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.”

  • WHAT ON EARTH AM I HERE FOR? by Rick Warren

    Rick Warren of Saddleback Church (30,000 members) is best known for his book, The Purpose Driven Life, but this 2012 updated version of his “purpose” philosophy is also an excellent, helpful read. Warren deals with questions we all have asked ourselves: “Why am I alive? Does My Life Matter? What is my purpose in life?” This last question is perhaps one of the most important questions that will drive our introspections. Warren states that we should discover our purpose because it will…

    …explain the meaning of your life.

    …simplify your life.

    …increase your motivation.

    …prepare you for eternity.

    This book deals with the “purpose issue” of The Purpose Driven Life, but includes the little phone “thingies” to scan as well as http://www.whateever.com to go to for each day. Where The Purpose Driven Life was a “40 day spiritual journey,” this one is set up for 42 days as it presents an in-depth examination of the question, “What am I Here for”? Many different translations of the Bible are used, but all answers and suggestions are scripturally based.

    I ingested this book, a chapter a day for the whole 42 days, meditating on each chapter’s message throughout the day, and I often came up with my own answers to “So what”? and “What’s it to me”? (I was fortunate our church librarian was generous about due dates and the number of times she allowed me to renew the book!)

    This is a book I highly recommend to anyone wishing to add purpose and meaning to their daily Christian walk.

  • 50 Ways to Reward Yourself – by Bryn Donovan…

    50 Ways to Reward Yourself – by Bryn Donovan…

    Chris The Story Reading Ape's avatarChris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

    A couple of weeks back, Iwrote this postabout the importance of rewarding yourself when you’re trying to start a good habit…or break a bad habit. This isbasic brain science.

    Naturally, good habits can be their own reward, but most of us benefit from extra reinforcement!

    A couple of people have reached out to ask me for ideas for rewards. One of them was looking for ways to reward himself for losing weight and reaching weight loss milestones. Rewards can really work as motivation and inspiration for accomplishments as well as support for daily habits.

    I believe just framing something mentally as a reward can help reinforce good habits (such as exercise or writing) and help you break a bad habit (whether it’s alcohol, smoking, another addiction, or losing your temper for no very good reason.)

    The first 25 on this list are small, cheap rewards–some don’t cost…

    View original post 62 more words

  • Sunday Evening Post (on Saturday night)

    Because tomorrow promises to be a full, busy day, I am posting my Sunday wrap-up a few hours ahead of time. The pace of our lives has picked up, as the new school semester rapidly approaches. Public schools here required new teachers to report this past Monday, and all teachers gather again this coming Monday. Students start on Thursday, August 16th, thus easing students (and teachers) into a short week, rather than go for five days in a row, right off the bat. My first class at the university is not until August 29th.  I am ready; sooooo ready.  I may have some time on my hands between now and then, so perhaps I will have time to read.

    At the moment I am continuing to read:

    Carry Me Like Water on my Kindle app

    Singing and Swinging and Making Merry Like Christmas (Maya Angelou’s autobiography, volume 2)

    The Fifth Season 

    I put aside:

    My book club’s selection for this month, Persuasion, by Jane Austin Perhaps the discussion of the book will make me want to go ahead and finish it.

    I completed:  (to be totally honest, several were nearly done anyway)

    The Dark Tower  by Stephen King, the seventh book in the series of the same name. This has been an on-going project both for King and myself.  We began the series in my junior high teaching days (which seems like another lifetime, definitely another teaching career) and I have enjoyed every book in the series. I think Wolves of the Calla is still my favorite because of the action-packed adventure and the “return” of characters from other stand alone books in this book of the series. The ending? Well, the ending was not totally satisfactory, but I agree with King when he said in his author’s notes at the end, it was the only suitable ending.

    Dr. Sleep, also by King, which I reviewed here recently

    Before We Were Yours, which I shall review soon

    The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George, a most enjoyable read  This book started out with two original elements, a floating book barge, fully stocked and moored on the River Seine and a bookseller, the main character, who could diagnose his customers and prescribe exactly the book that would cure their “ills” or even change their lives. It was perhaps the best book I read this summer.

    This week brings one final medical test, and I am going to make an appointment with my GP to tell him the changes he has made to treat my high blood pressure just isn’t working out.  The medication is causing an annoying, constant cough which is hindering my ability to talk and is keeping me awake almost all night.  This has to be “fixed” before I go back to school.  Ah, the joys of the “Golden Years”!

