We continue an annual Connections tradition by talking to community leaders about their favorite books of the year. We also get insight into how they think, what they read, and why. Our guests:
- Mark Brummitt, professor of Hebrew bible interpretation at the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School (“Bitten by Witch Fever: Wallpaper & Arsenic in the Victorian Home” by Lucinda Hawksley and “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley)
- Penny Sterling, storyteller (“Anansi Boys“ by Neil Gaiman; “In Such Good Company: Eleven Years of Laughter, Mayhem, and Fun in the Sandbox” by Carol Burnett; and “So, Anyway…” by John Cleese)
- Sareer Fazili, local attorney, and immediate past president of the Islamic Center of Rochester (“The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine” and “Liar’s Poker: Rising through the Wreckage on Wall Street” by Michael Lewis)
- Chris Fanning, director of communications for Writers & Books, and associate producer of the Rochester Fringe Festival (“Boy Erased” by Garrard Conley)
- Meaghan de Chateauvieux, president and CEO of Willow Domestic Violence Center (“Let the Great World Spin” by Colum McCann)
- Kyle Semmel, writer and former director of Writers & Books (“Insurrections“ by Rion Amilcar Scott)
- Barry Strauber, professor of advertising in the School of Communication at RIT (“Born to Run” by Bruce Springsteen)
- Reverend Judy Davis, commissioner-elect of the Rochester City School Board and member of the steering committee for the Movement for Anti-Racist Ministry and Action (“Speaking Treason Fluently: Anti-Racist Reflections from an Angry White Male” by Tim Wise)
- Julia Figueras, music director and midday host of WXXI’s Classical 91.5 (“Educated“ by Tara Westover)
