RAE’S READS
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Sometimes it only takes one positive idea to get through the hardest puzzle or question. All it takes is one good solution to dismiss a problem you are working through. Believe in yourself, and don’t hesitate to DREAM BIG–then Go for it!
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My challenge for 2023 on classics was to read one every two months. Boy, am I behind! I am counting this novel (with pictures) as a classic because it contains two classic characters, Jane Austin and the poet Shelley.
Published in 2021, this novel by Janet Todd was a gift, a pass-along from a friend who thought that as a Literature major I would enjoy it. And I did. However, this is not for everyone because of its disjointed organization and its “inventive” nature. It presents “the dialogue of the living in vivid conversation with the illustrious dead”–specifically, Jane Austin and Shelley. The novel traces Shelley’s life through the research of his biographer, a character in the story. Fran, a major character, frequently talks to Jane Austin, who operates much like an imaginary friend, and acts as a companion in Fran’s cottage with a special garden. The trio of main characters, all older women, are rounded out by Fran’s English friend and an American author.
The trio’s quest takes them to Wales and even to Venice. As they are joined in their travels by a young, hip African American woman and Shelley’s biographer, who soon become a couple, the group recreates the trips made by Shelley in his lifetime and become well acquainted. So well acquainted that at the end, the three major characters choose a different style of communal living.
This strange, yet appealing book has been described as a “meditation on age, mortality, friendship, the tensions and attractions between generations, hope, and the excitement of change.”
It’s different; it’s sophisticated, and it’s literary. This novel is an experience a Lit major like me enjoys as a special treat.
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(image borrowed from “The Starry Night Elf” a blogging friend, and (I believe) a fellow Texan)
One of the best experiences of my life was going to the Van Gogh Experience when it came to Houston. I went with a neighbor (She drove. I try not to drive in Houston traffic.) and her two daughters, one in third grade, the other in kindergarten. Both girls were darned good artists themselves, and both responded to the exhibits in ways that enhanced the experience I had.
I have always loved “Starry Night,” and if I ever see a print of it, I shall buy it and hang it at Rae’s Reads.
Have a good week ahead.
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May 7th at 2:00 p.m.
This talented local short story writer and writing teacher will read from and discuss her new novel at Rae’s Reads. Refreshments will be served as Catherine signs and sells her book.
COME AND BRING A FRIEND!
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In the introduction of this 1981 children’s book, author Betty Red Wright and illustrator Helen Cogancherry, view from the sibling’s point of view what it is like to have a special needs brother or sister. In Carlo’s case, it is his mentally retarded sister, Terry. (Note that this older picture book/children’s book uses the term “mentally retarded.”) Carlos tells us that he doesn’t always like his sister, that it “takes her a long time to learn things.” Terry is older than Carlos, yet she acts a great deal younger.
Carlos’s mother and grandmother often force Carlos to take Terry out to play with him and his friends where the other kids laugh at Terry. This never fazes Terry, but it bothers Carlos. Carlos gets criticism; Terry gets hugs.
When Carlos is told to take Terry Christmas shopping in a large department store, she gets lost, and Carlos is left almost in tears worrying about her and feeling bad he was impatient with her. Spoiler Alert: All turns out well, but Carlos leaves with a new love and appreciation for his older, “little” sister.
The book is especially handled well because it is not only on your second-to- fifth-grade-child’s level because it does not “preach.” Instead it sends across a subtle life lesson all children can appreciate.
I recommend this book as an “oldie-but-goodie.”
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In today’s mail an appeal for money came from an organization I’ve belonged to for some time, The Academy of American Poets.
Since I had paid my dues and am doing quite a bit to celebrate National Poetry Month in both my freshman comp classes, I did not break out my checkbook. LOL However, I did read the three page letter in its entirety and found it very informative.
DID YOU KNOW that National Poetry Month began with a local celebration in New York in 1996 and has since “grown each April [until] …it touches literally tens of millions of readers in every community and corner of the country.”?
DID YOU ALSO KNOW that poets and appreciators of poetry have participated in local, state, and national celebrations and events relevant to poetry” for over the past quarter century and more”?
