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.”

THE DEVIL’S HIGHWAY: A Good Non-Fiction Read

Non-fiction is not my first love, not my favorite genre in which to read. However, Luis Alberto Urrea’s The Devil’s Highway kept me turning pages like any good novel.  It is excellent investigative reporting on the US border policy.  The readability is probably what made this book a Pulitzer Prize finalist. It deals with illegal immigration, specifically from Mexico and South America into Arizona, California, and Texas.

The author tells the story of a 2001 crossing of the desert which contains the area known as “The Devil’s Highway.”  The author expresses his own “outrage tempered with concern.” As one critic explained, Urrea writes with “tragic and beautiful intimacy.” Dealing with hyperthermia and how people die in the desert, the author traces a group walking across and down the Devil’s Highway seeking a better life in America. It is at times, “artful, powerful, and shocking.” It is a border story written by a self-proclaimed border son, a fronteriza.

The lasting impression this book will have on you is that it will haunt you.

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9 responses to “THE DEVIL’S HIGHWAY: A Good Non-Fiction Read”

  1. Rae Longest Avatar
    Rae Longest

    Reblogged this on blogging807.

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  2. Dr. Andrew Joseph Pegoda Avatar
    Dr. Andrew Joseph Pegoda

    Good review! This book also has excellent information that sheds lights on how very corrupt the United States’s policies and attitudes are toward those who appear Mexican/Latin American. That’s what I remember most about this book. And, too, how that historically “illegal immigration” is basically just a century old. Even today, there are “illegal immigrants” from countries all over the world, but the only ones who receive attention are those who are from Latin American countries. History and people are always interesting!

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    1. Rae Longest Avatar
      Rae Longest

      Thanks for mentioning the additional information, that, indeed, is a very important part of the book. I think because I enjoy novels so much, the fact that this non-fiction book kept my interest with the “story” so well impressed me the most. Yes history, and even current non-fiction, CAN be interesting. I am glad you loaned me the book!

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  3. sjhigbee Avatar
    sjhigbee

    Yes… it is becoming an increasingly loaded issue all over the world, it seems to me. It certainly is causing major problems in Europe and the UK, with human traffickers and illegal gangs profiting by the human misery.

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    1. Rae Longest Avatar
      Rae Longest

      I think you’ve pointed out an important thing–there are problems world-wide. This book puts a face and human lives on the issue.

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      1. sjhigbee Avatar
        sjhigbee

        Oh, absolutely! And that, surely, is the everlasting power of fiction…

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  4. TheChattyIntrovert Avatar
    TheChattyIntrovert

    i got this book years ago when one of the bookstores near me closed down and I cleaned off the shelves. I still haven’t read it yet (too many in line first), but it’s on my “to read” goal list before the year’s out. It’s not that long a book, and it seemed like it’d be chock full of info, so I’m glad I got it. Can’t wait to read it.

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    1. Rae Longest Avatar
      Rae Longest

      I know you will get a lot out of it. It really makes one think about immigration in general and the Border Patrol (We hear so much; this is as accurate a picture as we, the public, are going to get.)specifically. Reading non-fiction is new to me, for I read only novels for a long time. I thought it would be wise to read out of my genre, sometimes even out of my comfort zone, to broaden my perspectives. It is working out nicely, but Haven’t abandoned “my” novels, especially debut novels. What kind of books do you lean towards?

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      1. TheChattyIntrovert Avatar
        TheChattyIntrovert

        I read just about everything–nonfiction is my home because I’m constantly learning or wanting to learn. Got a section of my blog dedicated to book and tea. Right now, reading “The Complete Sherlock Holmes” and reviewing it a collection at a time. Still finding my way writing reviews without spoilers or nit-picking too badly. But I’ve got over a thousand books on my shelves and need to either read them instead of just compulsively buy them, so why not review them? Anyhoo, good to know more about The Devil’s Highway. I hadn’t really heard much about it even before buying it.

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