For her last book club selection of 2019, Today host Jenna Bush Hager is turning to literary nonfiction.
Hager announced on Monday that the latest pick for her popular book club is Late Migrations, an essay collection by New York Times opinion writer Margaret Renkl.
“It’s nonfiction, personal essays, each a little vignette that makes up the author’s life,” Hager said. “Even though it’s a quick read, I read it really slowly—which is unlike me—because I wanted every word to mean something.”
Hager compared Renkl to Mary Oliver, a favorite of her co-host, Hoda Kotb.
Renkl told Today that she wrote the first essay in the book shortly after the death of her mother.
“For a really long time, I had no idea I was writing a book,” Renkl said. “I was just writing in the same way that I’ve always written since I was a little girl, to try to make sense of what was happening to me.”
Hager said she thought the selection was appropriate for December. “We end with something slow and reflective and gorgeous,” she said.
Late Migrations, published by Minneapolis indie Milkweed Editions, is the first small-press book Hager has selected for her club. Her previous selections have included Nicole Dennis-Benn’s Patsy, Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House, and Cara Wall’s The Dearly Beloved.
Michael Schaub is an Austin, Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