DID YOU KNOW that this month Ada Limon (whom I heard read from her latest collection and be interviewed by the Houston Poet Laureate a month ago) has written a poem “Instructions on Not Giving Up,” which The Academy of Poets wants all members to carry in their pockets or purses to share on April 19th, “Poem in Your Pocket Day,” an annual event/celebration. People have been sharing a poem in their pocket for over twenty years, by the way.
“Somewhere near you, thanks to the extraordinary publicity that National Poetry Month generates each year, a caregiver, or a carpenter, or a bus driver or a barista will hear about” National Poetry Month and will be the recipient of someone’s pocket poem during the month of April. Somewhere near you, a friend, relative, student or other individual will invite you to a poetry slam at a local library, a poetry reading at a nearby school, or some other celebration of poetry at a local level. Will you take them up on the invitation?
Have you done something or planned to celebrate National Poetry Month yet? No? GET ON THE BALL! Today is April 5th. Time is flying by. LOL
RAE 4/5/23
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Just as Saturday mornings’ TV programing was aimed at kids, showing cartoons all morning, back in the 50s and 60s, PWR aims book recommendations at kids on Saturdays. Today’s recommendation is aimed at high schoolers.
The teen above could be Sid, the protagonist of Karen Bass’s Drummer Girl because she always wore baggy jeans and an oversized rock band T-shirt, often a hand-me-down from Devin, her away-at-college brother. When she wants to be a part of the rock band of her high school, she submits to her cousin turning her into a girly-girl, complete with mini skirts and scoop necked blouses over lacy camisoles.
The attention she receives from the jocks is unwelcome, and the criticism for trying to be something she’s not from her best friend, Ty is puzzling. With unwelcome “help” from a well-meaning guidance counselor, Sid is forced to confront her confusion about her mother’s leaving the family when she was a toddler and her father’s uncomfortableness when she starts thinking like most girls. The YA novel makes for good reading as well as some humorous (and some not-so-humorous) moments. As an adult, I was taken back to high school, with trying to fit in or at least find a niche, with bullying and drama abounding, and I kept turning pages ,wanting to find out how Sid was going to handle the next situation.
I highly recommend this well-written book for teens.
ESPECIALLY YA BOOKS. I guess I’m still a kid at heart!
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Last night I finished rereading Katherine May’s book, Wintering. Earlier this fall, I bought myself a copy of the book I “discovered” fall of 2021. I decided to read each chapter, starting with September and going through March in the month it referred to.
I know I overuse the word “lovely,” but Wintering:The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times is a lovely book. Even the cover gives the reader a sense of peace and serenity.
One of the most helpful, most inspiring books I read in 2021 Published in 2020, May’s book fills a need in the human psyche. I for one suffer from SAD, seasonal affective disorder in the winter. The bleakness of the clouded skies and leafless trees depress me. Just looking out the kitchen window can immobilize me into standing there motionless, doing nothing for fifteen minutes or more. This cannot be a healthy mental state.
Wintering takes us through the seasons of the year, starting in September with the prologue, and continuing through late March with an epilogue. This beautiful, healing book looks at the winter season as a time of rest and healing. “…wintering cannot be avoided, but need not be feared.” Winter season is compared to “a warm blanket on a cold day.” We are instructed to use this time to “care for and repair our selves when life knocks us down.” The author gives personal examples from her life in a memoir-like musing on the winter season. We find that she underwent adversity and discover how she (not avoided it, but) worked through it.
This simple, little book leads us to understand that the “transformative power of rest and retreat” convinces us that “life is cyclical, not linear.”I am in the winter season of the cycle now; this year I will not “rush” the coming of spring, but prepare myself and heal myself from life’s blows in preparation for it.
I highly recommend this book.
This was one of the last books I finished in 2021. 
Author: Rae Longest
This year (2023) finds me with 50 plus 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 am completing 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. 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.”
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Author Rae Longest Categories UncategorizedTags 2021 reads, helpful books, reviews, seasonal disorders, self-helpEdit”THIRSDAY THOUGHTS
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