Jenna Bush Hager's Mother and Oprah Winfrey Helped Foster Her Love of Reading: 'A Way to Connect With People'

Bush Hager spoke with author Ann Patchett on the Oct. 31 episode of her podcast ‘Open Book with Jenna’

Jenna Bush Hager is letting us know about the important readers in her life.

The TODAY show co-host, 42, spoke with author Ann Patchett, 60, on the Oct. 31 episode of her podcast, Open Book with Jenna. The two discussed the important “reading partners” in their lives, with Bush Hager sharing that one is her mother, former First Lady Laura Bush, who had her master's in library science.

“When I was little, and in my teens, it was my mom, who ... would also say things like, ‘This might be too complicated for where you are in life right now," Bush Hager explained. "And she'd be right.”

Bush Hager added that she shares a love of reading with her twin sister, Barbara.

“We share books, and I love books, but what I think I really love is a book recommendation.”

Related: Jenna Bush Hager Says Twin Sister Barbara ‘Makes Me Feel Brave and Empowered’ (Exclusive)

Bush Hager said that there are other authors in her life who she connects with, including novelist Emma Straub, who owns the Brooklyn bookstore Books Are Magic.

“I love her so much,” Bush Hager said. “I think indie bookstore owners in our country ... have to curate books that their whole community wants to read. So they know what's out there and what's publishing.”

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Bush Hager, who picked Straub's novel, All Adults Here, for her Read with Jenna book club in 2020, was also influenced by another famous book club host growing up: Oprah Winfrey.

“When I was in high school and taking AP English, I would walk into a Barnes and Noble or the BookPeople in Austin, which was our local store, and look for her little sticker,” Bush Hager said.

"I wanted to see what she was gonna recommend next," she added. "And I think book recommendations are a way to connect with people."

Patchett also shared the titles of important books in her life, including Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White. The Pulitzer Prize winner said the novel was the first book she loved as a child.

Related: Laura Bush Praises Jenna Bush Hager as She Celebrates 5th Anniversary of ‘Read with Jenna’ Program

“I read it over and over again, and I got a pig for my 9th birthday,” Patchett said. “Because we lived on a farm, and I begged my family to give me a pig.” Patchett even gifted a copy of the novel to bestselling author Kate DiCamillo.

“I tracked down, with great effort, an autographed copy of Charlotte's Web for Kate DiCamillo for her 60th birthday, that was a battered up, school version without the paper jacket,” Patchett said. "Just to hold a book that E.B. White had held was incredible.”

Patchett, who published her children’s book The Verts in September, also discussed her unconventional writing process, including that she wrote the entirety of her acclaimed 2023 novel, Tom Lake, while walking on a treadmill.

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“I don't like a standing desk,” the author said. “When you are walking, and it's not like I'm going fast or anything, you're just in perfect alignment. You have no tension in the upper half of your body. Like, your feet hurt at the end of the day, but that's much better than your neck hurting.”

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“It was like walking into the novel,” Patchett added. “It was the best concentration I've ever had in my life.”