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 (EVENING) POST

    The last update on what I have read, am reading, and am going to read was done in a WWW Wednesday on September 26th, a month ago, yesterday. Before that, way back on September 2nd, was my last Sunday (Evening) Post. I realized tonight it had been too long since I had reported in on my ongoing reading efforts and accomplishments. This is an effort to do just that.

    Back on September 2nd, I reported that I was reading Amercanah by Ngozi Adichie and enjoying it. I was reading it on my laptop and often forgot to pick it up again. The result? I am still reading it, but I am continuing to enjoy both the story and the characterization of this fine author. I hope to finish it by the end of this week. At that time, I was reading a police procedural, crime-mystery, The Mercy of the Tides by Keith Rosson, a genre I hadn’t read in a long time. I finally gave up on it and passed it along via my Little Free Library.

    Since then I have finished:  The Rosie Result, the ending book in the Don Tillman Trilogy (reviewed on PWR recently); Ink and Bone, a book about books by Rachel Caine; The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, a book chosen by my book and film book club, read then viewed, and discussed over lunch (reviewed on PWR recently); Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen (reviewed); Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: The Untold Story (reviewed); and Shadow of the Wind by Zafon, the last book in my Alphabet Soup Challenge (to be posted at a later date)

    When I checked the September 26th report at WWW Wednesdays and added those books I had finished recently, I came up with the following:  The Girl Who Fell From the Sky (not reviewed yet) by Heidi W. Durrow; AHA  by Kyle Idleman; Sea Scope; The Lost Landscape: A Writer’s Coming of Age by Joyce Carol Oates (reviewed on my Literacy blog); Unplug by Suzie Yalof Schwartz (not reviewed yet); The Haunted Bookstore  by Christopher Morely; and A Year of Wednesdays, which completed my Alphabet Soup Challenge.

    As of today, Sunday, September 27th, I am still continuing to read: The Stone Sky, by N.K. Jemisin (finally! the third book in The Broken Earth series); Goodnight June by Sarah Jio; My Life with Bob by Pamela Paul, The Essential Rumi by Coleman Barks; and I am listening to Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morely.

    Obviously, I need to finish the books I have started, but I am looking forward to a book that arrived this weekend: The Crossroads of Should and Must.

    The weather here on the Texas Gulf Coast is finally cooler and seems more like fall. Today’s high was only in the low 70s, and I was able to wear a fall sweater-ish top to church. I have been eating and drinking pumpkin-spice flavors since late September, but finally, it feels “right.” I hope your week ahead brings time and weather conducive to much reading!

  • How you grow…

    elfkat's avatarAdventures and Musings of an Arch Druidess

    View original post

  • TUESDAY TEASER

    The Tuesday Teaser asks you copy a few sentences from what you are currently reading, “teasing” other readers to put your book on their TBR lists. After you read mine, be sure to leave your Tuesday Teaser in the “reply” box at the bottom. It’s fun to “play” too, and I am always amazed at the diversity/variety of the things friends are reading.

    My T T today comes from Sarah Jio’s Goodnight June (Yes, a “play” on Goodnight Moon) It comes early in the novel. June has found an old box in her deceased aunt’s attic and discovers a copy of Goodnight Moon and her childhood diaries. What revelations will these old books hold for her about her “life she left behind” and the person she is today?

    “I pull the book out of the box and hold it in my hands. It’s a full-sized hardback, not the tiny board books bookstores sell these days. I flip through the pages, and my heart contracts when I think of Amy’s tiny fingers pointing to the mouse hiding on each page. It was our little game to find him, and I never tired of it.”

  • OCTOBER 20-26TH, FRIENDS OF LIBRARIES WEEK

    Yesterday began National Friends of Libraries Week. This can be interpreted in two ways. First, anyone can befriend their local library, no matter how big or small the library is, and no matter how big or small the gesture made. I plan to take a tray of homemade cookies for our hard-working clerks and staff this week. I challenge you to do something similar or, at least, write a letter of appreciation to your local librarian/library.

