You know her from the Today show coffee mug and that sharp, lawyerly-but-approachable interviewing style. Savannah Guthrie is a fixture. But if you think books by Savannah Guthrie are just celebrity-penned fluff designed to fill up a display at the airport, you’re kinda missing the lead.
Honestly, she’s built a weirdly diverse bibliography. One minute she’s writing about Princess Penelope Pineapple wearing pants to save a cat, and the next she’s dropping a #1 New York Times bestseller about the heavy lifting of Christian faith and grief. It’s a range.
Most people don't realize how much of her personal life she’s actually leaked into these pages. It isn't just "brand extension." It's more like a paper trail of how she’s processed being a working mom, a person of faith in a secular newsroom, and someone who lost her dad way too young.
The Faith Shift: Why "Mostly What God Does" Hit So Hard
When Mostly What God Does: Reflections on Seeking and Finding His Love Everywhere dropped in early 2024, it didn't just sit on the shelves. It sold out. Fast. Scammers even started making fake workbooks on Amazon because the demand was so high—which is a bizarre "you've made it" metric in the publishing world.
What’s the deal with it?
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Basically, it’s a collection of 31 essays. It isn’t a memoir, though it feels like one. Savannah pulls from Ephesians 5:2—specifically Eugene Peterson's The Message translation—which says, "Mostly what God does is love you."
That’s the hook.
She breaks the book into six "essentials":
- Love
- Presence
- Praise
- Grace
- Hope
- Purpose
She gets surprisingly raw. She talks about being fired from her first TV job after just ten days. She talks about the death of her father when she was 16. She even touches on the Sandy Hook tragedy and how it tested her belief system.
The structure is intentionally loose. You can read one essay with your coffee or binge the whole thing. If you listen to the audiobook, there are actually 30-second gaps of silence after each chapter for "reflection." It’s sort of a "faith-full and faith-curious" manual rather than a preachy sermon.
People love it because it feels like Savannah is just talking to you from the couch, not a pulpit. She admits she’s not a theologian. She’s just a person trying to tune into "God’s radio station" amidst the static of a 24-hour news cycle.
The Kids’ Version: Mostly What God Does is Love You
Fast forward to 2025, and she took that same core message and distilled it for the "juice box" crowd. Mostly What God Does is Love You is a picture book that basically says: "Hey, you don't have to be perfect to be loved."
It’s simple. It’s colorful. And honestly? It’s probably what a lot of adults actually needed to hear too.
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The Princess Penelope Era: Breaking the Gown Monopoly
Before she was writing about theology, Savannah was shaking up the "pink aisle" in bookstores. Along with Allison Oppenheim, she launched the Princesses Wear Pants series.
The first book, Princesses Wear Pants (2017), introduces us to Princess Penelope Pineapple. Penny lives in a palace, sure, but she has a secret weapon: a massive collection of pants.
Why pants? Because she has stuff to do.
- Flying planes.
- Gardening.
- Doing science experiments.
- Saving the royal cat (Miss Fussywiggles) from a moat.
The message is pretty obvious: what you do matters more than how you look. Some critics thought the "pants vs. dresses" debate felt a little 1970s, but for a 4-year-old who is told they can't climb a tree because they’re in a tutu, it still resonates.
Then came the sequel, Princesses Save the World. This one doubled down on "girl power" but focused more on community and problem-solving. It’s less about the closet and more about the impact.
The Savannah Guthrie Writing Style: Is It Actually Good?
Look, let’s be real. Celebrity books can be hit or miss. Usually, they’re "ghostwritten" within an inch of their life until all the personality is sucked out.
Savannah’s books feel different.
In her faith writing, she uses phrases like "taking a flying leap over a cliff" to describe her publishing journey. She uses humor to deflect when things get too heavy. She isn’t afraid to look messy.
In the children's books, she uses rhyme. Is it Shakespeare? No. But it’s catchy enough for a bedtime story.
What You Might Have Missed
- The Law Background: You can see her legal training in how she builds an argument for faith. She isn't just saying "believe this." She's presenting evidence from her own life.
- The Collaboration: She didn't write the kids' books alone. Allison Oppenheim, a child psychologist, helped ensure the "empowerment" message actually landed with kids.
- The "Silent" Success: Her books have consistently hit the top of the New York Times Best Sellers list. That’s hard to do once, let alone across two different genres.
Actionable Takeaways for Your Bookshelf
If you’re looking to dive into books by Savannah Guthrie, here is the best way to approach it based on what you need right now:
- If you're feeling burnt out or skeptical: Start with Mostly What God Does. Skip around to the "Grace" or "Presence" sections. Don't feel like you have to read it cover-to-cover.
- If you have a daughter who thinks she can only be "one thing": Get Princesses Wear Pants. It’s a great conversation starter about why it’s okay to love glitter and dirt.
- If you're an audiobook fan: Specifically get the audio version of her faith book. Hearing her voice—the one you recognize from the news—makes the personal stories about her family feel way more intimate.
- Watch out for fakes: As Savannah herself warned on Instagram, don't buy the "study guides" or "workbooks" unless they are officially from her publisher (Thomas Nelson). Stick to the primary titles to make sure you're getting her actual words.
Savannah Guthrie has managed to do something rare: she’s used her platform to talk about things that aren't "safe" for a news anchor—like God and gender roles—and she’s done it with enough authenticity that people actually want to listen. Whether you’re there for the spiritual reflection or the pineapple princesses, there’s a lot more depth there than a morning show segment might suggest.