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.”

FRIDAY FIRSTLINERS

I found this fun meme at Hoarding Books. What one is asked to do is grab a book at random and copy the first line, so here’s mine for Friday, September 18, 2020:

” February 3 was a dark and dank day altogether; cold spitting rain in the morning and a low, steel-grey sky the rest of the afternoon.”

The above is from The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott, my choice for the white book of my “Celebration of Color” Challenge.

Grab your current read, and join in.

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9 responses to “FRIDAY FIRSTLINERS”

  1. bellesmoma16 Avatar
    bellesmoma16

    Happy Friday!
    My first line comes from Jocelyn by Sarah Monzon: “I was eight years old when I saw the movie Gone With the Wind for the first time.”
    Hope you have a great weekend. 🙂❤📚

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    1. Rae Longest Avatar
      Rae Longest

      This is a great one! Thanks for participating.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  2. beth Avatar
    beth

    “In the kitchen that my mother ran with all the pride of a chef cuisiniers at Versailles, even if it was in white-bread Bromley, she provided the plenty she had gone without herself.” – from “Let Me Eat Cake,” by Paul Arnot

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    1. Rae Longest Avatar
      Rae Longest

      I think I’d like to read this one; I KNOW my friend would.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
      1. beth Avatar
        beth

        I read about it somewhere and was out of print but I found it on a used book site

        Liked by 1 person

  3. BeautyInTheBinding (@BeautyInTheBind) Avatar
    BeautyInTheBinding (@BeautyInTheBind)

    Happy Saturday! Today, I’m sharing the first line from Under the Tulip Tree by Michelle Shocklee. “Pandemonium has broken out in the streets of New York City.”

    https://moments-of-beauty.blogspot.com/2020/09/first-line-fridays-under-tulip-tree-by.html

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  4. Paula Shreckhise Avatar
    Paula Shreckhise

    My first line is from ALMOST A BRIDE by Jody Hedlund
    Cariboo, British Columbia. August 1863

    “Hello, Beautiful. Will you marry me?”

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    1. Rae Longest Avatar
      Rae Longest

      Wow! Had me at, “Hello, Beautiful…” LOL

      Like

      Reply
  5. Deb Nance at Readerbuzz Avatar
    Deb Nance at Readerbuzz

    I always think I’m going to join in with the first line meme or the teaser meme, but I haven’t in ages. There is something wonderful about writing down great lines from a book and sharing them.

    Like

    Reply

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