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.”

  • THE ROSIE RESULT by Graeme Simsion: A Review

    This book is the conclusion to the Don Tillman trilogy, but it also makes a great stand-alone novel. Written in 2019, it’s “twist-ending” is the perfect sign off to the series. I was so pleased with the ending, I gave a “yay” out loud and would have clapped my hands together in delight had I not been reaching for reading log and pen to record a review of this fine piece of writing and entertainment.

    Don and Rosie’s ten-year-old son, Hudson, the main character in this one, causes his school teacher and counselor some concern, both thinking he should be evaluated for autism. Ironically enough Don does NOT want his son labeled, and he and Rosie fight the school authorities, as Don continuously looks for the stereotypic characteristics of autistic people. Knowing Don, if you have read any of the other two books, The Rosie Project and The Rosie Effect, you will not be surprised he keeps a “list” and tries to check off the boxes there.

    Described as “charming, eloquent, and insightful…” by Booklist, the novel is also “…a fitting end to this trilogy that doesn’t pull punches”(Kirkus Review) about autism or any other subject it includes.  The secondary characters, many of whom the reader may have seen in previous books (but knowing them before this part of the trilogy is unnecessary), are admirably drawn, and whom we are attached to before we realize we are “hooked.”

    So many themes and subplots fill this hilarious, yet profound ending to the series that it would take too long to describe them, but the “life-lessons” about friendship, betrayal, being “different” in any way, and compassion for others (something “experts” often claim auties are incapable of feeling or expressing) undergirds a great plot and a narrative which “explains” the autistic mind to us amateurs.

    READ The Rosie Result. You will be glad you invested your invaluable reading time in this novel.

  • OCTOBER 1st INTERNATIONAL COFFEE DAY

    According to BookBuzz’s literary calendar, Coffee Day is one to be celebrated “because, you know, so many great authors are fueled by coffee.” Probably this statement is founded on a grain of truth. How about you published authors, do you do your best work with coffee at hand? Is caffeine part of your inspiration?

    My favorite poetry book in my office is Coffee Poems, reflections on life with coffee, edited by Lorraine Healy. I love many of the poems in the book as much as I love a good cup of coffee. Here is a poem I often read as I sip my first cup of the day:

    SILENCE

    Sometimes fog

    surrounds morning

    in a white room;

    then the silence

    of sunlight seeps

    into balsam shadows.

    Steam is silence too,

    Sipping over the brim

    of bone china

    in the coffee-quiet

    of morning.

    (Jeffrey Johannes)

     

    IMG_0504

    This sketch was done on a paper bag. More than once we have held teacher-student conferences at Starbucks to plan strategies on starting assignments and projects. Coffee often fuels my students, and coffee frequently fuels me.

    Raise your coffee mugs! Add sugar and cream if you must. All Hail King Coffee!

     

  • TA DAH! OCTOBER IS NATIONAL BOOK MONTH LET’S CELEBRATE “EVERYTHING BOOKISH.”

    According to Bookbuzz’s literary calendar, tomorrow brings the first day of National Book Month. I am already making plans.

    Although I did not join the Classics Club as my friend, Deb Nance, at Readerbuzz did, I do intend to join the group just for the month of October and read The Essential Rumi, their October selection. I have heard of this philosopher and read many quotes attributed to him, and would like to know more. My Third Tuesday Book Club at the Alvin Library will be joining clubs and libraries along the Gulf Coast in reading Susan Orlean’s The Library Book, chosen as this year’s Gulf Coast Read. This is something I’ve already read, so I am looking forward to readings, discussions, and activities centered around this fine book.

    I hope to attend the Texas Book Festival in Austin, Texas, on October 26th. We would have to make it a day trip, and the travel time is five hours or a bit more, but I’ve heard from fellow bloggers, the trip is worth it. If you’re going or have been before, fill me in; I’m a first-timer.