    Secondly, “Friends of Library” has become the nomenclature for groups that raise funds for and in many ways support their libraries. The first one I heard of was located in Friendswood, Texas (named thus because it was founded by Quakers, also known as “Friends”), about ten miles from Alvin, my hometown since 1968. In subsequent years, I discovered the Alvin Library where I read the New Yorker frequently since as a junior high school teacher from 1968 to 1978, my salary couldn’t handle such a “luxury” as a subscription to the magazine. An even happier discovery was the Alvin Library had its own “friends” group, known as The Alvin Library League. I have been a member from the time I found out about its existence and was even a member of the board of directors when I was attending graduate school from 1984-1986, not working full-time, and free to attend board meetings on Wednesday mornings. ALL, as it is known, still has its board meetings on Wednesday mornings, governing the many activities the Library League provides. Two fundraisers provide items for our library such as money for the Summer Reading Programs for kids, computers for the youngest patrons, furniture that needs to be replaced or updated–all unbudgeted expenses. One is Breakfast with Santa, a community event held the first weekend in December where little Alvinites can eat a healthy breakfast, usually provided by Joe’s BBQ, have their picture taken with Santa for free, and receive a “goodie-bag” containing crayons, coloring sheets, and candies to take home as a souvenir. It is a fun morning for all, including the ALL volunteers who serve the meal and facilitate the activities. The other fundraiser is the sale of used books, donated by the community and placed in a special section in the library. These two “projects” finance the League’s efforts to support the library.

    Every year the Library League holds a membership luncheon in October (the only meeting each year) where members vote on officers, board members, and any changes/activities that require a membership vote. Also, the speaker is usually an author who signs and sells her/his books, usually a local author or, as this year, a New York Times bestselling author. The food is always outstanding, catered in recent years by Southern Elegance catering, The phrase, “…and a good time was had by all…” occurs every October thanks to great efforts on the part of directors, officers, and committee heads with their volunteers.

    If you are reading this in the Alvin area, especially if you use the Alvin Library, join the ALL. Dues are amazingly low, and there is only one meeting a year although there are many opportunities to get involved with a committee and become acquainted with Alvin and its fine residents if you are so inclined.  If you are reading this elsewhere, ASK if your library has a Friends of the Library group, and join. If there is no group, get creative–START ONE– as the perfect way to celebrate Friends of Libraries Week.

  • THE LOST YEARS: A Writer’s Coming of Age by Joyce Carol Oates, a Review

    Rae Longest's avatarLiteracy and Me

    In this memoir, Oates, a writer I have heard read from her work in public, and one of the most versitile authors I’ve read, “recounts the early years of her life in western New York.” Lost Years chronicles her earliest memories and her childhood (through adulthood) impressions and reflections on her mother and father. Citing her formative years and her parents as shaping not only her life and ambitions, but her writing, Oates writes with “searing detail” and from a perspective born from an excellent memory of times past. Her descriptions of her beloved pet, a red hen named “Happy Chicken” reveal a great deal about Little Carol, her mother, and even her grandmother.

    Oates includes a poem written from her mother’s point-of-view, “When I Was a Little Girl, and My Mother Didn’t Want Me,” a treasure hidden in this fascinating memoir. At times, the author almost apologizes for having…

    View original post 83 more words

  • FRIDAY FIRSTLINERS

    Rae Longest's avatarblogging807

    Here are the first lines of a book I started today, The Girl Who Fell from the Sky, by Heidi W. Durrow; so far, the story is so great, I keep stealing time from other things to read “a few chapters more.”

    “Rachel

    ‘You my lucky piece,’ Grandma says. Grandma has walked me the half-block from the hospital to the bus stop. Her hand is wrapped around mine like a leash. It is fall 1982 in Portland, and it is raining.”

    What follows is the intriguing story of how Rachel “fell from the sky,” which was witnessed by one boy in the apartments, but is speculated upon by many.

    View original post

  • Monday Funnies…

    Monday Funnies…

  • Alvin and area Alert to Literacy Efforts–Monday Memories

    Today’s Monday Memory concerns My Little Free Library. Here is the story of how I became involved in Literacy, first in Alvin, then in myriad ways in the five and a half years since I wrote these words.

    “This past week in the Community Section of the Houston Chronicle (Yes, I still have the Chronicle delivered to my home each day; we’ve got to “do our part” to keep print newspapers going.), there was an article on Little Free Libraries in the area. Two of my friends were mentioned, and Alvin received some much overdue positive attention.

