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 TEASER

    Tuesday Teaser is a meme begun by The Purple Booker and one I was introduced to on Brainfluff. The idea is to copy a few sentences from where you left off reading, or at random, so others might be teased to read the same book. Put your blog address if  you have one and post your Teaser. OR place your Teaser (don’t forget the book title and the author’s name) in the response section.

    Today’s teaser is from blogging friend’s James J. Cudney’s third novel, Academic Curveball, from the Braxton Campus Mysteries, Book I.  Killan, the protagonist and narrator, is attending the funeral of a second murder victim who was his father’s assistant at Braxton College. He has just run into his grandmother, unexpectedly:

    “What are you doing here, Nana D?” I asked crossing to the entrance of the funeral parlor.

    “I had a few stops to make downtown today. Just thought since I was in the area, I should put in an appearance,” she said. Nana D was in her standard funeral outfit–a stylish, vintage dress cut just below the knees with a little bit of white trim on the hem. “I also needed to talk to you about Bridget.” (Nana D’s clarinet student who attends Braxton)

    “I couldn’t believe how persistent she’d become about finding ways to bring us together but to be so pushy at a funeral service…”

    Nana D has yet another clue to the identity of the murderer, “a scandalous conversation” Bridget overheard, one which might be the missing piece in the jigsaw of clues Killan, a substitute professor for the murdered professor (murder #1)  has been piecing together…

    I am 74% through the book, and I have speculated many times on who the murderer is. However the novel has so many twists and turns that as sure I am right as I might be, some new information that makes me unsure again, emerges and turns my “theory” on it’s ear. The characters and plot are engaging, and the touches of humor and “typical” family drama between generations is handled awesomely. There are enough nostalgic memories of college life and college towns, with enough new/younger generation trends to keep all ages interested and wanting to turn the page.  Who will be the murderer? I have many clues to evaluate, but I don’t know. As in all good mysteries, “Something just doesn’t add up.” Cudney will surprise me at the end as he always does.

    P.S. Book II of Braxton Campus Mysteries has just been published.

     

  • SEAN DICKEY, Advanced Writing Student: Guest Post

    Rae Longest's avatarLiteracy and Me

    Earlier, as part of his Literacy Project, my Advanced Writing student, Sean Dickey posted about accidentally discovering his life’s passion and adjusting his academic and career goals accordingly. Today, he is addressing the current status quo.

    The Deep Divide

    I had originally intended to write about something a little more benign like the acquisition of a stray cat who has become my own. But between the recent shootings in religious institutions and the bombs sent to political figures, I felt inspired to write about these events. Mrs. Longest asked me not to write on controversial topics for her blog, but she has placed her trust in me to handle this topic with decorum. I also have to attribute some of my inspiration to Dr. Cherry, my sociology professor. His words resonated with me, and I will be sure to give credit where credit is due in the course of this…

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  • SATURDAY MORNINGS FOR KIDS

    The children’s classic, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler appeared on the literary scene in 1967. Assigned to the school I did my student teaching in, I was a young, green, brand-spanking-new junior high school teacher. The school district was affluent, where the live-in-maids made more money than struggling teachers. All the kids were talking about a book–“the book,” the one next in line after their elementary favorite, Charlotte’s Web–Mrs. Frankweiler. 

    The story is about a brother and sister who feel unappreciated and unnoticed at home who run away to New York City and hide out/”take up residence” in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. They sleep in a huge bed from the Renaissance; they bathe in a fountain in one area, and are intrigued by the current mystery that they read about in discarded New York Times newspapers. Is the little angel statue acquired for only $250.00 really something made by Michelangelo, which would make it the “bargain of the century” or is there some way to determine whether it was made by one of his apprentices or just a “nobody”? Claudia, the “brains of the outfit,” which all older sisters must be, takes on solving this puzzle.

    The strategy for running away and their escapades in New York are carefully planned by Claudia and financed by the penny-pinching Jaime, her younger brother. He often nixes Claudia’s elaborate schemes, and lends the practical advice to them which is perhaps what allows the kids to live in New York for a whole week. The dialogue and give-and-take, back-and-forth discussions/arguments between the two show not only their sibling rivalry, but the deep loyalty and love they feel for each other. The children are clever and outwit all the adults (naturally). Mrs. Frankweiler provides even more humor as she treats the children as adults.  She is the quirky, elderly (and, yes, lonely) rich, sharp-minded grandmother every kid dreams of.

