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.”

  • TUESDAY MORNING THOUGHTS

    Coffee in the morning is what gets me started, and the following is a poem that expresses this early-morning pick me-up-and-get-me-started ritual.

    SILENCE

    Sometimes fog

    surrounds morning

    in a white room;

    Then the silence

    at sunlight seeps

    into balsam shadows.

    Steam is silence too,

    slipping over the brim

    of bone china

    in the coffee-quiet

    of morning.”

     

    (Jeffrey Johannes)

    After this coffee meditation from Coffee Poems, edited by Lorraine Healy, reflections on life with coffee, I am ready to start my day.

  • SUNDAY SCHOOL SHENANIGANS IN THE CHURCH LIBRARY

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    Tomorrow marks the last Sunday before my 5th grade Sunday School students “graduate” to the young people’s department at our church. They are more than ready to begin middle school (6th, 7th, and 8th grades) next Thursday.

    Whether they are spiritually ready to enter the “lion’s den” may be another matter altogether. Like Daniel, they need to be steadfast in their faith, of highest integrity, standing up for what they believe in at all times.  Like Daniel, they must pray for guidance and strength daily. God bless them all and protect them from the perils of middle school!

  • SATURDAY MORNINGS FOR KIDS

    Chris Harris has been described by Publishers Weekly as “a worthy heir to Silverstein, Seuss, and even Ogden Nash.” I couldn’t agree more. Some of his shorter poems are as pithy and to the point as Nash’s “Purple Cow.”

    “I’ve never seen a purple cow,

    I hope I never see one.

    But, I can tell you anyhow,

    I’d rather see than be one”!

    Here is an example from Harris’s I’m Just No Good at Rhyming and Other Nonsense/for Mischevious Kids and Immature Grownups:

    “Jack Sprat could ear no fat.

    His wife could eat no lean.

    He lived to be one hundred three;

    She died at seventeen.”

    I particularly love parodies and have come across some excellent ones lately. Here is Harris’s parody of Robert Frost:

    “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,

    I took the one less traveled by…

    Since then I’ve been completely lost.

    Thanks for nothing, Robert Frost”!

    It would be remiss not to mention the fantastic, comical illustrations by Lane Smith.  The combination of the poems (?) and drawings will make any kid (or “immature adult”) chuckle.

     

  • NATIONAL BOOK LOVERS DAY

    Rae Longest's avatarLiteracy and Me

    “Books are the purest form escapism. They can take you to any time, place, or culture. In honor of National Book Lovers Day August 9, we put away our smart phones, pull out a good book and simply read. (Well, an audiobook will suffice too.) From clay tablets to today’s eBooks, literature has played a crucial role in preserving cultures, educating the masses, and storytelling. Thanks to Johannes Gutenberg’s 15th century printing press, anyone, not just monks or landed gentry, could read and own books. But, alas, there was no overnight shipping. Today, join a book club or re-read a favorite novel because National Book Lovers Day rocks”!

    (courtesy of http://national today.com/national-book-lovers-day)National

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  • NO ORDINARY TIME by Doris Keans Goodwin: A Review

    After reading several novels set during WWII, I wanted to read something non-fiction about the war years, especially the war years in the USA. Goodwin’s well-researched book is both historical and biographical and deals with the lives of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. Their “rule” over American politics and society is a phenomenon I often heard my parents discuss.

    The book delivers interesting sidelights to both the Roosevelts’ relationship and their individual personalities. Bringing in the adult children’s information from letters, interviews, and writings concerning their parents was a device the author employed well. Descriptions of life in The White House during WWII appears, as did descriptions of the Kennedys, the Fitzgeralds, and Winston Churchill.

    Less interesting to this reader, but probably of central interest to true history buffs was the coverage of war strategies, battle plans, diplomacy at conferences, and treaties formed during this period of America’s ascendance as a world leader. Eleanor’s “social and civil work” was tantamount to a whole sub-theme of the book. Friends and advisors of both Franklin and Eleanor were a fascinating cast of secondary characters populating the anecdotes given throughout.

    As I read, I felt like an “insider” during a very serious time in American history and was given a taste of what it felt like on the American homefront during the War.

  • TRIPLE W WEDNESDAY

    This meme was formerly hosted by Miz B at “A Daily Rhythm,” and more recently revived by Sam at “Taking on a World of Words.” It is called WWW Wednesday, where one answers the three “W” questions:

    WHAT are you currently reading?

    WHAT have you recently finished? and

    WHAT will you read next?

