Dear Wags,

A while back, I mentioned How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff, the only book about statistics I’ve ever read, and one I recommend. Huff shows how making a fetish of data without providing meaningful context is worse than having no data at all. 

Here’s a reliable statistic from Wag Hannah Oliver Depp, the visionary behind DC’s Loyalty Books: Black women are more likely than another segment of the population to purchase books in any format, according to Pew Research.

That’s backed up by the success of Hannah’s store and the outsized contribution African American women make to letters. Phillis Wheatley, Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, Oprah Winfrey, Jesmyn Ward, Octavia E. Butler, Nnedi Okorafor, and Stacey Abrams (who writes bestselling legal thrillers under the handle Selina Montgomery), among many others, have fueled U.S. publishing.

Such women change lives and literature. That’s true not just in the national conversation, but of my own circle. My American University colleague and bestselling novelist Dolen Perkins-Valdez, launched an online reading group with thousands of members. One of my oldest friends gets through an annual reading books read that’s longer than most reviewers, while another is my go-to for her deep knowledge of horror fiction. They keep the publishing business in business.

After working for years in book retail, Hannah built a store for that vital audience. It’s a haven for a diversity of customers,often shut out of publishing’s mainstream. “I so often see customers enter the store and watch their shoulders just drop,” she says. “They know they’re safe at Loyalty.” 

In 2022, members of the neofascist militant group the Proud Boys picketed Loyalty during a Drag Queen Story Hour. It was an ugly moment that should stay a minor footnote in a glorious history. Support a hub of tolerance and creativity in D.C.’s Petworth neighborhood or at its location in Silver Spring, Md. by clicking here. 

Yours ever,

BKP

The Book of Love by Kelly Link

Fans anticipating the short-story maestra’s debut novel will relish this 600-page opus. Set in a New England town, this fanciful tale follows four high-school friends, two of whom are sisters (and only one of whom is actually alive) as they try to solve a challenge set for them by a fiendish music teacher and his demonic accomplice. The premise may sound juvenile but it’s not, because Link infuses the adventure with the cockeyed wisdom that makes her stories sing. “Here’s the thing about endings,” she writes. “Even after you finish a book, things go on happening, no matter whether or not you plan to write them down.” This is a story that will enchant you — especially those parts that take time to untangle.

I Heard Her Call My Name by Lucy Sante