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.”

  • Every Other Sunday (Evening) Post

    Yes, yes, I know it’s Saturday evening, not Sunday, but I’m going to have such a full Sunday (and Monday, and Tuesday) that I thought while I had a minute to breathe, I’d do so while posting a catch up on what I’ve been reading.

    Finished over the past two weeks:

    News of The World    This is the Third Tuesday Book Club’s October selection, which I read by mistake, but enjoyed greatly.  Read the recent review of this fine western/historical fiction novel about Texas on this blog.  I believe this fine novel is the Gulf Coast Read for this year.

    Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, which will be reviewed early next week.

    Lilac Girls, a WWII novel of sisterhood which includes the Holocaust from both the Polish and German point of view along with the fall of France and its liberation.  This novel will also be reviewed soon.

    Continuing to read:

    Wizards and Glass Book IV of Stephen King’s “The Dark Tower Series.”  I believe this is my second favorite in the Dark Tower Series, the first being Wolves of the Calla, Book V. (Yes, I read them out of order.)

    Our America: A Latin American History of the United States

    Began this week:

    Debbie Mcomber’s non-fiction, anecdotal book, One Simple Act: Discovering the Power of Generosity

    Rules of Prey by John Sanford, reminiscent of “Criminal Minds” on TV, but with a single investigator, not a team, working on the bizarre case.

    I obviously have a great deal of good reading to continue until I write this post again, but my reading time is limited. Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday are chock full with church and a student session in the afternoon, a doctor’s appointment and errands on M and a Sunday School coffee here after class on Tuesday.  Wednesday is my full day at the university ; then Thursday after class I hope to spend some time with friends (mother and teenage daughter) whom I haven’t seen since pre-Harvey.  It seems like everything is measured in terms of before and after Harvey these days.  Hopefully as the streets are cleared of debris and we begin to accept our “new normal,” the nightmares of Harvey will fade, and we will begin looking forward to Halloween, Thanksgiving, the semester’s end, and Christmas.  Sometimes it’s nice to look ahead…

     

  • Jones Creek Tough

    Laura Jinkins's avatarA Scribbler & A Shutterbug

    So thankful for these Jones Creek folk who looked out for their neighbors and their neighbors’ animals. Click on the link to watch Bailey’s video of their efforts. The music is pretty perfect, too.

    https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fbailey.fairchild%2Fvideos%2F1661105780575359%2F&show_text=0&width=560

    Video credit: Bailey Alexandra Fairchild

    From Bailey’s FB page: Finally got this video done! Most of these are CR 400 on the Jones Creek side. My family and I got to help 5 kids, 17 horses and a few steer out of the water. I can’t express to you how proud I am of our little community. Home is where your heart is and my heart will always be in Jones Creek, TX! A huge thanks to all the people that worked with us including some of the owners and a family from Florida that drove down here just to lend a hand. I know it’s long but I had a lot of pictures I…

    View original post 12 more words

  • THE INVISIBLE LIBRARY: A Review

    This 2016 publication by Genevieve Cogman is a fantasy novel, the first in a series. It has been called, “… a stunning work of art that has me absolutely begging for more…” by The Fantasy Book Reviewer. I have to agree that it left me begging for more, and I have already ordered the second book which came out in September.  I cared about the characters and would certainly like to continue following them and their adventures/misadventures.

    Irene, one of the protagonists, is the daughter of Librarians and a “professional spy for the mysterious Library”, which is an organization that collects important works of fiction from all the different realities. 

    Kai is Irene’s assistant, and the mystery as to his secret/identity left me reeling as I read.

    The two are assigned to an “alternate London,” whose world is “chaos infected”–meaning the laws of nature are bent by “supernatural creatures and unpredictable magic.” Irene and Kai are sent to retrieve a special book, but when arrive, they discover it has already been stolen.  Mystery upon mystery and calamity upon calamity occur, including mechanical, giant alligators and the sticky business (literally) of a massive silverfish invasion which starts underfoot and climbs the walls and anything (including Irene and Kai) that gets in its way.

    Beset by “sinister secret societies,” the pair learns more about their alternate world, the motivation and politics behind their mission, and each other.

    This is a perfect opportunity to get in at the ground floor of an exciting, spectacular series.

  • A TRIBUTE/SHOUT OUT TO AN AMAZING BLOGGER: Ritu Bhathal

    When first drew me to “But I Smile Anyway…” Ritu’s blog was a picture of a little Spiderman, sitting crosslegged, meditating.  He appears every week in “Spidey’s Serene Sunday” a feature of the blog. Each Sunday, Ritu and her muse, Spidey, put forth a quote then elaborate and comment on it. For example, Sunday, September 10th featured this quote:

    “Don’t worry about failures.  Worry about the chances you miss if you don’t even try.” These “Musings and Memories, words and wisdom…of a working family woman,” the subtitle of her blog, are insightful, helpful and downright inspiring.

