Author Bonnie Jo Campbell stopped by TODAY with Hoda and Jenna Jan. 25 to speak with Jenna Bush Hager about her latest book, "The Waters."
The novel, chosen as a January 2024 Read With Jenna pick, follows a herbalist in a tiny Michigan town and the fractured relationships she has with her daughters.
“It is about a matriarch and healer and what happens when one of her three daughters brings home a baby. You will fall in love with the girl she grows up to be. She’s one of the most funny, interesting characters of all time. It’s about mothers and daughters. A book for anyone who loves nature, land and where we find beauty and magic. I promise you’ll pick up this book and fall in love,” Jenna previously said.
Below, Campbell shared a few books to read after "The Waters."
This is a "beautiful little story" about a 6-year-old girl, Sophia, who spends a summer with her grandmother, an article on an island in the Gulf of Finland. "She learns about creativity, nature, and mortality," she says, themes found in "The Waters."
"Bad Cree" by Jessica Johns
"This book involves three generations of women in a Native American family solving a mystery and finding a way to endure their tragedies," Campbell says. "It is narrated from the point of view of a young woman who has left home but must return to make sense of her dreams and nightmares."
"Sula" by Toni Morrison
"This is one of Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winner Toni Morrison’s most compelling books—and a surprisingly easy read — about three generations of African American women, each of whom must become severe in her own way in order to do battle with her own unique demons. It is also a story of friendship and betrayal," she says.
"Ballad of the Sad Café" by Carson McCullers
"n 1951 Carson McCullers set out to write a contemporary fairy tale (in 1951) about a small southern town being awakened by love," Campbell says. "In this very short novel, the whole town blossoms under the influence of Miss Amelia, a medicine woman and bootlegger. It is an outrageous little story filled with joy and heartbreak."
"Fen, Bog and Swamp" by Annie Proulx
"She sings the glories of the three main types of American wetlands, and it will make you want to put on your boots and go out and investigate the wetlands near you," she says.