If you ask Jenna Bush Hager or Reese Witherspoon, they’ll happily inform you that Wednesday evening book clubbing is the new Friday night bar clubbing.
Jenna launched her book club in March 2019, and it’s clear that the NBC anchor is a true book lover at heart. The Today with Hoda & Jenna star has co-authored two books, Everything Beautiful in Its Time and Sisters First, with her mom Laura Bush and her sister Barbara Bush, respectively. She also grew up reading books and has her parents to thank for that.
“I don’t remember a night when I was a little girl that I went to bed without one of my parents reading to my sister, Barbara, and me. It was just part of our nightly routine,” she told Goodreads, adding it was how they were raised. “We never had a TV in our room, at least until, really, college, so it was the way that I entertained myself.”
Jenna said her mother, being an only child, especially inspired her to read. “She found this companionship that she didn’t have with a sibling in books. She passed that on to Barbara and me.”
Jenna started Book of the Month with Today to form a community with other people, like herself, who love to read. “Why not do what I do in my personal life on television?” she asked herself. Almost a year later, Jenna’s book club has taken off, and the Today anchor continues to release one special pick a month. Here’s a full list of every novel she’s chosen for her book club, plus the latest pick to dive into.