Jenna Bush Hager grew up in a house of bookworms. Her mother, First Lady Laura Bush, was a former librarian who read her twin daughters Little House on the Prairie. Her father, President George W. Bush, had a large anthology of Canadian fairytales that he’d read selections of to his girls. From childhood on, a love of reading was ingrained in her life. During adolescence Hager obsessed over The Baby-Sitters Club, and later on The Bluest Eye. Then by the time she reached adulthood, she became the de facto person in all of her friends and family’s lives to go to for a book suggestion.
“Yesterday my sister [Barbara], who’s out of town called and was like, ‘What should I read now?’ I’m always recommending books to friends, and I’m always asking for recommendations,” Hager tells Glamour. Which is why when Hager was named cohost of Today with Hoda & Jenna, she decided to launch a monthly book club, called Read With Jenna. As she puts it, “[Recommending books] is something I do in my day-to-day life, and I just gave it a little bit of a larger platform on the show.”
When Hager modestly made her first selection back in March, Tara Conklin’s The Last Romantics, the book jumped up to number 6 on the New York Times best-seller list (despite the fact that it hadn’t made the list the week before). Then lightening struck twice. Her next featured read, The Unwinding of the Miracle by Julie Yip-Williams instantly became a bestseller, and it became clear that Hager had something really powerful on her hands. Since, all of her subsequent recs—A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum and Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok—have also hit the list. Though her July pick, Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes was only announced on Tuesday, it’s already the bestselling book on Amazon.
While Hager is immensely proud of the fact that all of her selections have had such success—especially since she makes it a point to frequently feature first time and little-known authors— its in the community of Read With Jenna followers that she really feels its impact. “Yesterday a woman wrote on my Instagram, ‘I really wish I could afford this, but between bills and this and that, I can’t afford this book.’ Ten people wrote in and said, ‘Send me your address, and I’ll send you a book,'” Hager says. “That’s the power of really creating a place where people can come together to read, and also start a really great conversation. We created a Read With Jenna Facebook page, but readers have also created their own group called, ‘Finished Reading Jenna’s Book Club,’ so there are no spoilers. The momentum is crazy and I love that the members of the group are creating their own [spaces], which is what would happen in a normal book club.”
Hager isn’t the only celebrity who shares their passion for books with their fans. Sarah Jessica Parker, Emma Watson, Reese Witherspoon, and more regularly post what they’re reading on social media. But it’s Hager who has been dubbed the heir apparent to Oprah, whose stamp of approval catapulted authors like Cormac McCarthy, James Frey, and Janet Fitch to fame. Hager credits the book club’s meteoric rise to, “the platform of Today. We know that the people watching our show trust us, and they are part of our lives. This isn’t the first time I’ve done segments about authors or books. Since I started, really ten years ago, I’ve discussed books. So I think they trust me, and like what I’m choosing.” She’s also quick to point to Reese Witherspoon’s club as an inspiration. “I admire what Reese does for uplifting female authors. Nobody does more for publishing, because she buys these books and [turns them into] incredible television shows and movies. I think she’s done it right because she loves to read, it’s authentic. And I think anybody who has ever watched Today knows I love to read, which I think is the secret to the success.”
If one thing becomes crystal clear when talking to Hager, it’s that she really, truly loves nothing more than a good book. She recently read her daughter, Mila, the entire Junie B. Jones series. At night her husband has to ask her to turn down the light on her iPad as she stays up late pouring over novels. Though she reads six to seven books in full per month, there are countless titles she read portions of—before realizing that they’re not the right fit for the club—that she’s dying to get back to. And when you ask Hager for her favorite summer reads, she lights up at the opportunity to recommend some of her most coveted.
Read on for Hager’s exclusive summer picks, and follow along at Read With Jenna to see which book she’ll spotlight next.
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