Today co-host Jenna Bush Hager has chosen A Family Matter by Claire Lynch (Scribner) as her June Read with Jenna book club pick. A Family Matter "alternates between two timelines, the 1980s and the early aughts," Today said. "In the '80s, we meet a young mother who falls in love and is punished for it. In the early aughts, we meet Heron, who is an older man who has to reckon with the decision he made and tell the story of her life."
Hager said she was struck by how "the book uses real court cases to tell the story of what was really happening during that time. It's a story about family, truth and most of all, about love."
A Family Matter is Lynch's debut novel. "The book was inspired by the idea of a family that's always been just a dad and daughter," Lynch said. "Then I was facing into this question of, like, where is the mom? Then, like, what happened in this family? There's this really great, tight bond between the two of them. Then there's this absence all the time about where this mother is."
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Atmosphere: A Love Story by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Ballantine) is the GMA Book Club pick for June. Good Morning America described the book as: "Set against the backdrop of the 1980s space shuttle program, the novel follows Joan Goodwin, a reserved physics professor at Rice University, who unexpectedly finds herself selected for NASA's first class of female scientists in space.
"As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe. Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, it all changes in an instant.
"With Reid's signature emotional depth and cinematic storytelling, Atmosphere is a soaring tale about following your passion and finding your place among the stars."
