The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance has announce the finalists for the 2014 SIBA Book Award, recognizing great southern literature from the last year. There are twenty-two books on the 2014 list, representing booksellers’ favorite hand sells of the year in fiction, nonfiction, children’s, young adult, poetry and cooking.

Fiction

Guests on Earth by Lee Smith (Shannon Ravenel Books)
Life After Life by Jill McCorkle (Shannon Ravenel Books)
Sycamore Row by John Grisham (Doubleday Books)
The Tilted World by Tom Franklin & Beth Ann Fennelly (William Morrow & Company)
Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall (Gallery Books)

Nonfiction

The Death of Santini by Pat Conroy (Nan A. Talese)
Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink (Crown Publishing Group)
The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan (Touchstone Books)
Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls by David Sedaris (Little, Brown and Company)

Cooking

A Passion for Bread by Lionel Vatinet (Little, Brown and Company)
The Lee Bros. Charleston Kitchen by Matt & Ted Lee (Clarkson Potter)
Pickles, Pigs & Whiskey by John Currence (Andrews McMeel)

Poetry

The Book of Goodbyes by  Jillian   Weise   ( BOA Editions Ltd.)
Collected Poems of Cathy Smith Bowers    by Cathy Bowers (Press 53)
Concertina by Joseph Bathanti  (Mercer University Press)
Voodoo for the Other Woman by Angela Kelly (Hub City Press)

Children’s

The Girl from Felony Bay by J. E. Thompson (Walden Pond Press)
The Mischievians by William Joyce (Atheneum Books for Young Readers)
Pete the Cat and His Magic Sunglasses by James Dean (HarperCollins)

Young Adult

The Madman’s Daughter by Megan Shepherd (Balzer + Bray)
The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen (Viking Children’s Books)
Theodore Boone:  The Activist by John Grisham (Dutton Books)

Finalists will be judged by a juried panel of SIBA booksellers, and winners will be announced on July 4, “Independents Day.” More information about the SIBA Book Awards can be found at www.sibaweb.com/siba-book-award