    As are her poems. I ordered from Amazon a copy of Poetic Rituals, and enjoyed it immensely.  Many poems I have shared with others who welcomed their wit, humor, and wisdom.  Poems range from the humorous( a “label” for a chocolate cake, assuring the consumer that there are no calories in it, just cocoa, sugar, flour etc.  I attach this label when I take a shut-in a chocolate cake, and it always makes them smile.) to profound musings on love, real love. Family situations like the loss of a first baby tooth and the first day of school make every reader smile in a wistful way.

    Ritu Bhathal is a wife, mother of two, teacher, and poet extraordinaire , specializing in the haiku in a weekly presentation. As a blogger, she has 5,789 followers, has received the Versatile Blogger award at one point, and was voted Best Overall Blogger of 2017. She is available on Twitter and posts marvelous pictures of her healthy (and sometimes not so healthy) eating adventures. There is only one thing I do not understand about Ritu and her blog.  She refers to her followers as “Peeps.” Must be a British thing. LOL

  • Monday Funnies…

  • NEWS OF THE WORLD by Paulette Jiles: A Review

    Paulette Jiles is a San Antonio poet, novelist, and memorist.  In this 2016 publication, she describes in poetic, vibrant wording the realities and hard times of the western frontier.

    She tells the story of Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, aka “Captain” and “Captain Kidd,” a “reader of the news” of the world. Captain Kidd travels from frontier town to frontier town  in a wagon bought from a snake oil salesman, which has the faded letters, “Curative Waters” on its side. Captain brings news of the world to each town, reading from newspapers from New York, London, and other hub cities.  He censors and edits his performance readings depending on the politics and conditions found in each town. My Oral Interpretation professor would certainly have given him an A+, for he keeps his rough, uneducated audiences spellbound by the sound of his voice.Early in this page-turner, he takes on the task of returning a ten year old white girl, held captive by the Kiowa since she was a tiny child to her relatives in a small Texas town.  He accepts this assignment on moral grounds as well as for the few pieces of gold coin that he is given. However, Johanna, the child, wants nothing more than to remain a Kiowa, having no memories of her life as a white child. Eventually, early childhood memories and language begin to surface, and she comes to call Captain “Kantah,” Kiowa for grandfather.  Their relationship is the focus and theme of the book.

    A sub-theme is dimes, silver dimes. This is the price of admission for Captain’s readings.  They eventually save Captain and Johanna’s lives when they have to use them for ammunition. A memorable encounter in the middle of the novel is when Kiowa braves appear, and Johanna is faced with the strongest decision of her life.  Will she choose to go back to the Kiowa with the warriors? Captain faces his own decision as well: What would be best for Johanna?

    The epilogue is most satisfactory. Loose ends are tied up and the reader feels good with outcomes, the decisions made, and what happens to characters he/she has come to love.

    This is definitely a 5 out of 5 points book, which has action, excellent characterization, and an appeal that will keep you up late reading.

  • TUESDAY TEASER

    Having discovered on Brainfluff, an excellent blog, this meme hosted by The Purple Booker, I am putting forth my Tuesday Teaser for this week.

    Instructions were to choose a random sentence or two and type them hoping to tease others into reading the same book you are reading. Add yours here after mine by hitting Leave a Reply:

    This teaser is from Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, a YA novel.  I am at the end of Chapter Eleven where Dante and Ari fifteen year old friends are about to part ways for a year because Dante’s professor father has taken a temporary position at another university.

    “Dante hugged me.

    I hugged him back.

    ‘See you in a few months,’ he said.

    ‘Yeah,’ I said.

    ‘I’ll write,’ he said.

    I knew he would.

    I wasn’t sure I’d write back.”

    The book starts a whole new section after this as the two friends ponder the secrets of Life and the Universe-two boys so alike and so different all at the same time.  This is a magnificently written novel with mystery, friendship and family relationships, and excellent dialogue employed well.

  • SUNDAY (EVENING) POST

    It’s been a while since I’ve done a Sunday (Evening) Post, and this one will be a catch up and shout to all those sending good wishes and prayers through the post during Hurricane Harvey.  We have been dealing with Harvey and his repercussions since August 24th, and today is September 3rd, the day before the Labor Day Holiday.  Many of our friends will be doing hard labor rather than holidaying, bailing out their houses (those who can even reach them), ripping up carpet and dragging dead limbs and sawed-up trees to the dumpsters and piles around town.  Our biggest problem here in northern Brazoria County has been flooding, flooding unseen before even in 1979 when Tropical Storm Claudette dumped 29 inches of our little town of Alvin in 24 hours. And of course, the huge Texas-sized mosquitoes are loving it.

