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.”

  • A WEEK OF WISDOM #3

    Rae Longest's avatarLiteracy and Me

    Again, wise words from Love Does by Bob Goff:

    “I used to be afraid of failing at something that really mattered to me,

    but now I’m more afraid of succeeding at something that doesn’t matter.”

    AND…

    “I used to think…

    God guided us by opening and closing doors,

    –BUT NOW–

    I know sometimes God wants us to

    Kick some doors down!”

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  • A WEEK OF WISDOM #2

    Rae Longest's avatarLiteracy and Me

    More wise words, this time from Love Does by Bob Goff.

    “I used to want to fix people, but now…

    I just want to be with them.”

    OR, from The Apostle Paul, writing in the New Testament of the Christian Bible,

    “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, thought as a child, but now I am become a man,

    I put away childish things.” (paraphrase)

    No, one cannot fix people, one can only fix his/her attitude towards the people. It is a childish thought to even think one can fix another human being. And, who decides who needs fixing, anyway?

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  • Good News: Reading Is Still Popular

  • THE ALPHABET CHALLENGE REVISITED

    Although I may have updated the Alphabet Challenge I took up again this past summer, I may have done so on Literacy and Me, another blog, so I digress from my regular posting to review:

    “O” saw me read the second book in The Broken Earth trilogy, The Obelisk Gate, A POWERFUL sci-fi/fantasy.

    “P” delivered a thought-provoking look at The Prayer of Jesus, a gentle meditation on The Lord’s Prayer/The Model Prayer/The Disciple’s Prayer.

    “Q” was a mystery-thriller, The Quiet Child, that wrenched the reader at the end as it did the protagonist.

    “R,” Reading With Patrick, was an attempt to read more non-fiction, slightly out of my “regular reading zone,” and turned out to be useful and inspiring as well as informative.

    “Sunken Cathedral, a novel chosen to satisfy the “S” requirement, as well for its spectacular cover and large print came next.

    “T” killed two books with one stone, for I listened to it for the 2019 Audiobooks Challenge, Nora Hurston’s classic, Their Eyes Were Watching God.

    Currently, I am reading the “U” selection, Unbecoming, which I’ve just started, but am already invested in.

    Out of turn, I read If We Were Villains for my “V” selection. Ok, so I fudged a bit on the title, but it was our book club selection for the month of June, there were very few books whose title began with the letter “V,” and again, two books/birds with…

    Woe is me, where am I going to find a book for “X”?

    “Y” should be fairly simple, and I already have “Z” from the local library, Instead of being a book whose title starts with “Z,” the author’s name does, Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Does anyone know anything about this author? I saw his name mentioned in an article/list of “Books About Books.” Can anyone shed some light on this? I would be truly grateful.

    Right now, my goal is to have finished out the alphabet by the end of August.  We shall see. HAPPY READING THROUGH THE ALPHABET!

     

  • A WEEK OF WISDOM: FROM WEDNESDAY TO WEDNESDAY

    Rae Longest's avatarLiteracy and Me

    Recently, I began to post Words of Wisdom on Wednesdays on Literacy and Me. So many wise words and phrases have clamored for my attention, that I wish to post daily for a full week, from today through next Wednesday, words that spoke to me.

    Our Third Tuesday book club delighted me this month by selecting If We Were Villains, a character-driven, mystery novel which delighted the lit major in me because the college age young people all spoke/quoted Shakespeare to/at each other on a daily basis. These young thesbians started out as fourth year (senior) students at a theater conservatory in an unamed location. For me, it was a fast, attention-holding read. One part that struck me was when one of the students explained to the detective in charge of the murder investigation what the attraction of Shakespeare was all about:

    “The thing about Shakespeare is he’s so eloquent…He…

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  • THE EARLY DEMISE OF THE 2019 AUDIO BOOK CHALLENGE

    This challenge was given in early January by “Caffeinated Reviewer” and “Hot Listens.” My blogging friend, Carla, at “Carla Loves to Read” accepted the challenge, deciding to read 50 audiobooks in the year 2019. Not to be outdone, I signed on for 30 audiobooks.

    This weekend I completed book #10, and have come to the conclusion that this is a good stopping place for me. I do not know if audiobooks, in general, are just not a good “fit”, or if I lack the focus to listen and not be distracted by all the things I could be doing, but I’m calling a halt to my listening.

