Jenna Bush Hager co-hosts the fourth hour of the Today show and launched the Read with Jenna book club in March 2019, with one pick a month. The club leans toward accessible literary fiction, family sagas and love stories. This list gathers the picks closest to romance, magic and escape reading.
Holly Gramazio · 2024
A funny, warm take on modern dating and swiping that doubles as a love story. A good fit if the apps have worn you down.
Jane Austen · 1811
Her December 2025 pick. She credits Austen with teaching readers about love, and ties the book to her grandmother Barbara Bush.
Jessica Soffer · 2025
She called it the most epic love story she had ever read. It follows one relationship across 50 years.
Linda Holmes · 2019
One of the club's early picks. A woman heals from an abusive marriage and finds new love.
Lily King · 2020
The real love story here, she says, is the heroine finding her voice as a writer and figuring out what makes her happy.
Taylor Jenkins Reid · 2016
Compulsively fun, in her words, and a good bag-for-the-beach kickoff to summer.
Alice Hoffman · 2026
Alice Hoffman's September 2026 pick is set in 1950s Cambridge, where the legacy of past witch trials may not be as buried as it seems.
Katy Hays · 2022
Set in a museum, this November 2022 pick is a dark-academia style thriller about art and obsession.
Donna Tartt · 1992
The cult dark-academia classic about an elite college circle, chosen for December 2022.
Diane Marie Brown · 2023
A March 2023 pick for readers who want a multigenerational family story shaped by a curse and magic.
Judy Blume · 1998
Judy Blume's nostalgic story of female friendship over decades, her August 2023 pick.
Oyinkan Braithwaite · 2025
Her November 2025 pick, a story built around a family curse.