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.”

BOOK BUDDY/ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNER WANTED

I need a friend, one who has a taste for urban fantasy and is a fan of NYC. Seriously, I have bought a signed copy of N.K Jemisin’s The City We Became, and need to MAKE time to read it. I first read this author in the Broken Earth series a few years ago when I bought the trilogy after its recommendation by blogging friend Sarah of Brainfluff. As a summer project, My Better Half and I took turns reading it aloud to each other. When fall schedules made an appearance again, we started Book Two, but soon he had less time to read than did I, so with his permission, I continued to read the book to the end, finishing my mid-semester. I put off reading Book Three for almost two years, making several false starts before finally finishing the trilogy during the Christmas Holidays that year.

The author is simply amazing, and when I saw that a Houston bookstore was offering a signed bookplate and a copy of the book as part of their online conversation with Jemisin, I jumped at the opportunity. So, now I have a copy of the book but do not have the self-discipline to begin the book and not be distracted by finishing library books first, finishing books for challenges first, etc. This is a book I want to read for myself, but I need someone to keep me accountable to reading x number of pages or chapters per day or week to check in with to assure that I stick to a schedule.

This “latest” promises to be a fabulous read!

Who will read this book with me and discuss it after we finish. I am open to how much or little we read at a time and how often we check in to keep each other updated on whether we are on track?

Here are its opening lines:

“PROLOGUE

See, What Happened Was

I sing the city.

F***ing city. I stand on the rooftop of a building I don’t live in and spread my arms and tighten my middle and yell nonsense ululations at the construction site that blocks my view. I’m really singing to the cityscape beyond. The city’ll figure it out.”

The book is described as “Glorious” on the cover by Neil Gaiman. It was a New York Times Bestseller and Jemisin is a four-time Hugo award-winning author. Interested yet? This 2020 publication is the first in The Great Cities Trilogy, but you don’t have to commit to all three books–just this one.

Anybody interested? Say so in the comments/reply box below.

THANKS!

RAE

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One response to “BOOK BUDDY/ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNER WANTED”

  1. Rae Longest Avatar
    Rae Longest

    Reblogged this on blogging807.

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