RAE’S READS

recent posts

about

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.”

SUNDAY REVIEW

The word “Sunday” written in white 3D letters on a colorful background concept and theme.

There’s an hour left of this Sunday, October 1st before it becomes Monday, so I guess there’s enough time to do a Sunday Review here on PWR.

Today’s recommendation was a favorite for me because it is two things I love best: a debut novel and an immigrant story.

Published in 2019, this novel discusses the plight of Arab women and the controlled and closed world they live in, even after emigrating to the US. At the age of seventeen, Isra, the protagonist is married off to an American Arab, Arabs (Adam) by her money-hungry father. The year is 1990, and Isra finds the United States much stranger and more frightening than she expected. Disappointed in her marriage as well, she gives birth to a daughter, Deyna, much to her shame and humiliation. This birth is quickly followed by three more daughters, a circumstance which greatly angers and embarrasses her mother-in-law, Fareeda, the least liked character in this story of three generations of women.

The narrative carries the reader along in a captivating manner, alternating chapters from the three women’s lives, covering from Fareeda’s wedding until 2008 when Deyna is in high school, being raised with her sisters by their grandparents. The question in the reader’s mind is, “What happened to Isra? Why is the backward Fareeda fighting with Deyna, whom she is trying to marry off despite Dean’s desire to go to college? Who is the mysterious woman who contacts Deyna, asking her to meet at the bookstore? As the mysteries unfold, the modern reader marvels at how women of another time and culture can believe assumptions as to a husband’s superiority and rights, and her duty to subject her own wishes and dreams to those of her family.

Overall, this is an amazing book, a page-turner, and a darned good read.

RAE 9/11/23 11:30 pm

Posted in

2 responses to “SUNDAY REVIEW”

  1. Deb Nance at Readerbuzz Avatar
    Deb Nance at Readerbuzz

    The lives of women in other places or in other times…this is one of my favorite themes in the books I read and love.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    1. Rae Longest Avatar
      Rae Longest

      Me too!

      Like

      Reply

Leave a reply to Deb Nance at Readerbuzz Cancel reply