RAE’S READS

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This year (2025) finds me with 53 years of teaching “under my belt.” I have taught all levels from pre-K “(library lady” or “book lady”–volunteer) to juniors, seniors, and graduate students enrolled in my Advanced Writing class at the university where I have just completed 34 years. My first paying teaching job was junior high, and I spent 13 years with ages 12-13, the “difficult years.” I had some of the “funnest” experiences with this age group. When I was no longer the “young, fun teacher,” I taught in an elementary school setting before sixth graders went on to junior high, teaching language arts blocs, an assignment that was a “dream-fit” for me. After completing graduate school in my 40s, I went on to community college, then university teaching. This past fall I accepted a part-time teaching job at Apogee Gulf Coast Schools in its first year at the Alvin campus. After my Better Half died n 2022, I achieved a lifelong dream: opening a bookstore of my own, Rae’s Reads. A year later, I sold the house we had lived in for 47 years and moved into the bookstore. My goal is to circulate and repurpose books. Just as teaching is “in my blood,” so is a passion for reading, writing, libraries, and everything bookish. This blog will be open to anyone who loves books, promotes literacy and wants to “come out and play.”

Tuesday Teaser

Open the book you are currently reading and copy two or so sentences along with the title and  author .  The idea is to tease the reader into adding your book to her/his TBR list.

Mine today is from Amy Sorrell’s How Sweet the Sound, which starts (literally) with a bang and goes on to include this on page 113 where the main character is having her hair French braided by her grandmother’s servant:

“‘Oui, child I can braid anything long enough to hold between my fingers.’All the girls in my class coveted Ernestine’s plaits–even those who never talked to me otherwise.  But Ernestine, she saved the braiding for me, smiling and humming “Jacob’s Ladder” as she pulled the strands tight.  Said that’s her favorite song because of the reaching and climbing she’s done to come up out of her miry life.”

This promises to be more than your usual coming of age story.

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7 responses to “Tuesday Teaser”

  1. sjhigbee Avatar
    sjhigbee

    It does sound lovely – I spend hours brushing my granddaughter’s thick, wavy hair which is generally nearly waist length:). The trouble is – I’m not much good with hair!

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    1. Rae Longest Avatar
      Rae Longest

      Thanks for participating. Be sure to check out LiteratureGuy2’s teaser from Dorothy Sayers below.

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  2. literature2guy Avatar
    literature2guy

    “It is not altogether wise – or convincing – to show so much animus against married women. It was the same unreasonable prejudice that made you get that scout removed from your staircase -” From Dorothy Sayers’s “Gaudy Night,” a tale of skulduggery in the ivy-clad environs of the women’s college of Oxford University in about 1935.

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    1. Rae Longest Avatar
      Rae Longest

      Not many “tales of skulduggery” around these days. I definitely need to order a book by Dorothy Sayers. Do you recommend I try this one, or would I do better starting with another?

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      1. literature2guy Avatar
        literature2guy

        I am enjoying this one, but it is different from the others. This one features a female and female characters, as have some of the others, but to an even greater extent. The first one is lol funny. The second is more emotional in other ways. You might look up The Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery series in Wikipedia and choose one that appeals to you. I have thoroughly enjoyed all of them, and I have enjoyed following Dorothy Sayers as a writer, though all these books, too. You can’t go wrong, really. I should add that in iBooks, this same book is available for $7.99 or .99, so be careful.

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  3. literature2guy Avatar
    literature2guy

    I wish I could edit that comment for commas, but it’s just not possible. 🙂

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    1. Rae Longest Avatar
      Rae Longest

      This is a totally non-judgmental blog; therefore, editing is optional. ha!

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