Book Nook

Four years after Gigi Roane '81 and her business and life partner Willy Jennings lamented the lack of African-American bookstores in Washington, D.C., their brainchild, DrumandSpear.com, has become the nation's biggest online retailer of books by and about blacks.

Currently topping Drum and Spear's bestseller lists are Michael Baisdenn's Maintenance Man and Aretha Franklin's memoir Aretha: From These Roots. Cookbooks are also hot—crawfish-lovers have a taste for TheEssential Caribbean Cookbook. "I can't seem to keep it in stock," Roane says.

Roane, a passionate cook, serves up more than a good read. She also owns a catering business, Gigi's Gourmet, and coordinates eclectic author events such as last fall's "Conversations at the Mansion," in the style of a Harlem Renaissance literary salon, bringing together books, authors, antiques, jazz and champagne in black-tie elegance.

Roane with Lloyd Boston, author of Men of Color.