Connections Podcast

Rochester and Western New York's favorite books of 2025, part 1

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What was at the top of your reading list this year? As 2025 draws to a close, we bring back an annual tradition: conversations about favorite books! During part one of this two-part episode, our guests share their favorite books that they read in 2025. Fiction, nonfiction, adult, YA, or kids' books — we discuss it all. Our guests:

  • Emily Clasper, director of the Rochester Public Library and Monroe County Library System
  • Laquanda M. Fields, "the fab librarian" and libraries fellow at NC State University Libraries
  • Michael Solis, executive director of Writers & Books
  • Justin Murphy, freelance journalist, author of "Your Children are Very Greatly in Danger: School Segregation in Rochester, New York," and research and communications coordinator at Our Local History
  • Mona Seghatoleslami, music director, host, and producer for WXXI Classical 91.5 FM 

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