Mountain Mayhem: For the Love of Reading

Growing up in Texas, Jenna Bush Hager always found solace in reading. Among the books she loved as a child was “The Baby-Sitters Club,” with its messages of female empowerment and entrepreneurship. Among the books she’s come to appreciate as an adult are the 70 or so select books from her “Read with Jenna” book club, which launched in 2019, the year she was named co-anchor of the fourth hour of NBC’s Today show, “Today with Hoda & Jenna.”

The twin sister of Barbara Pierce Bush – and daughter of former President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush – founded her book club with the mission of honoring and celebrating newer authors and writers from diverse backgrounds to shed more light on their work. The club has been a success, with well over half of her selected books landing on the bestseller lists, including her most recent selection, “All the Colors of the Dark” by author Chris Whitaker.

“People love book recommendations,” said Bush Hager of Explore Booksellers at a private reception on June 24. It was the first time Whitaker had seen the finished book, fresh from the printer, complete with the “Read with Jenna” sticker on the cover.

“I still don’t believe it,” he said. “It’s the Jenna effect.”

The novel had sold several thousand copies through pre-orders before it sold 10,000 copies in one day when it was announced as their book of the month for July, and soon reached number one on the Amazon bestseller list.

Whitaker’s book “mixes genres,” Bush Hager noted when describing why it resonated with her. “It’s a love story. It’s a thriller. It’s set in small town America.”

“Chris is from London,” she continued, “but he knows his way around small-town America.”

She added: “When you turn on the television, you can lose hope. People want interaction and conversation, and that’s what good books do.”

Discover booksellers, the place of reception, is owned by the Center for Public Interest Research, whose mission is to provide the Aspen community with free literary events featuring local and out-of-town authors, educational events and workshops with diverse speakers, roundtable discussions, and other programs featuring the leading minds of our time.