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.”

  • THE FIFTH SEASON by N.K. Jemison: A Review

    This is the first book in the Broken Earth series, which was published in 2015.  I found it reviewed on Brainfluff, and it seemed like a really good story. As soon as the other two books came out, I also ordered them, and last summer My Better Half and I finally got around to reading the books. We decided to read it aloud to each other at night, and it has been an excellent experience.  We finished Fifth Season at the end of the summer and have moved on to Book Two, The Obelisk Gate. We hope to finish by the Holidays.

    It is a strange, intricate and fascinating book, which includes a map of The Stillness, which is the known earth in The Fifth Season.  Seasons are eras, some a few hundred years, some thousands in the earth’s history, usually indicated by tectonic plate shifts, earthquakes and weather phenomena. The book begins,

    “Let’s start with the end of the earth, why don’t we? Get it over with and move on to more interesting things…”  “This is the way the earth ends, for the last time.”

    There are difficulties in reading the book, a vocabulary of words: “roggas,” “sessapinae,” “orogenes,” etc. that we had no idea how to pronounce, but we overcame this problem with pronouncing them however we wanted. A glossary in the back explains many of the words, but if the reader is good at context clues he/she can usually figure out what is going on without stopping and turning to the book’s end. NPR described the series as “astounding.”

    Another challenging aspect is that the characters and times shift back and forth, and the reader can get confused.  This, however, was one of our favorite parts of the book, for as we read, it was revealed that main characters in different chapters were actually the same characters we had read about earlier as adults in their childhood days, or that a certain character was a character we had read about previously, but he/she/it ws in a different form.  All of this confusion is worth it to enjoy the beautiful, often poetic writing which makes the reader feel the movement of the earth or see the beautiful power of the gigantic obelisks.

    The narrative itself is a “grabber,” which carries the reader along with the action throughout the twists and turns of the plot. We often exclaimed, “Oh, that’s the…” or “Wow! That’s why (the character) said or did so and so…” We felt so intelligent (LOL) that we figured out the revelation just before it became obvious in the “tale.” The author’s way of writing is unique. She feeds the reader information on a need to know basis and lets him/her draw the conclusion on matters just as the character concludes the same thing. The style is masterful, the word choice and phrasing original and spot-on, and the author’s imagination unlimited.

    This is a must read.

  • WWW Wednesday for 9/19/18

    I found this meme/game on “Taking on a World of Words,” a great blog which is hosted by MisB at “A Daily Rhythm.” There are three questions to answer:

    What are you reading now?

    What did you recently finish?

    What do you think you’ll read next?

    Most of my followers know that I read several books at a time, so for brevity’s sake, I’ll list only one book per category. Warning: This post may increase your TBR list.

    What I am reading now is Dogsbody by Gary Paulsen.  It is a gripping adventure/coming of age story about a young Eskimo man searching for his quest and his manhood. I have read other books by Paulsen, and this is my favorite so far.

    What  I finished recently is Jacqueline Bouvier: An Intimate Portrait by John H. Davis, who is Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis’ cousin. The biography covers from Jackie’s grandparents to her wedding day with John F. Kennedy.

    What I think I’ll read next is Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke, the Gulf Coast Read and our book club selection for next month.

    I am surprised our thunderstorms here on the Texas Gulf Coast have ceased because I  have been “reading up a storm.”

     

  • Tuesday Teaser

    Tuesday Teaser is a meme hosted by The “Purple Booker,” which I first discovered on a friend’s blog, “Brainfluff.” The point is to grab what you are currently reading, copy a sentence or two from where you left off, hopefully teasing someone into reading the book.  Once again, I am using Roland Merullo’s Breakfast with Buddha:

    “For all that morning, I’d managed to put out of my thoughts the notion of handing over this property (his family’s farm that he grew up on as a child) to Rinpoche (a holy man). On the one hand, it seemed patently absurd for him to start a  venture here, and for my sister to give away the only security that life would ever hand her.”

    Whether the siblings give away , to this holy man? charlatan?, their family inheritance is something you will have to read the book to find out.

  • All About Them Books

    Nicholas C. Rossis's avatarNicholas C. Rossis

    Mid-last-week, I ran into some computer trouble. This still has to be sorted out, so I thought I’d start the week with an awesome video, courtesy of the For Reading Addicts Facebook Group. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

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  • THE LITTLE PARIS BOOKSHOP by Nina George: A Review

    Nina George commented that this novel is her “love letter to books” when she published it in 2015.  It presents The Literary Apothecary, a floating book barge moored on the Seine where Monsieur Perdue diagnoses people’s/customer’s problems and prescribes books for whatever ailment they are experiencing. Max Jordan, a best selling young author, eccentric as the earmuffs he always wears, comes to the Apothecary, hiding out from fans of his books. Handing Jordan his last copy of a book Perdue thinks will fit the  author’s needs, Perdue delivers the following prescription: “Read this. Three pages every morning  before breakfast, lying down. It has to be the first thing you take in.  In a few weeks, you won’t feel quite so sore–it’ll be as though you no longer have to atone for your success with writer’s block.”

    Max asks the older gentleman, “How did you know? I really can’t stand the money and the horrible heat of success.”Max learns Monsieur Perdue has an unopened letter from a departed lover. Finally reading it after twenty years sets the two men off to the South of France, Perdue hoping to make peace with his loss and discover the end of the lovers’ unfinished story.  The adventures that follow and the characters they meet on their journey makes for a warm, often humorous read one won’t soon forget.

    I can’t think of any reader who would not enjoy it.

