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.”

“CELEBRATION OF COLOR” Book 2

The “Celebration of Color” Challenge is one I gave myself in order to clear off my TBR shelves, read books recommended by other bloggers, and generally have some fun. To review the colors and the guidelines, type “Celebration of Color into the search box. There you also will find the review of my “Blue” book,The Dalia Lama’s Cat.

Today’s book is red,

This 1990 novel, first in a series “The Cazalet Chronicles” has been sitting on my TBR shelves since it showed up as a donation in my Little Free Library. It deals , much in the “Upstairs Downstairs” fashion with the Cazalet family, opening with the awakening of a young servant, whose activities we follow, along with those of the family members. There are so many members of the family that the family tree at the front of the book is invaluable, and as I began reading, I kept a finger tucked in to it, so I could frequently figure out who belonged to whom.

In the critics praise blurbs near the front, one wrote the novel was “…in the tradition of Austin.” Another described the novel as describing an “old-fashioned world of understatement and stiff upper lip.” Still another compared its social historian qualities to that of Galsworthy’s The Forsythe Saga.

My favorite part of reading novels is appreciating the authors’ characterization skills, and my did Howard have an enormous number of characters to practice them on. Without exception her characters were totally believable and reflected the society in England between the Wars. Especially well drawn were the children. Existing between the summer of 1937 and the brink of WWII in 1938, the narrative ends on a cliffhanger, to be picked up in the next book. It is a satisfying ending, exhibiting a temporary reprieve, a temporary peace before the horror of war begins both within the world and within the lives of this very interesting, well-drawn family.

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