | September 2018

Merci Suárez Changes Gears  by Meg Medina
Candlewick Press | 9780763690496 | 16.99 | September 2018

The Law of Finders Keepers  Wake by Sheila Turnage
Kathy Dawson Books | 9780803739628 | 16.99 | September 2018

Drive by Joyce Moyer Hostetter
Calkins Creek Books | 9781629798653 | $18.95 | September 2018

Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy  by Nicole Seitz (editor) and Jonathan Haupt (editor)
University of Georgia Press | 9780820354484 | $29.95 | September 2018

Rising Out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist  by Eli Saslow
Doubleday Books | 9780385542869 | $26.95 | September 2018

Find more information about the Okra Picks at AuthorsRoundtheSouth.com/okra

Southern indie booksellers: We grow good books!