    Here are the books I listened to:

    1.  The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barberry  This actually was a successful completion of the book after three false starts, and one I probably would never have finished if I had not listened rather than read.
    2. Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King  This book was a good one to listen to, and I could do housework, etc. while listening.
    3. For One More Day by Mitch Albom  Albom’s books tend to be so short that it doesn’t matter whether one reads them or listens to the audio version.
    4. Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger  My Better Half and I both listened to this one and enjoyed it immensely. I can hardly wait to read the sequel.
    5. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston  This was another I had tried to read unsuccessfully, but completed thanks to the dramatic narration of the audiobook.
    6. The Music Shop  This was a delight that was as easy to listen to as it would have been to read.
    7. Cambridge by Susanna Keyson  I doubt I would have finished this novel had I been reading it, but I was able to listen to the end and was satisfied with the ending.
    8. The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks  I listened to this one after deciding to get into reading “Books about Books,” and its length probably would have prevented my sticking with the printed version; however, listening was a very pleasant experience.
    9. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (pronounced Yah Jesse) This book which traced 300 years in Ghana’s history through characters from several generations was an excellent listening experience.  the “exquisite language” kept me eager to listen several times a day, often making it hard to take a break.
    10. Finders Keepers, the sequel to Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King rounded out an even ten audiobooks.

    I think this is an excellent place to drop the challenge and to finish up some of the many books I have started (or at least looked at) and to clear some space on my TBR shelf.

    Signing off on The 2019 Audiobooks Challenge

    Rae

  • GOOD vs. EVIL

    Rae Longest's avatarLiteracy and Me

    Last night, reading a post on Brainpickings, one of my favorite sources of challenging, thought-provoking reading, quoted Steinbeck on the on-going battle between good and evil, which left me musing and pondering the thoughts into this morning.

    “John Steinbeck wrote as he contemplated good, evil, and the necessary contradiction of human nature at the peak of WWII, ‘All the goodness and the heroisms will rise up again, then be cut down again and rise up.’ ‘It isn’t that the evil wins–it never will–but that it doesn’t die.’

    The author of Brainpickings goes on to say, “A decade before he (Steinbeck) won the Nobel Prize in Literature, Steinbeck turned this abiding tug of war between good and evil into a literary inquiry in East of Eden the 1952 novel that gave us his beautiful wisdom and creativity and the meaning of life, eventually adapted into the 1955 film of the same…

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  • FRIDAY FIRST LINERS

    First Line Fridays or Friday First Liners was begun by “Hoarding Books,” blog, and I first saw it on “Carla Loves to Read.” I could hardly wait to get started.

    My first line comes from a book I should have read years ago, Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs.  It is hands-down the strangest memoir I have read–ever. The first chapter, “Something Isn’t Right” begins:

    “My mother is standing in front of the bathroom mirror smelling polished and ready; like Jean Nate, Dippity Do, and the waxy sweetness of lipstick. Her white, handgun-shaped blowdryer is lying on top of the wicker clothes hamper, ticking as it cools.”

    I am on page 80, after beginning it late last night, and I am fascinated by the bizarreness, the oddness, the weirdness of the author’s narration. I definitely will finish this one.

  • TUESDAY TEASER*

    My teaser today comes from a book I just finished, M.L. Rio’s If We were Villains. I have finished the book, but am not going to return it to the library until tomorrow because I need to re-read the last chapter or so to see if I have misinterpreted the ending. Yes, one of “those” endings. I am opening the book at random and selecting a few lines:

    “Her voice cracked, the sound too harsh to be an actor’s affectation. She struck her chest hard with one fist, but whether it was a wordless expression of her grief or a desperate attempt to dislodge whatever was choking her, I couldn’t tell. Gwendolyn leaned forward on the table, brow creased with concern.”

    What is going on with Wren, cousin to the murdered student, and what does Gwendolyn know that Oliver, the narrator, doesn’t know? Read the book and find out.

    *This bookish meme is hosted by The Purple Booker, It’s a fun chance to spread the word about what you are reading. Go to the website or put your own “teaser” in the reply box below. Don’t forget to give title and author, and NO SPOILERS, PLEASE.

  • SUNDAY STATS

    A new post begins on this site today, “Sunday Stats”–statistics, that is.

    Today’s stat comes from Why We Sleep, a non-fiction book I’m reading on Kindle. The author is dealing with Americans not getting enough sleep to be  wholly functional:

    “It is disquieting to learn that vehicular accidents caused by drowsy driving exceed those caused by alcohol and drugs combined.” (p.5)