    Post the answers to these three “Whats” on your blog or simply type them into the Reply box below.  It will expand to fit. LOL

    WHAT I am currently reading:

    You Are a Special Heaven put out by the Conception Abbey Press, a book of memes and sayings to meditate and think on throughout the day.  I am copying many into my quotes notebook.

    We Are All Welcome Here by Elizabeth Berg, a large print book I picked up from our local library.

    WHAT I recently finished:

    Aftermath by Suzanne Morris, a novel about the tragedy of the London School in New London, Texas and its aftermath (set in the late 30s)

    Coffee Poems, editited by Lorraine Healy and including a poem, “Measuring Water by Sound” by Jen Payne, fellow blogger and poet extraordinaire

    I’m Just No Good at Rhyming and Other Nonsense for Mischevious Kids and Immature Grownups by Chris Harris and illustrated by Lane Smith

    WHAT I am going to read next:

    The Nest by Cynthia D’ Aprix Sweeney

    What are you reading now? Has anyone read The Nest? It is a book club selection, so I am going in blind. Please advise.

     

     

  • TUESDAY TEASER

    This meme, hosted by The Purple Booker, asks readers to open a book they are currently reading, copy a couple of sentences, and give the title and author in an attempt to tease others into reading the same book.

    My Tuesday Teaser for 8/6/19 is from Suzanne Morris’s Aftermath, “a novel of the London School tragedy, New London, Texas.” I am beginning Part Four, chapter 27.

    “Who am I to say anything about life? A retired high school English teacher and aspiring poet who received a letter on this day that something beloved to her heart is coming to a close.”

    Do those words make you want to read further? It does me. I have followed this woman’s life since she was entering high school, and her mother, friends, and close-knit community members were killed in a gas explosion at the New London school.  Aftermath deals with just that–the aftermath of the terrible tragedy, specifically on one person’s life and destiny. It is an intriguing read.

  • YOU CAN DO ANYTHING by George Anders: A Review

    Rae Longest's avatarLiteracy and Me

    This 2017 publication turned my attitude and my life around this summer. Anders, a NY Times best selling author, spoke directly to me and changed a ton of negative self-talk into positive action. After a “retirement” after 30 years at the university, I had convinced myself that I was to old to teach any more, was totally irrelevant to anything that would appeal to or help a 22 or 23 year old college junior or senior, and that my teaching days were officially over. I even told myself that when my boss assured me if I changed my mind, there’d always be a place for me, he was just being kind. I was totally miserable all spring semester even though I volunteered in a modified teaching capacity twice a week, and even taught fifth graders every other Sunday at church, I was discouraged and depressed. When I finally decided to…

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  • Blind-spot…

    Léa's avatarpoetry, photos and musings oh my!

    “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”  – Plato

    “Too much self-centered attitude, you see, brings, you see, isolation. Result: loneliness, fear, anger. The extreme self-centered attitude is the source of suffering.”  – Dalai Lama

    “Opinion is really the lowest form of human knowledge. It requires no accountability, no understanding. The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another’s world. It requires profound purpose larger than the self kind of understanding.” – Bill Bullard

    Blind-spot…

    Yes. I’ve observed

    You can read the sports section

    Financial updates, fashion – a mask

    News sensations and acts of

    Aggression,

    Yet, you never could see me

    Staring way  outside my periphery ( you don’t know me)

    Desperate to avoid, oh, the chinks in your armor

    These…

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  • WHY WE SLEEP by Matthew Walker, PhD: A Review

    Back in January, I made an informal pact with myself to read more non-fiction. So far I have been able to read at least one non-fiction book a month. Although Why We Sleep did not fulfill the promise of its subtitle, “Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams,” it did present excellent research into the field of sleep study.

    Most importantly, it emphasized to me the importance of getting enough sleep:
    “Routinely sleeping less than 6 or 7 hours a night demolishes your immune system, more than doubling your risk of cancer.” Other conditions that are affected by one’s sleep are Alzheimer’s, diabetes, coronary blockages, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and congestive heart failure.

    Various stages of sleep are discussed as are the development of sleep patterns across an individual’s lifetime. We may say, “I slept like a baby,” but it is not impossible for an adult brain to mimic a baby’s sleep cycle. Adult needs are different from those of an infant, a child, a teen, or an elderly person.

    Walker’s informative book confirms what I’ve glanced at in magazines and newspaper articles, but now I have a firmer understanding of sleep and lifestyles than I did before reading this book.