    My Better Half and I have plans for Halloween evening, giving out books and candy as the neighborhood kids Trick or Treat.  We did this one year before, and it was a huge, fun-for-us, success. I have been saving back and purchasing on each trip to Half-Price Books books related to Halloween: Goosebumps, Scooby-Doo, The Bernstein Bears, and many stand-alone children’s Halloween books to distribute. I have toys and spooky items from The Dollar Tree to use as best costume prizes and will have a drawing for a Halloween Gift Basket or some larger “prize.” It ought to be a fun night if the weather will cooperate. As we did at our Little Free Library Grand Re-Opening in July, we’ll serve lemonade and homemade cookies.

    Sometime during the month of October, on a Harvest theme, I’d like to host a “hen party” coffee for women friends, just to socialize, chat, and catch up.

    To me, that sounds like a full month but a very pleasant one. What are your plans for October? Traveling anyone? Book Conferences or fairs? Halloween parties or events?

  • THE SPARROW by Mary Doria Russell: A Review

    I thought it was about time to get back to reading some sci-fi, and I chose a “classic” published in 1996. I decided on this one because the information I had about it had a definite philosophical “edge” to it. This information described the novel as “Jesuits in space.” It is set in 2016-2060.

    Emilio Sandoz, the main character is as complex and strange a character as I have ever encountered before. He is a priest who “lost his friends and his faith” while on his journey to and arrival on Mars. The secondary characters are admirably drawn, characters you come to “know” and care about. George and Ann, the married couple were my favorites. The aliens are interesting and creatively described and presented as well.

    Russell is known for her “meticulous research, fine prose, and the compelling narrative drive of her stories,” and this one did not tarnish her reputation. The title comes from a gathering/inquisition of priests into Emiliano and the mission when one of them says in answer to one priest’s question, “…So God just leaves”?

    “No, He watches. He rejoices. He weeps. He observes the moral dynamics of human life and gives meaning to it by caring about us, and remembering.”  The head investigator then quotes Matthew 10:29, “Not one sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father acknowledging it.”

    A younger priest, Felipe, who has seen Emilio Sandoz’s suffering, adds, “But the sparrow still falls.”

    I guarantee this is a book you won’t forget.

  • WWW WEDNESDAYS

    On Wednesdays, one is supposed to answer the following three questions:

    WHAT are you reading now?

    WHAT have you finished?

    WHAT will you read next?

    I am reading currently   Americanah by Ngozi Adichie  I have this one on my laptop, and I always love an immigrant story./ Lovesick by Jacqueline L. Sullivan  This is another on my iPad, and it is an old-fashioned high school romance set in the 50s./ The Shadow of the Wind by Zafon  This is a “classic” that I am reading for my “Books about Books” challenge, which is set in Barcelona./ AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything by Kyle Idleman is a book I purchased at Half-Price Books and have barely started.

    I have just finished   This Is Not a Writing Manual by Kerri Majors, and I gave it away to one of my students today. After all, it is aimed at young writers./ God Was Here, and I Was Out to Lunch by James W. Moore is a book I checked out from my church library./ Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: The Untold Story by Barbara Leaming was my First Lady choice for a book club meeting that was rained out by Tropical Storm Imelda last week./ The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt was a selection for my book and film book club. I saw the movie and thus, knew the ending beforehand. LOL/ The Rosie Result by Graeme Simison  This book is the third in the Dave Tillman series, one of my best-funniest books of 2019./ Sea Scope by Debbie De Louise was featured by J. Cudney on his blog, “This Is My Truth Now. I read it on my iPad.

    I am looking forward to reading The Lost Landscape: A Writer’s Coming of Age by Joyce Carol Oates.

    Eclectic choices, yes. Electric choices, in some cases, maybe. Effective choices, I like to think so.

  • NEW CHALLENGE: BOOKS ABOUT BOOKSTORES AND LIBRARIES

    Since January 2019, I have been generally reading Books about Books. Some of my favorites featured bookstores. Here is a list of “Books about Bookstores and Libraries” I have read since January 1st.

