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.”

  • TAKING ON THE 2019 AUDIO BOOKS CHALLENGE

    This challenge was originally issued by “Hot Listens” and “Caffeinated Reviewer,” but I came across it on one of my favorite blogs, “Carla Loves to Read.” Carla has planned to read 50 audio books in 2019.  Having come fairly lately to audio books, and being a visual learner, I am not willing to commit to that many audiobooks, but I will  attempt to listen to 30 in 2019.

    Here is the first review of Mitch Albom’s For One More Day.  Most of this book I listened to while in the car. I had read other books by Albom (specifically Tuesdays with Morrie, Marley and Me, and The Five People You Meet in Heaven) and was prepared to become teary-eyed, but For One More Day was a heartbreaker.  It was also heart-wrenching as family secrets were revealed to the main character, “Chick” . Albom’s recurrent theme of unsuccessfully trying to please one’s father, and in this character’s case, taking one’s mother’s love for granted made the story hard to hear. Perhaps I would have handled it better had I read it in print.

    The title comes from wishing for “one more day to set things right.” Chick was granted that day with his mother.

     

  • FIRST LINE FRIDAYS: A Preview

    It is Friday again, and time for First Line Fridays. Today’s first line is from blogging friend, Colin Chappell’s and CarolynShelton’s Odessa Chronicles, which I plan to start tonight.

    Introduction    We’re Going to be in a Book!

    “There was a familiar whoosh-whoosh sound as Odessa flew down from her roof beam, and landed on the floor very close to Jaxon. ‘Where are the others,’ she asked.

    Jaxon rolled his eyes and shrugged his shoulders. ‘I told them to be here for an important meeting at seven o’clock this evening.’”

    The characters in the book are gathering to discover that Colin and his partner, Carolyn have been observing them and are going to write their stories/Chronicles down for children and their parents everywhere. Colin describes the book of stories about a Barn Owl, Odessa; a magical Jackalope, Jaxon; Dewey, a cat, and a “Manservant,” Joshua, as “a collection of short stories for children of all ages.”

    Having followed Chappell’s blog, https://meandray.com for several years now, and purchasing both Who Said I Was Up for Adoption, (Ray’s story told in alternate chapters from the German Shepherd/Rottweiler’s point of view and Colin’s), and Just Thinking, (Collin’s lovely book of poems that make one do just that–think), I was really ready for his children’s book. I have barely opened it, but I am already excited about what is obviously going to be a really good read.

  • Readers … resolve to read more in 2019!

    islandeditions's avatarBooks: Publishing, Reading, Writing

    HUGETHANKS to Allan Hudson for hosting me once again on his blog, South Branch Scribbler!
    Following is much of that original post. Please visit Allan’s link to read in its entirety.

    I am a reader and I read a lot of books! No matter how many I read however I never seem to catch up with my ginormous to-be-read stack/list of books. Even though I try to follow Dr. Seuss’s advice:

    I never manage to come even close to catching up.

    But then that’s part of the fun in reading, isn’t it? The search for new books to read, test-driving new authors’ writing, the joy in “discovering” a new-to-you book or even a genre that you’ve never read before. I’ve spent my entire life reading and working with books and authors and am an author now myself, yet I never tire of reading, thinking about, discussing, recommending and…

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  • Cultivate Love + Joy

    Cultivate Love + Joy

  • SATURDAY MORNINGS FOR KIDS ON SATURDAY NIGHT

    Because My Better Half and I were treating one of  my last semester’s Advanced Writing Students to a breakfast at Denny’s and had to be in Houston at 8:00 a.m. to congratulate her on winning a $5.000 scholarship, I didn’t post Saturday Morning for Kids first thing early Saturday morning as usual.(The TV cartoons for kids which inspired this meme/post started at 6:00 a.m. on Saturday mornings.) Instead, I had such a busy, full day that I am just  posting at 8:00 p.m.

    Today’s selection is the proposed first book in a series originated by Maureen George and illustrated by Anna DeVito. I do not know if this first book, published in 1992, actually became a series, but the first book, “The Neighbor From Outer Space” definitely had a cliffhanger ending that promised another book.

    Katie Taffy, her two best girlfriends, and one of the girlfriend’s pesky little brothers make up the team that is determined to find some excitement in their hometown, Twin Oaks, where “nothing exciting ever happens.” The way in which the kids look for “something strange” to investigate leads them to spy on Mr. Dugan, a neighbor, who is in all the kids’ parents’ eyes the model citizen and good neighbor. When a strange man in a trench coat visits on a regular basis, and a strange hum emanates from Mr. Dugan’s house when the stranger is there, the kids are led to tape record the two men’s conversations from Mr. Dugan’s open window.  Not only are Mr. Dugan and the visitor revealed to be aliens, but their plot to beam up the whole block as a sample of earth life to be displayed in a natural science museum on their home planet, comes to light.

    When the children play the tape for their parents, strangely only rock and roll music is where the strange, proof-bearing conversation should be. As Katie tells her companions, “If our own parents won’t believe us, do you think the police will? It is up to us to save us all.” The harrowing, time-limited plan the kids decide to carry out is zany, and the conclusion of the story tells whether it was successful.

    This is a nail-biting adventure with a sci-fi “flavor” that is timeless in its setting and theme. This could be any town, any kids, any neighbor, and today’s kids would follow as anxiously as I did, putting themselves in the kids’ situation as they turned the pages rapidly. It is a fun read for kids and one which I enjoyed a great deal.

  • WWW Wednesdays

    With apologies to the bloggers who began and hosted this site/meme, I am flying by the seat of my pants and listing WHAT I have finished this week, WHAT I am reading now, and WHAT I am looking forward to reading.

