Photo Credit: Jennifer Davick

Last year, Athenian Rebecca Lang had a book out about fried chicken. (Read our feature on Lang from May 2015.) This year, she's done a 180 and is taking on veggies, in The Southern Vegetable Cookbook: A Root-to-Stalk Guide to the South's Favorite Produce, put out by Southern Living. Divided into the four seasons, the book is accessible, beautifully photographed and full of nice tips (e.g., how best to preserve excess from your garden, how to make a corn broth with leftover cobs, celery leaves can add good flavor to salads). 

As a ninth-generation Southerner, Lang doesn't feel the need to overemphasize her Southern roots, so the book is straightforward and self-confident, not moonlight and magnolias. The recipes don't have obscure ingredients, and there are plenty of notes about potential substitutions, all of which makes it the kind of cookbook people actually use rather than an aspirational lifestyle type of thing.

Lang will sign books at Avid Bookshop on Thursday, Apr. 7 from 6:30–7:30 p.m.