    My Better Half and I had started school at the local community college on the 21st.  He had met his students four times, I, two times.  Had we known we weren’t coming back for a while, we would have said more to them, but it wasn’t even raining on the 24th, and Harvey was the name of an invisible rabbit in a Broadway play/Jimmy Stewart movie. The rains began on Friday, the 25th, and as Paul Harvey used to say…”The rest is history.”

    My beginning class at UHCL for the semester was postponed from the 30th of August to September 6th.  During this time, the TV became too stressful, and I turned to reading…mostly escape fiction. LOL

    What I finished: All The Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders (reviewed on this blog), The Star Place by Vicki Grove (reviewed recently), and The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman (to be reviewed soon).

    What I continued to read: Our America by Filipe Fernandez-Armesto, a Latin American History of the United States.  I have to admit that the only non-fiction I read during this time were the Houston Chronicle and the Alvin Sun, once they were up and running again and the delivery to our flooded town could be resumed.

    What I began: Steven King’s Wizard and Glass,fourth book of “The Dark Tower Series,” a book I had skipped and gone on to book five (skipped because I was intimidated by the 893 pages…I am now on page 491).  I have completed book five and book six, and will have to read King’s “catch-up pages” before going on to book seven, the final book in the series. My Better Half read them all in order and finished book seven during the storm. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz, loaned by a friend, has provided a good respite from “heavy reading” although pondering the meaning and secrets of the universe through the eyes of two fifteen year olds can be pretty demanding (in a good way).

    And, I have cooked–creatively depending on substitutions during shortages when food trucks couldn’t get through.  One thing I WILL purchase soon is powdered milk. There still is no milk on the shelves in Alvin. Actually, instead of starving, we probably have gained weight, eating comfort foods and snacks several times a day.

    I hope this finds my followers well, dry, and in their own homes–and READING!

  • THURSDAY GIGGLES 

  • THE STARPLACE by Vicki Grove: A Review

    This 1999 YA novel has been sitting on my TBR shelf since buying it from Half Price Books’ Clearance several months ago.  I bought it to put out in my Little Free Library in the side yard, but I wanted to read it first. With Hurricane Harvey delaying the opening of schools, I had enough time to read more than usual this past week, and since the novel is set in the time I was in junior high and high school, during the height of the Civil Rights era and “forced” integration of schools, I was intrigued.

    On the Puffin paperback, a reviewer describes it as dealing with Friendship…”in spite of racism.” Francine, aka Frannie and her friends Margot, Nancy, and Kelli, meet the new girl to Quiver, a small town in Oklahoma who is named Celeste.  She is the first African American the girls, and almost the town, have ever seen up close. Max, Theodore, and Jason–misfits at their junior high, are the girls’ “friends who are boys–not boyfriends.”

    Frannie fancies herself a “modern” Nancy Drew, as this excerpt clearly shows:

    “My name is Driscoll, F.E. Driscoll, girl detective…Driscoll will get to the bottom of this mystery of the searchers from the haunted house (Celeste and her father) no matter how many hours of secret surveillance it takes.”

    Frannie’s impression of Celeste on the first day of seventh grade is that Celeste is “polished,” like her polished fingernails (Frannie bites hers) wearing saddle shoes, bobby socks, a circle skirt, and maintaining her composure amid curious and some malevolent stares. As Frannie and Celeste’s friendship deepens, meeting at the “rocket” in Frannie’s back yard, aka “The Starplace”, they exchange rhinestone bobby pins and become Star Sisters. Until she met Celeste, Frannie did not concern herself with the news on TV about sit-ins, firehosed young people or snarling dogs nipping at teenagers’ heels. She refused to listen to the evening news which poured out rhetoric about the “Red Threat” or even connect this with the “drills” they had begun at school.

    All these fashions and things came directly out of my seventh and eighth grade years. Like Frannie, my folks tried to protect me from “such things,” never lying to me, but not bringing “delicate subjects that children don’t have to concern themselves with” up for discussion.

    The book has a hilarious account of a patiently planned luau that turns out to be a catastrophe instead of making the four friends “popular” and cool. I laughed out loud. There is mystery; there is romance–a teen crush on Robin, Batman’s sidekick; and there is the complexity of best friends vs.new friends. Not only will young adults appreciate this peek into history (perhaps their grandparents’ day) but oldsters like me will look nostalgically back on kinder, simpler times which seemed so full of angst to us back then.