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.”

2023 “YEAR OF 23”

23 GOOD THNGS

1-4 Inprint seasons attended–During 2023, I attended four Imprint sessions in Houston, Texas. I heard readings from James McBride from The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, Jumpa Lahiri from Roman Stories , Viet Thanh Nguyen from A Man of Two Faces , and Zadie Smith from The Fraud. I look forward to more Inprint readings n 2024.

5-11 Author Events Coordinated and Facilitated at RAE’S READS, my bookstore. All of the authors signed and sold a respectable number of books, and a good time was had by all.

6 A Mini-Craft-Sale at the bookstore, where we sold everything from pens headed with crocheted flowers, jeweled bookmarks, quilts, and many more hand-made items.

7-8 Two pot-luck dinners which included good food and excellent conversation.

9-10 Two Family Music Nights, one Americana Country and one Slow Jazz by local musicians.

11-12 Two Ladies’ Teas, one done by my friend Ann Landry who talked on “A Famous Woman You Never Heard of”; and one I did which was a review of 365 Days of Gutsy Women, including readings from the book and an interactive sharing time about Gutsy Women who have influenced our own lives.

13 A Thanks for Your Help BBQ for about thirty people who helped me move into the bookstore or supported me in the process.

14-15 Two visits from my brother who lives in Va. and drove 1,800 miles one way to help me out two different times .

16-23+ Meetings of the Tuesday Night Readers Book Club, including one meeting where we met at the bookstore and shared pulled-pork sandwiches with all the “trimmings.”

MANY MORE GOOD THINGS HAPPENED TO ME IN 2023, more than I can even write down. It was a very good year.

RAE 1/1/24

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