WXXI News
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 two 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:
- Jim Byrne, adult programming librarian at the Henrietta Public Library
"The Name of This Band is R.E.M.: A Biography" by Peter Ames Carlin
"Homestand: Small Town Baseball and the Fight for the Soul of America" by Will Bardenwerper
"Heart, Be at Peace: A Novel" by Donal Ryan
"Exiles" by Mason Coile - Emily Hessney Lynch*, owner/founder of Serve Me the Sky Digital; host of the podcast, "It's a Lot;" and adjunct professor at Nazareth University
"All of Us Murderers" by KJ Charles
"Hum: A Novel" by Helen Phillips
"Welcome to the Family: The Explosive Story Behind Fast & Furious, the Blockbusters that Supercharged the World" by Barry Hertz
"Hunchback" by Saou Ichikawa - Adrienne Pettinelli, director of the Henrietta Public Library
"Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism" by Sarah Wynn Williams
"Scarlet Morning, Book 1: Scarlet Morning" by ND Stevenson
"Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier
"Nunu and the Sea" by Isabella Kung - Linda Sue Park, Newbery medalist and author of "A Long Walk to Water" and "Prairie Lotus," among others
"A Thousand Hills to Heaven" by Josh Ruxin
"Oishinbo" by Tetsu Kariya and Akira Hanasaki
"The Nine Moons of Han Yu and Luli" by Karina Yan Glaser
"The Courage of the Little Hummingbird: A Tale Told Around the World" by Leah Henderson and Magaly Morales - Leslie C. Youngblood, author of "Love Like Sky" and "Forever This Summer," among others, and writer and academic advisor at the University of Rochester
"The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois" by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
"James" by Percival Everett
*To read Emily Hessney Lynch's "25 Books I Loved in 2025" blog post, click here.
To listen to part one of this conversation, click here.