    1. The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George (reviewed earlier on PWR)
    2. The Library Book by Susan Orlean, which is my Third Tuesday Book Club’s selection for October and “The Gulf Coast Read” for this year here on the Texas Gulf Coast (reviewed earlier on PWR)
    3. The Bookshop on the Corner, an audiobook by Jenny Colgan
    4. The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson (reviewed on PWR)

    What are some really good books set in bookstores and libraries? Take advantage of the reply section to add some books to my challenge. I think I will read as many books of this nature as I can before the end of 2019.

    Who loves the setting of bookstores and libraries? Who will join me in my new challenge?

  • FIRST LINE FRIDAYS

    The instructions for this meme are to copy the first lines of something you are reading or will read soon to give readers a preview of things to come. Here is my Friday Firstliner from Goodnight June by Sarah Jio:

    “Everyone has a happy place, the scene that comes into view when you close your eyes and let your mind transport you to the dot on the globe where life is cozy, safe, warm.”

    The next sentence tells me June’s (the main character’s) happy place is a bookstore. I’m hooked already!

    Why not add your Friday Firstliner in the response/reply section below? Don’t forget to give title and author.

     

  • GOODBYE SEPTEMBER–HELLO HALLOWEEN!

    Goodbye Labor Day Weekend, the unofficial end of summer and hello to the spookiest month of the year. Farewell to patent leather and white pants. Although here on the Texas Gulf Coast, the temperature still rises into the 90s in the afternoons, women here are suffering, wearing woven scarves and tweedy fabrics. Walmart had its Halloween costumes, decorations and candy out alongside back-to-school supplies in August. I noticed today Dollar General had its Christmas decorations across the aisle from Halloween items. I have already had my first pumpkin spice latte and have baked both pumpkin, nut, raisin cookies and muffins. Fall has arrived!IMG_0485.JPG

  • BANNED BOOKS WEEK SEPTEMBER 22-28

    Who bans books anymore? It happens more often than we might realize. In the  Houston Chronicle on Sunday, September 8, 2019, was an article bearing the headline, “Catholic School Library Removes Harry Potter Series Books.” It began as follows:

    “Before the new school year began, Father Dan Reehil turned to several exorcists for advice. Reehil, a pastor at St. Edward Catholic School in Nashville, Tenn., was worried about the heretical lessons that students could learn from the Harry Potter books, he wrote in an email to faculty members that was obtained by a local TV station. At the advice of the exorcists he consulted, who shared his concerns, he purged the series from the school’s library.”

    Parents were the ones who complained about this arbitrary action, claiming that “the decision had been made without input from the parents or other school administrators.” The Harry Potter books had not been “deemed age-appropriate for students at the pre-kindergarten-through-eighth grade school.” The author of the article, Antonia Noori Farzan added “…the Catholic Church has not taken an official position on the Harry Potter series” and added that to her knowledge, no other school in the diocese has done so. St. Edwards has said it doesn’t “get into censorship ” beyond making sure books are age-appropriate. As a sort of a compromise, the school has said students will be able to read the books but would not be able to check them out of the school library.

    Just this weekend, a friend (a former 7th-grade student) sent via Facebook an article, accompanied by a picture of the famous courtroom scene of the movie, which reported that To Kill a Mockingbird had been banned by a school district because it made some people “feel uncomfortable.” Her response had been “Mrs. Longest, Whhaat? I replied, “I thought that was what good literature was supposed to do–make the reader feel uncomfortable with the status quo.”

    Still, books are being banned and censored, not only for our children but for adults. Let’s pray people who take on the role of censors can be stopped, and we still have the freedom to read in our country.

  • SATURDAY MORNINGS FOR KIDS: CELEBRATING CHILDREN’S AUTHORS’ BIRTHDAYS

    Last week, specifically September 16th and 17th, was a spectacular birthday week for children’s authors. The following “classic” children’s authors were born on those two days:

    H.A. Rey, author of The Curious George series

    Bjorn Berg, author of The Mrs. Pepperpot and The Emil series

    Paul Gobel, children’s author specializing in Native American children’s books

    Gail Carson Levine, author of The Ella Series and fantasy YA novels

    September is a good month for reading for and to children, and these authors deserve to be celebrated for the laughter and joy they have brought to children the world over.