    The whole book is a kid’s dream, and Konisburg, the author, certainly captures the kid’s mindset and view of looking at the world and bustling New York City. It is a fun, enlightening, although a  bit out-dated adventure-“read” that kids loved back then, and  grandmothers’ delight to enjoy and share with their grandkids.

  • First Line Fridays (on Thanksgiving night–Thursday)

    I promised the first line of Alice Hoffman’s Nightbird, my Tuesday Teaser choice for Friday’s post:

    “You can’t believe EVERYTHING YOU HEAR, not even in Sidwell, Massachusetts, where every person is said to tell the truth and the apples are so sweet people come from as far as New York City during the apple festival. There are rumors that a mysterious creature lives in our town. Some people insist it’s a bird bigger than an eagle; others say it’s a dragon, or an oversized bat that resembles a person.”

    Whatever it is, “Twig,” the young protagonist is determined to find out.

  • TUESDAY TEASER

    This meme, hosted by The Purple Booker, and caught my eye on my friend’s blog, Brainfluff, is one I love to participate in. Here is my teaser from Nightbird, a YA novel by Alice Hoffman:

    “‘She’s a natural,’ Mrs. Meyers cheerfully announced.

    ‘A natural witch’? my mother seemed confused and insulted.

    ‘Not at all, my dear. A natural actress. Not many have true talent, but when they do, it’s usually the shy ones. They just bloom onstage.’”

    And, this is just page 14. Hoffman’s touch of the supernatural is at work here and the novel promises to be a terrific read. Watch Friday for the opening of this same book in First Line Fridays.

     

  • AND THE MOUNTAINS ECHOED by Khaled Hasseini: A Review

    As a huge fan of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, I was aware of Hasseini’s 2013 novel, the first he had attempted in six years, And the Mountains Echoed. I read the reviews, put it on my TBR list, and promptly forgot it.

    Recently, upon cleaning out my TBR folder, I came across the scrap of paper that reminded me I had never read the book. Because I was going back and forth to the university, I listened to the audio book version. There were 12 discs in all, and I was hooked by the second. The book is narrated by multiple actors, which made it easy  listening.

    The novel lives up to the album cover which describes it as “emotional,” “unforgettable,” “provocative,” as it explores ” the shape of our lives and what it means to be human.” The multigenerational story begins with two motherless children in an Afghanistan village. Abdullah, who was ten, raises Pari, age three, and what happens to them during their lifetimes “echoes through the lives of so many other people.” Themes that reoccur in each generation are the “moral complexity of life” and the characters’ emotions are explored and revealed in all of their complex  depths. The setting takes the reader to Kabul, Paris, and the Greek island of Tinos.

    Hosseini, in Mountains, lives up to his reputation of “Born Storyteller.” I highly recommend the audio book of this novel.

  • SATURDAY MORNINGS FOR KIDS

    Since I once was a very young reader, I am offering a Saturday morning post that might help children and younger young adults (and especially parents and grandparents of the same) find some really good reads. Today I have picked two books that function as read-alouds or read-alones.

    The first, I encountered volunteering at a primary school (ages 4 yrs. to second grade) in Alvin, Texas. When I read the title aloud and offered the cover with, yes, a pig high in the treetops, the first graders I was with broke out in “silly giggles.”Then I found a discarded library copy (Does anyone know where the Koennecke Library is?) in a box of books I bought at a garage sale in my neighborhood. Do Pigs Sit in Trees? is written by Jean Zelasney and illustrated by Mr. Stobbs. (There’s bound to be a story behind that pseudonym!) In the children’s literary tradition there is often a young animal looking for his/her mother. Various animals suggest to little Quinton, a piglet, where his mother might have gone.  All Quinton knows is his mother is nowhere to be seen, and he’s hungry! After searching around the farmyard and forming laugh-out-loud images of his mother in ridiculous places, he finally finds her in the cornfield’s mud with all his brothers and sisters happily munching away. The anxiety of the piglet and the satisfactory drawing of the family snuggle at the end make delightful reading and a jumping off place for kids to discuss with Mom/Dad/Grandma/Grandad the times they have felt anxious.

    All kids seem to like dinosaurs, and Dinosaur Poems by Jack Prelutsky and illustrated by Arnold Lobel is a wonderful book for the “read-to-me-Mommy” demand from a little one. Since T-Rex seems to be hands-down the favorite, his poem comes first:

    “Tyrannosaurus Rex was a beast

    that had no friends to say the least.