     

  • AUGUST CHILDREN’S BOOKS MARATHON

    Rae Longest's avatarLiteracy and Me

    I am joining Jay at This Is My Truth Now in an August Children’s Books Marathon. During the month of August participants will read and review “assigned” children’s books (which were voted on and selected by bloggers and followers of his website) on their own blogs.  Don’t have a blog? Don’t worry, you can participate here by posting your reviews on this site.  Just write your review in the Leave a Comment box at the end of each post.  Here is a list of the books to be reviewed and the dates by which you are to post/share your review.  You can read all the books or a few, or just one of them. Your reviews will be read and commented on by readers of Literacy Lessons.

    Picture Books Read 8/4 to 8/9 and post review on 8/10

    Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak / Oh the Places…

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  • STEPHEN KING’S DR SLEEP: A Review

     The scariest Stephen King book I have read is It, hands down.  But on its heels, at a close second, is King’s more recent novel, Dr. Sleep. King is at his best drawing a picture of Evil Incarnate in both novels. In the author’s note at the end, King tells his readers that at signings, he is often asked what became of the little boy, Danny Torrance, of The Shining, a terrifying novel in its own right. This book answers that question.

    Dan has hit rock bottom, involved in drug use and an alcoholic in his twenties, as he stumbles off a Greyhound bus in a little town in New Hampshire. The people he meets in town encourage him, and there he is contacted supernaturally by Abra Stone, a twelve- year-old girl whose gift of the shining is far stronger than his own. The two of them, with assistance from more minor characters, confront The True Knot, “murderous paranormals,” vampirish creatures who live off the “steam” (the shining) of young children like Abra and “the baseball boy.” One catch is that The True Knot must torture and ultimately kill these special children to feed off them.

    Because Dan has taken on the job of orderly in a nursing home/hospice to make ends meet, a job no one else wants to do, he finds a way to use his “gift” for good, helping elderly end-of-life patients to transition from a suffering life to an eased death. No, not euthanasia of any kind, but a gentle, loving, vigil in the residents’ last moments that assures them it is ok to “let go.” Thus, Dan earns the title, “Dr. Death.”

    Like most of Stephen King’s novels, the theme is the epic war between good and evil, and there are many hold-your-breath moments as the reader is pulled along by the story. Happily, the ending is a satisfactory one, and leaves things open for even another book about Dan and Abra if the author wishes.

  • FINISH STRONG by Richard G. Capen, Jr : A Review

    I have been waiting to finish (not necessarily “finish strong,” but just “finish”) this book since the first of this year. I started it during the Christmas Holidays in an attempt to read more non-fiction, and came within the final three or four chapters, then put it aside to finish library books by due dates and to read books I received for Christmas.  As the books on the shelf were shuffled, this book was transferred lower and lower until last week. While dusting my book stacks, I found the book with a bookmark sticking out of it and marveled that the book was almost completed. Fortunately, I remembered most of what I had read as I finished the book subtitled, “Living your Faith in the Secular World and Inspiring Others in the Process.”

    Although the book was written in 1992, it particular resonates in today’s world, describing the state of today’s secular world and offering suggestions toward “making America great again.” The author is a Pulitzer Prize winning publisher, formerly of the Miami Herald, and ambassador to Spain under the Bush administration.

    Capen interviewed his day’s notables and well-known names, asking: What three accomplishments do you consider to be the important in your life? / If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, what two or three values would you want to be remembered for? / Who have been your mentors, and what did they teach you? / Name an unsung hero whose values you admire?  The writer sent our these questions to prominent names in government, education, entertainment, research, etc. and surprisingly, 80% of those approached responded. Evidently, those individuals contacted wanted to go on record about what they valued and believed in. Interestingly enough, Capen commented on his “research,” “It came as no surprise that many of the most respected leaders were the most humble in describing their accomplishments.”

    After learning a bit about the author, his own answers to his questions were perhaps the most interesting part of the book for me.

    Finishing the book some six months after I had started it, and reflecting on what I have read in those past six months, have reminded me that I need to read more outside my “comfort” or favorite genre–novels–and find some more good non-fiction reads soon.

  • WISDOM FROM ADVANCED WRITING STUDENTS

    Rae Longest's avatarLiteracy and Me

    August is fast approaching, and soon it will be time to meet the new “crop” of Advanced Writing students at the university. There will be at least eight different major fields of study and probably writing skill levels ranging from seventh grade to graduate-type work.  The course focuses on research and presenting an argument to an academic audience. More importantly, the major objective is to write clearly and persuasively, explaining one’s “side” on an issue in a way that will make it easy on the reader.

