Okra Picks offer guide to winter books

            Members of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance choose books each winter, known as the Okra Picks, as those they are excited about selling. Here are a few Southern titles SIBA wants you to read. Look for reviews of these books in coming months to this column. 

They are:



            “The In-Between Hour” by Barbara Claypole White (Mira Books);


            “The Invention of Wings” by Sue Monk Kidd (Viking);

            “Starting Over: Stories by Elizabeth Spencer” (Liveright Publishing);

            “The Last Days of California” by Mary Miller (Liveright Publishing);

            “The Secret of Magic” by Deborah Johnson (Amy Einhorn Books);            

            “Without Mercy: The Stunning True Story of Race, Crime and Corruption in the Deep South” by David Beasley (St. Martin’s Press);

            “This Dark Road to Mercy” by Wiley Cash (Morrow)


            “The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing” by Sheila Turnage (Kathy Dawson Books);

            “One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band” by Alan Paul (St. Martin’s);

            “A Snicker of Magic” by Natalie Lloyd (Scholastic);

            “Long Man” by Amy Greene (Knopf); and

            “Down South: Bourbon, Pork, Gulf Shrimp & Second Helpings of Everything” by Donald Link (Clarkson Potter).
             For more information, visit sibaweb.com/okra.

Cheré Coen is the author of “Haunted Lafayette, Louisiana” and “Exploring Cajun Country: A Historic Guide to Acadiana,” both from The History Press, and co-author of “Magic’s in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding Gris Gris Bags and Sachets.” She teaches writing at UL-Lafayette’s Continuing Education. Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.