To Understand the Other, You Have to Be a Mother: Jenna Bush Hager's #ReadWithJenna Book Club and the Politics of Race, Empathy, and Motherhood

Abstract

This article examines how Jenna Bush Hager's recently launched and yet highly influential book club, #ReadWithJenna, is emblematic of celebrity book club culture in the twenty-first century as a phenomenon largely dominated by white women as both reader-participants and the celebrity tastemakers themselves. Increasingly, celebrity book clubs actively shape popular literary culture, determining which works of literary fiction are popularized, promoted, and sold. This article uses the #ReadWithJenna book club as a case study to understand how contemporary book clubs tend to be organized around exigencies for white women's self-improvement and education through interrelated discourses of empathy and motherhood. By studying the televisual, online, and social media platforms and productions of the #ReadWithJenna book club, this article reveals the limitations and possibilities of celebrity book clubs as sites of political and social expression.