The onset of spring means extra hours of daylight which means more time to read! Southern independent booksellers have collected a reading list that will keep those extra hours filled: the 2019 Spring Okra Picks – a collection of the best forthcoming Southern books of the season. Every book on the list has these things in common: they are Southern in nature, they release sometime between April and June, and they have a following among Southern indie booksellers, who can’t wait to introduce them to new readers.

Stay up a little bit later and read. Put a pile of Okra Picks by your bed.

Mothers and Strangers: Essays on Motherhood from the New South by Samia Serageldin (editor)
University of North Carolina Press | Paperback | 9781469651675 | 04/1/2019 | $22.00

I Miss You When I Blink: Essays by Mary Laura Philpott
Atria Books | Hardcover | 9781982102807 | 04/02/2019 | $26.00

The Gulf by Belle Boggs
Graywolf Press | Paperback | 9781555978341 | 04/02/2019 | $16.00

Caterpillar Summer by Gillian McDunn
Bloomsbury Children's Books| Hardcover | 9781681197432 | 04/02/2019 | $16.99

The Magnetic Girl by Jessica Handler
Hub City Press | Hardcover | 9781938235481 | 04/09/2019 | $27.00

Southern Lady Code: Essays by Helen Ellis
Doubleday Books | Hardcover | 9780385543897 | 04/16/2019 | $22.00

Like Lions by Brian Panowich
Minotaur Books | Hardcover | 9781250206947  | 04/30/2019 | $26.99

Papa Put a Man on the Moon by Kristy Dempsey, Sarah Green (illus.)
Dial Books | Hardcover | 9780735230743 | 05/07/2019 | $17.99

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
Sourcebooks Landmark | Paperback | 9781492671527 | 05/07/2019 | $15.99

Don't Date Rosa Santos by Nina Moreno
Disney-Hyperion | Hardcover | 9781368039703 | 05/14/2019 | $17.99

Smokelore: A Short History of Barbecue in America by Jim Auchmutey
University of Georgia Press | Paperback | 9780820338415 | 06/01/2019 | $32.95

In West Mills by De’Shawn Charles Winslow
Bloomsbury Publishing | Hardcover | 9781635573404 | 06/04/2019 | $26.00

The Travelers by Regina Porter
Hogarth | Hardcover | 9780525576198 | 06/18/2019 | $27.00

The Accident of Color: A Story of Race in Reconstruction by Daniel Brook
W. W. Norton & Company | Hardcover | 9780393247442 | 06/18/2019 | $27.95

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

Southern indie booksellers: We grow good books!