Summer isn’t over โย which means summer reading isn’t over, either! Jenna Bush Hager recently shared a list of new books that she’s enjoyed.
The picks include new books from Read With Jenna authors, debut novels and a mystery, one of Jenna’s favorite genres.
Another book to put on your lookahead list? “Conform” by Ariel Sullivan, the first novel out from Jenna’s imprint Thousand Voices x Random House Publishing Group. The dystopian novel is set in a socially stratified world where one woman enters into a “mating contract” with a member of the Illum, the society’s elite class.
โItโs a female focused love story with really cool world-building,โ Jenna previously told TODAY.com of the book, out Oct. 14.
So, if you’re already finished with her Read With Jenna books picks for this summer โ “My Other Heart” by Emma Nanami Strenner (August), “Happy Wife” by Meredith Lavender and Kendall Shores (July) and “A Family Matter” by Claire Lynch (June) โ find find her recommendations for summer 2025 reads.
“I’m not just choosing it because my son’s name is Hal,” Jenna says of this book.
In the taut read, two families gather for a birthday party at a country house. There, a devastating act takes place changing the course of their friendships and their children’s lives.
“I thought it was incredible. I can’t wait to read what he writes next,” she says.
This hopeful and engaging read is the story of one woman’s life from childhood through the end. Along the way are moves, marriages, kids and twists neither Joan nor the reader sees coming.
Perhaps the most surprising to Joan is that she opens a cafe with the intention of making a space for people to connect, where the book gets its title.
“If you want to feel good, this is a good one,” Jenna says.
Scottish mystery? Jenna’s in! “If you like Tana French, you will love this one. It’s fun and suspenseful, and it kept me up late,” she says.
In the book, two investigators from Glasgow venture to a remote island to investigate the death of a young man found dead in the same site as a years-old unsolved vanishing.
Nikki Erlick, author of the Read With Jenna book “The Measure,” returns with “The Poppy Fields.”
Jenna says she’s not just partial to the book because her daughter’s name is Poppy. The speculative novel is set in a world where people can pay to sleep off their emotional pain, literally. The premise is sad but the result is hopeful, according to Jenna.
This sweeping Texas-set debut follows four generations in one family as they come together and are torn apart by secrets. Lillian and Ryan’s marriage begins with love and frays from what they keep from each other โ an addiction and a secret child, to name a few. Their daughter, meanwhile, grows up in the shadow of her parents’ actions.
“It’s a sweeping story of marriage, betrayal, dedication. It’s a parent-child story about what binds us and separates us,” Jenna says.
