Jenna Bush Hager is full of sweet surprises!
The news personality, 43, surprised each of her celebrity co-hosts on Today with Jenna & Friends with a new book based on their personality. The line-up — following the exit of longtime co-host Hoda Kotb whose final episode was Jan. 10 — includes Scarlett Johansson, Taraji P. Henson, Eva Longoria, Keke Palmer and Michelle Buteau.
Bush Hager shared her picks in a joint Instagram post with her Read with Jenna book club on Tuesday, Jan. 21, writing in the caption that she left the books in the dressing room of each new co-host.
All of the books were previously featured on Read with Jenna, a book club she founded in 2019.
First up, she gave Johansson a copy of Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson. The book is about two twin boys who spontaneously combust into flames whenever they are upset, which the journalist thought was fitting for the Marvel actress, who has a twin brother in real life.
For Henson, Bush Hager chose Black Candle Women by Diane Marie Brown, a drama about four generations of Black women living under a devastating family curse.
The former first daughter selected The Great Divide by Cristina Henríquez for Longoria, a fictional story about the construction of the Panama Canal, and The Wedding People by Alison Espach for Palmer, a laugh-out-loud novel about a solo traveler who gets swept up in a random wedding party that destroys her own dark plans.
Lastly, Bush Hager selected Maame by Jessica George for Buteau. The story follows a woman as she leaves her family home and navigates a series of firsts after having spent her young adulthood as her father’s caretaker.
On Jan. 13, the “Love Comes First” author joked about being in her “dating era” as she welcomes new co-hosts to the show.
When asked how she was feeling about it all, the host quipped that she was a “child bride” having married her husband Henry Hager when she was 26 years old.
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“And so I haven’t dated, and this is kind of my dating era, and you’re my first date,” Bush Hager told Henson, who kicked off the succession of celebrity co-hosts.
And that’s not all Bush Hager has going on to start the year. The noted bookworm recently launched a new publishing initiative of her own. The new imprint, called Thousand Voices Books, “will work with storytellers writing in a wide range of genres, including romance, suspense, romantasy, literary fiction, historical fiction and memoir,” according to a press release shared with PEOPLE.
Bush Hager will collaborate with editors from Random House Publishing Group to identify emerging voices and guide them through the process of publishing their books.
“This new venture is a natural extension of my passion for books and reading, and an existing collaboration with writers and publishers, but still entirely new and exciting,” she said in a statement.
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