  • TUESDAY TEASER

    The idea is to grab what you are currently reading and copy a couple of sentences chosen at random. Be sure to include the title and author of the “read.” No spoilers, please.  Come on, friends, let’s have a little participation here! Leave a comment saying you are posting it on your blog at… or if you don’t have a blog type the teaser, title and author in the comments box.

    Today’s Tuesday Teaser from Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart:

    “Maggie” (the twelve year old protagonist whose father is a bookbinder and collector, who was addressed the night before by the name, Silverthroat, by a mysterious man, who pounded on their door at midnight in the pouring rain and warned her father of danger to them both)  “woke up because it was so quiet. The regular sound of the [van’s] engine that had lulled her to sleep had stopped. The driver’s seat beside her was empty. It took Maggie a little while to remember  why she wasn’t in bed at home.”…”The van was parked outside an iron gate made of spearheads just waiting to impale anyone who tried to clamber over it.”

    HOORAY FOR TUESDAYS!

  • MONDAY MUSINGS

    We have had rain, not light rain, but thundershowers for over ten days in a row now, and it is “getting old.” However, my yard looks glorious, and we are not letting the rain stop us from the vital trips, going to church and the grocery store.  I have been cooking for “therapy,” and we are having beef strips smothered in gravy, mashed potatoes, lima beans and wheat rolls for lunch. I also have a lemonade ice-box pie for dessert or a snack later. If things clear up enough after lunch, we’ll make a trip to Half-Price Books, or go on a “Retail Adventure.”

    I have have done all my grading and lesson plans for Wednesday’s class, and as noted in my Sunday (Evening) Post yesterday, I have several books “going.”  I’ve read a chapter here and a chapter there since six this morning. It is a slow, lazy day, and the best kind ever.

    I hope your day is as leisurely and pleasant as ours is here on the Texas Gulf Coast. Let me know what you are thinking about on this Monday, September 10th, 2018, even if you don’t get around to it until Tuesday or Wednesday. HAPPY READING!

  • SUNDAY (EVENING) POST

    I cannot believe that I have not done a Sunday (Evening) Post since August 4th.  I decided to do one on August 20th, but instead reviewed Truong’s Bitter in the Mouth that evening instead. I could never remember the names of all the books I’ve read since then, so I will make a stab at listing some of the books read and started reading since the 20th here.

    What I finished: Before We Were Yours/The Little Paris Bookstore/Carry Me Like Water/The End of Your Life Book Club/The Fifth Season/Charlotte’s Web/The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe/Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus/Jane Austin for Dummies/Jacqueline Bouvier.  Many of these books I have reviewed on this blog, PWR. A few I posted in Blogging 807 (wordpress.com). If you are interested in looking into reading any of them, type the title into the search box and allow the “machine” to bring up the review.

    Now on to recent reading…What I’m reading now:

    The Inexplicable Logic of My Life by Saenz   I have this book on Kindle, and because it is not physically on my bedside table or on the end table next to my rocking chair, I tend to forget about it. It is a wonderful story, dealing with adolescent angst and family relationships which might not be talked about in mainstream novels.  It is excellent so far.

    The Obelisk Gate by Jemisin   This is the read-aloud project my Better Half and I have taken on, hoping to finish by the Holidays.  It is sci fi and Book Two in the “Broken Earth” series.

    Breakfast with Buddha by Merullo   This is a book I heard of somewhere and found it at my local library. I am almost halfway through.

    Never Stop Walking by Bickard   Memoirs have become more appealing to me lately. This one about a girl from the streets of Brazil, who is adopted by a family in Denmark, and her search to discover her roots when she is a young woman.  It is educational and emotional as the reader is told of the life of the Street Children in South America.

    Writing with Power by Peter Elbow    A classic composition theory and handbook, this book is one I am reading once through, then circling back, considering adopting it for my Advanced Writing class next semester.  (Some times “oldies” ARE “goodies.”)

    Books I have started, but put aside for now: Dogsbody/The Eyre Affair/Fight Club

    Goodness, looking back at what I have written, that’s a great deal of reading!  What are you reading now? Let us know in the “Leave a Comment” box below.

  • MY PASSION FOR READING

    Rae Longest's avatarLiteracy and Me

    Recently I finished and reviewed Will Schwalbe’s The End of Your Life Book Club. In another of Schwalbe’s books, Books for Living, in the introduction, the author makes a statement that expresses my own philosophy/passion for reading perfectly. Schwalbe states:

    “As for me, I’m on a search –and have been, I now realize, all my life–to find books to help me make sense of the world, to help me become a better person, to help me get my needs and the  big questions that I have and answer some of the small ones while I’m at it.”

    My passion in life, in addition to walking a Christian path, is to promote literacy, providing any encouragement to read and write, at all levels. So far, I have taught reading and writing in some form for children through graduate students for the past fifty years. I am a voracious, eclectic reader…

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  • FIRST LINE FRIDAYS

    These are the first lines from my current read, A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki, which I checked out from the library:

    “Hi!

    My name is Nam, and I am a time being. Do you know what a time being is? Well, if you give me a moment, I will tell you.

    A time being is someone who lives in time, and that means you, and me, and everyone of us who is, or was, or ever will be.”

    This interesting meme, “First Line Fridays” was started by the blog “Hoarding Books” and which I discovered on “Carla Loves to Read.” One is encouraged to copy the first few lines of a book you have just begun in order to have someone else see how the book opens. This book certainly looks promising, and I am looking forward to reading on it this weekend.

    HAPPY READING! Please copy the first line(s) of a book you have begun in the Leave a Comment box or post on your blog with the URL in the Leave a Comment box.