Still haven’t done your holiday shopping? Jenna Bush Hager is here to help.
Hager, whose Today show book club is one of the most popular in the country, shared her gift recommendations for the readers in your life.
Some of the recommendations are previous picks from her book club, including Toni Morrison’s classic The Bluest Eye. “Five decades after its original release, this story and its message are still so very relevant,” Hager said when she selected it for her club. “I read it as a sophomore in high school.…[For] me, reading this book was transformational.”
For “the women in your family,” Hager suggested another previous book club pick, Jamie Ford’s The Many Daughters of Afong Moy, which she has said “changed my life.” For grandmothers specifically, Hager urged readers to consider Shelby Van Pelt’s Remarkably Bright Creatures, which she found “lighthearted and lovely.”
Hager turned to her November pick, Katy Hays’ The Cloisters, for mystery lovers; she previously called the novel “about as Gothic and mysterious as you can get.”
For “your bestie,” Hager recommended Ann Patchett’s These Precious Days, pointing out that one of the essays in the collection “is about a dear friendship that kept her sane and joyful and happy during the pandemic.”
Hager also recommended Daniel Ladinsky’s Love Poems From God, which she said she reads from every day, as well as Little Pieces of Hope: Happy-Making Things in a Difficult World, written by Todd Doughty and illustrated by Josie Portillo.
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