    It ruled the ancient out-of-doors.

    and slaughtered other dinosaurs.”

     

    Other types of dinosaurs are treated equally humorously, but let me skip to the last–Seismosaurus.

    “Seismosaurus was enormous,

    Seismosaurus was tremendous,

    Seismosaurus was prodigious,

    Seismosaurus was stupendous.

    Seismosaurus was titanic,

    Seismosaurus was colossal,

    Seismosaurus now is nothing

    but a monumental fossil.”

     

    And so goes life….I predict giggles and the learning of and love for big words out of this one.

     

  • FRIDAY FIRST LINES

    Instead of writing the first line from a book I’m about to start, I’m giving the first line of a book I finished Thursday evening. Mitch Landrieu’s In the Shadow of the Statues is an eye-opening read that gives the “inside skinny” on New Orleans, including what really happened during Hurricane Katrina and the controversy involved when the Mayor (Landrieu) gave the order to “take the [Confederate] statues down”! Here are the first lines of his book:

    “Here I was, mayor of a major American city in the midst of a building boom like no other, filled with million dollar construction jobs, and I couldn’t find anyone in town who would rent me a crane. Are you kidding me?!”

    Landrieu faced some strange circumstances as he tried to make New Orleans the city it should be post-Katrina instead of the city it used to be. His story of why he made those decisions is the story of a man with ethics, integrity, and perseverance.

  • TUESDAY TEASER

    Tuesday Teaser is a meme hosted by The Purple Booker, which I first saw on Brainfluff. Today I am taking my Tuesday Teaser from a book I am currently reading for my Third Tuesday book club which meets on the 27th if this month because of Thanksgiving holidays. It is a good thing I received an “extension” because I am only 1/3 of the way “in.”

    Mitch Landrieu, the Mayor of New Orleans, has written In The Shadow of the Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History. This is a “hot-button” issue in the US right now, especially to those of us who were raised and educated in the Deep South. To defend/explain his feelings as he decided to remove statues venerating Confederate heroes, he explores “the broad legacies of slavery, race, and inequalities that still bedevil America.”  To do so, Landrieu gives extensive information on his own family and education.

    “The big decision for me as high school drew to a close was where to apply for college. I really had no idea. My older siblings had gone to in-state universities. With four siblings behind me, I knew my parents would be pressed to provide tuitions and college-living expanses….” ” As his [current] job was ending… Dad had been offered a job with a downtown real estate developer and a corporate salary that would make a huge difference for the family–and college for me.” At that time, Landrieu wanted to be an actor, and in deciding which university to attend, he discovered that old adage, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”  His life’s journey is very interesting to follow and had a direct influence on his value that entered into his decision, making him a hero or a villain, depending on how one viewed the statues’ removals.

    I am looking forward to time off next week, when I will certainly finish this thought-provoking book and decide for myself whether Landrieu made the right decision or not.

  • BOOKS FOR LIVING by Will Schwalbe: A Review (Subtitled “Some Thoughts on Reading, Reflecting, and Embracing Life”)

    After reading and enjoying Schwalbe’s book, The End of Your Life Book Club, I jumped at the chance to download this 2016 publications and discovered my new favorite genre of book–books about books. These are varied musings and thoughts about books that made an impact on the author’s life. Also, Schwalbe adds relevant connections of often-read books to modern-day life . The chapters are arranged by book titles which are the jumping-off-place for the author’s essays. He deals with all kinds of books, from E.B. White’s classic children’s book, Stuart Little, to the recent bestseller, Girl on a Train; from Victorian classic, Dickens’ David Copperfield, to the the YA novel (and movie), Wonder. Each essay is thought-provoking and relevant to the reader’s own reading life.

    My favorite essay was about a book I’d never heard of before, Yutang Lin’s 1937 book, The Importance of Living. Lin, a contemporary and friend of Pearl S. Buck (The Good Earth), writes his advice and philosophy of living a “good life.” Schwalbe quotes from Lin’s chapter, “Slowing Down” which “spoke to” and fascinated me. I have always considered myself a “driven” person, a person compelled to take action, to “do something” about things and life in general. Lin’s advice is to consider life in a more meditative, calmer way, taking charge by observing, contemplating, and experiencing life, not being a slave to it pressures and stress.

    The book guided me into thinking things I would never have considered before and made me think more carefully about what books I have read, am reading, and want to read, and their influence on the way I live my life.