    We are working for literacy down here, one LFL at a time. Nan Self,a long time friend from previous AAUW membership, fellow member of the Alvin Historical Society and too numerous connections since the late sixties in Alvin to mention, was featured on the cover of the section with her red-white-and blue, two-shelf library. It was a lovely article, and also quoted Debbie Nance, librarian at Robert Louis Stevenson school across the street from my sub-division, who has written and received a grant to promote literacy by building and maintaining LFL’s in underserved Alvin neighborhoods. It was she who introduced me to the concept of Little Free Libraries and the international movement. She has a lovely LFL outside her home on a well-travelled road, “just up from” Alvin High School. Hers sits under a shaded tree, and there is a bench installed for weary walkers to rest and browse, sampling before selecting a book to take with them. It provides a moment away from the continuous traffic and the hustle and bustle of the area.

    My LFL is all about location, location, location–to quote a realtor friend. We are on the “main drag” into the subdivision between a primary school and an elementary school, two blocks down from the bus stop where the jr. high and high school students are dropped. We are on the side of the street that has sidewalks; our sidewalk is parallel to and within reachable distance from our LFL.Mt LFL was a 69th birthday gift, paid for by my husband and built of scraps from our house–shingles from the last time we had the roof done, scrap lumber from various projects, painted with leftover paint since our last painting adventure, and designed and executed by Robert Hockin of Alvin, a man of good will who does an amazing amount of good things for our church (South Park Baptist Church, located at the corner of Johnson and South Streets in Alvin–sorry had to get in a plug; we have been members there since 1968 and continue active membership today–as active as people our age can be.)and for everyone in the community. Robert and my husband set the post in concrete and let it “set” for a couple of days before attaching the little “house” that is my LFL and matches my house. A hurricane may wipe out my house, but the LFL in our side yard will stand!

    For my seventieth birthday, my Monday class at UHCL gave me a birthday party, and gifts were books for my LFL “Christmas Giveaway.” You have not celebrated until you have celebrated with 25 20-30+ year olds! It took me a full day to recover, but many books were distributed throughout my neighborhood thanks to my students that semester. I don’t think anyone, especially me, would forget that party or the lovely moments that caused my LFL to be the “gift that kept on giving.”

    We have done trick-or-treat outside our back drive, introducing parents and kids to the LFL, and often heard questions of, “How much does it cost?” “We can keep the books?”and, best of all, “Can I put the books my kids have outgrown in it?” Several young women keep paperbacks by Debbie McComer, Nicholas Sparks and other escape/when-I-have-a minute-to-read-books in plentiful supply at my LFL. There are evidently reading men in my neighborhood because detective novels like one I discovered in my own LFL, the Alex Cross series, a really good read either in series or as individual books. Fathers and mothers bring their little ones, lift them up to unhook the latch and help them select the books Mom and Dad will read to them.We are in the middle of our Spring Break push, offering the entire Treehouse series as well as the Magic Schoolbus books and at least three or four of the “Little House: series. Recently a dear friend gave me her son’s childhood books now that he is off to college. As she said, “Books should be in readers’ hands, not packed in boxes.” Good old Nancy Drew is making an appearance as are the Hardy Boys and the Boxcar Children. Even Spiderman, Batman, and Superman are making guest appearances in the form of Scholastic versions of their adventures in “reluctant reader” form. As I said, the Little Free Library is in its third (now 5th) year of giving and giving. My hairdresser and chiropractor here in Alvin have had bookshelves and space for free books for a long time, before the movement ever started.Yes, we are doing our part to promote literacy and distribute books here in Alvin.”

    Here is an updated photo of my LFL, taken today after the repainting and Grand Re-opening of the Little Free Library on the last day of July this past summer.IMG_0543

    Share some of your earlier posts or pictures that make good memories on a Monday.

    Happy reading, everyone!

     

  • When Should You Disturb A Book Lover? #TuesdayBookBlog #Bookworms #Booklovers 📚🤐

    When Should You Disturb A Book Lover? #TuesdayBookBlog #Bookworms #Booklovers 📚🤐

  • FIRST LINE FRIDAYS

    This meme, started by Mis B of Daily Rhythm, asks readers to copy the first line(s) of a book they are reading in order to tempt others to add the book to their TBR list.  Here are the first lines of Joyce Carol Oates’ autobiography/memoir, The Lost Landscape: A Writer’s Coming of Age.

    “May 14,1941. It was a time of nerves. Worried-sick what was coming my father would say of this time in our family history but who could guess it, examining this old and precious snapshot of Mommy and me in our backyard playing with kittens”?

    I have read to the point where Oates is enrolled in college, and it has been an interesting read so far, some childhood memories revealing where Oates’ love of books and learning came from. I anticipate finishing this memoir sometime this weekend.