    THIS WEEK I finished: What Great Teachers Do Differently by Todd Whitaker (reviewed on Literacy Lessons/Literacy and Me)//My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Stroud, and another of her most recent books, Modern Lovers.  I have now set a goal for myself to read everything she has written.

    I AM CONTINUING to read: The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin, a sci fi masterpiece, the second book in “The Broken Earth Series.” I am also reading two children’s books from the school library where I now volunteer which gives both the English and Spanish wording of the text.  Like the kids in first and second grade who picked these books out for me and are in a bilingual class, I read best from looking at the pictures and guessing than actually translating line by line. The books are helpful to me in my attempts to “pick up Spanish.” I am listening to Stephen King’s audio book Mr. Mercedes as part of the audio book challenge I have taken on for 2019. (This will be discussed in a future post on this blog.)

    I AM LOOKING FORWARD to reading Evidence of Flossing by Jen Payne, a book of poetry accompanied by a photo essay, which I have looked at and randomly read a poem or two, but I would like to undertake a “study” or immersion into what I know will be a terrific reading experience.

    That’s where I stand this second week in January.  Where are you, and where are you headed in your reading life?  Please comment and share with me your own experiences so far in 2019.

  • FRIDAY REVIEW The Inexplicable Logic of My Life by Benjamin Alire Saenz (author of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe)

    This 2017 publication was one of my favorite reads in 2018. The story opens with the protagonist, Sal, saying, “Maybe I’d always had the wrong idea as to who I really was.” By the end of the book, “Sally,” to his best friend Sam (short for Samantha), discovers his true identity. His birth certificate name is Salvadore, and his perceptive, gay dad refers to him as “Salvie.” A senior in high school, Sal deals with anger issues–Did the “urge” to fight come from his biological father?  Was this unknown man, so unlike his easy-going adopted father, Vincente, the origin of the trait that so often gets him into trouble?

    Throughout the novel, Sal deals with the anger/hurt/sense of loss that comes with the death of his mother before he was old enough to have memories of her, and he faces the impending death of his grandmother who raised him. Conflicting emotions of Mexicans/Anglos and the culture of each tear at Sal as he faces applying for and choosing a college. Bullying raises its ugly head in Inexplicable Logic as does the search for identity every teen faces.

    This is not the pointless angst so many YA novels offer, but an in-depth exploration of a representative of the “younger generation” that would benefit my generation to examine.  It is a good read and one that most readers will not soon forget.

  • and forever

    and forever

    Annette Rochelle Aben's avatarAnnette Rochelle Aben

    Sometimes we block love

    If we don’t recognize it

    We can feel alone

    The reality of it

    Is that we are loved always

    ©2018 Annette Rochelle Aben

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  • FRIDAY FIRSTLINERS

    I have been reading up a storm for the past three days; maybe that’s why we’ve had rain, rain and are rain lately on the Texas Gulf Coast. A book I started Thursday evening was Nutshell by Ian McEwan, author of Atonement, one of my all-time favorite books and films. The novel is the story of Hamlet, in modern times, told from the point of view of a fetus still in his mother’s womb. Here is the opening:

    “So here I am, upside down in a woman. Arms patiently crossed, waiting, waiting and wondering who I’m in, what I’m in for.”

    Yes, it’s a fascinating concept, and the writing style is unique as well. I am really looking forward to reading more as the day progresses. Happy Reading!

  • STACKING THE SHELVES December 30, 2018

    This meme, hosted weekly by Tynga Reviews and Marlene of Reading Reality was first sent to me by Carla of Carla Loves to Read. I want to say a great big thank you for her making me aware of this clever meme and her help and advice she has given over the past year.  She is a true blogging friend.

    The meme is all about sharing the books you have added to your shelves recently, whether they be actual books, those on electronic devices or whatever. I am going to focus on recent additions to my TBR shelves (My goal 2019 is to work the shelves down to a single wrap around shelf in my study’s/den’s closet .

    Here are recent additions:

    Paradise Sky by Joe R. Lansdale. This is a western, not necessarily a recent publication, hardback version from Amazon. The reviews were good, and I am thinking My Better Half, a big western fan, might enjoy it too.

    I am almost finished with What Great Teachers Do Differently by Todd Whitaker. I would like to have it off the TBR shelf by New Year’s Day. This practical, relevant book was a hand-me-down from a friend who is getting rid of books she’s already read because of a move in the near future.

    The Newcomers by Helen Thorpe I also ordered from Amazon because I wanted my own copy.  This book may have a major influence on this new stage of my life: a stage of retirement/reinvention.

    Hatchet by Paulsen. This is a YA book I have heard about since it was published.  It showed up as a donation to the Little Free Library in my side yard, and I am determined to read it first before I place it into circulation or give it away.

    Evidence of Flossing by blogger friend, Jen Payne. I have started it and am promising myself I’ll read some poetry once a month. I bought a paperback copy and am glad I did. The photos are amazing and the theme/metaphor of the collection is an experience–a wonderful one.

    I have four books checked out from the local library, and have started one, Modern Lovers by Emma Straub. Her novels are always special, but this recent publication is one of the most enjoyable reads I’ve had in a long time. It is not “on the shelf” but on my nightstand.

    In my “Prayer Corner” of my living room, on the end table, sits The Prayer of Jesus, by Hank Hanegraafe. This tiny book is my current inspirational read. I have barely started, but plan to spend some time with it early tomorrow morning–a good time to “get in touch.”

    A book that arrived in Saturday’s mail is The Ninth Hour”, by Alice McDermott, a National Book Award winner. But, alas, I must place it on my TBR shelf because, as you can see, I have too many books “going” already.  Looking these choices over, the only way I can describe myself is an eclectic reader! LOL