    Students have their own objectives. “Improve and build my literary skillset,” “speak through writing,” and “improve my communication skills by learning to write better,” to name three. Since the capstone assignment in the course is to write an argument/research paper, the students have also come up with suggestions for writing argument papers, specifically.

    “I think it’s a good idea to look for an expert…

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  • THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS by M.L. Stedman: A Review

    This 2012 NY Times Bestseller is just now being discovered by book clubs, perhaps because it lends itself so well to discussions involving human empathy, ethics, and the fact that the book is just such a darned good story. It is heart wrenching and, as advertised on the cover, deals with “love, loss, and right and wrong,” just the meat for a group to chew on.

    In the story, we find Tom Sherborne, a veteran from the Western Front during WWII, were he saw all the horrors of war and is left dealing with the fact he has killed, something very much against his personal beliefs; taking a job as a lighthouse keeper. Not just any lighthouse, but the one on Janus Island, off the coast of Australia, so isolated it is “half a day’s journey by boat to even get to it.” On leave, while on the Australian coast, he meets a very young Isobel, a bold, pampered girl who loves him unconditionally from the moment she sees him. At her insistence, they marry and he whisks her away to an isolated, lonely, mundane life on Janus, for they are the only humans there.  Surprisingly enough she is perfectly satisfied. as he is all she wants and needs.

    In the early years of their marriage, she suffers miscarriages and a stillbirth, which, of course affects them both, as well as the marriage.  One day a boat washes up on shore, containing a dead man and a live baby girl. Tom wants and knows he should report this “find” to the authorities, but Isabel feels in His own strange way, God has sent her a child.

    The story becomes increasingly tragic as the years go by, and the girl grows up. As Tom struggles with his conscience, and the couple meet the child’s grieving mother while on shore leave, the reader fears a collision of epic proportions, which actually does occur.  However, the author miraculously brings about a satisfying (if not a happy-ever-after) ending, and the reader breathes a sigh of satisfaction, having experienced a “darned good read.”

  • Sunday (Evening) Post on Monday

    Yesterday got away from me, and so I am writing Sunday’s intended post on Monday. Looking back at the last one on June 18th, I found that I had started Dr. Sleep by Stephen King which I am still continuing to read, in fact, nearing the “finish line”; and my, is it good! Also I had started Carry Me Like Water by Saenz, which I am also continuing to read on Kindle.  At the time I was still reading The Lightening Thief by Riordian which I have since finished and reviewed on this blog. We also were continuing our shared project, Book One of the Broken Earth Series as a read-aloud, and this past weekend we made more progress than usual, reading three chapters rather than just two.  I hope to get in a chapter a night during the week this week, so we’ll be ready to move on to Book Two soon.  It is a fun thing to read aloud together, and My Better Half and I are thoroughly enjoying the action, drama, and beautiful writing of this series.

    Now on to my post for July 15th. As of Sunday, I completed Finish Strong, an inspirational book which I had set aside several months ago. I am very glad I read the final chapters, for they were some of the most helpful. I also read The Houston Chronicle Sunday edition from cover to cover and now feel prepared to face a new week of issues and news stories with a good background.

    I started Maya Angelou’s second book in her seven volume autobiography, Singing and Swinging and Making Merry Like Christmas and several poems from Shaker Why Don’t You Sing? , one of her lesser known collections of poetry. I found both while moving books around on the shelf and discovered I had them but had never read them.

    I binged watched several episodes from The Crown on Netflix, nearing the completion of the first season. I also watched two episodes from another Netflix series, Strange Empire.

    I quit reading and delegated to my Little Free Library Golden Son,a story about an Indian pre-med student which was just too much like other novels I’d read on the same topic.

    I am looking forward to reading Maya Angelou’s Letter to My Daughter, another “find” on my own shelf.

    This is already proving to be a very busy week ahead with a doctor’s appointment this morning, a test to be done Thursday, but it also promises lunch with friends to discuss The Great American Read and a concert at the university Thursday night.  Full, yes. But, never boring!

     

  • FRIDAY FIRSTLINERS

    First Line Fridays is an interesting meme hosted by Hoarding Books. In it, one takes the next book one intends to read or the one just started and writes the first line (or so). You too can participate just put your first line in the comments section below. Be sure to include the book’s title and author.  Here’s my current first line from The Fifth Season, Book One of the Broken Earth series by N.K. Jemisin:

    “Let’s start with the end of the world, why don’t we? Get it over with and move on to more interesting things.”

    Even if you get this after Friday, please play along.