WOMAN OF WORDS The last thing Stacey Abrams, who is a Democrat, wanted to do was write a memoir about losing the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial race to the Republican, Brian Kemp. She says the idea came up, but “it was not appealing to me. As someone who has spent my adult life working on issues of access, justice and voting rights, I wanted to figure out, what could I say that was necessary? That told readers, here’s what we have to know, so history doesn’t repeat itself. I come from a family where our parents told us, if you see a problem, your job is to fix it. Writing is how I work through how to fix it.”

“Our Time Is Now,” which appeared at No. 7 on last week’s hardcover nonfiction list, is, according to our reviewer, “a striking manifesto, a stirring indictment and a straightforward road map to victory.” Abrams’s last work of nonfiction, “Lead From the Outside,\" was also a best seller; in addition, she is the author of several romance novels published under the pseudonym Selena Montgomery. She started writing when she was at Yale Law School: “My first novel was published at the same time I published an article on the operational dissonance of the unrelated income tax exemption.”

Abrams is now the driving force behind multiple national organizations — including Fair Fight Action and Fair Fight 2020, which defend voting rights, and Fair Count, working to ensure the accuracy of the 2020 census — but she still finds time to read. At the moment, she’s working her way through “Black Leopard, Red Wolf,” by Marlon James, the latest pick in her siblings’ book club. She says, “I’m the second of six kids, all voracious readers. Our mother was a librarian before she became a minister, so we grew up steeped in reading and storytelling as a part of who we are.” Here’s how the club works: A sibling chooses a book. If the others don’t like it, “We have the right to decide after a few weeks that you either pick a new one or we move on to the next person on the list. We’re very egalitarian in that way. The beauty is, we know if you didn’t read and we can call you out.” (Abrams’s most recent selection was “Zone One,” by Colson Whitehead.)

So what do the next six months look like for Abrams, who has been discussed as a potential running mate for Joe Biden? She will continue her crusades for fair elections, accurate census data and Covid recovery for marginalized communities. And, Abrams says, “I need to help make sure Joe Biden becomes president of the United States.”