RAE’S READS

recent posts

about

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.”

  • Reading/Cooking: Monday Morning Musings

    Those of you who are bibliophiles understand when I say, we read to “escape”: from boredom, form being too busy, from our hum-drum, ordinary lives to adventures and emotions we can experience vicariously.  Recently while studying a text on human nature, I came across a concept that not only can we change our lives, but our moods as well.

    I came home in a grouch and felt grumpy, but the books I thumbed into did nothing to relieve my self-induced bad mood, so I turned instead to cooking. The humidity was finally low enough (a beautiful, sunny day) to make forgotten cookies, a recipe from the 1970’s that was so popular.  They are made with whipped egg whites (2), 3/4 of a cup of sugar gently added and mixed in on high until peaks form, then a teaspoon of vanilla added in with more beating time via mixer.  All this time, the cook is preheating the oven to 350 degrees. Finally when the oven indicates the correct temperature has been reached, one folds in a cup of chopped pecan pieces and a cup of semi sweet chocolate pieces.  After dropping by spoonfuls onto  prepared cookie sheets, said sheets are placed on the racks in the oven and THE OVEN IS TURNED OFF. The next step is to forget the cookies for the next three to four hours or overnight.  Yes, the recipe sounds like Grandma’s old fashioned divinity, and yes, the cookies dissolve in your mouth. After the painstaking care and concentration on making the cookies, I felt much, much better.

    Looking back at this week, I must have been escaping through cooking all week, for I made BBQ pork in the crockpot; used some black bean chips from our trip to Central Market to make nachos as a snack; tried out another bag of chips, this time parmesan cheese and garlic flavor, as another day’s snack; baked brownies, following the “cake-like” directions rather than our usual “fudge-like” directions on the box, then iced them with cream cheese icing.  Actually, re-reading this paragraph, I think this week I “escaped” into eating, not cooking!

  • Sunday (Evening) Post

    How can a week be totally uneventful and totally busy at the same time?  I managed to complete an item on my bucket list, visit the Brazos Bookstore in Houston; shop and eat at Central Market not too far away from the bookstore; and celebrate the end of the semester at The Dessert Gallery–all in one day! Wednesday.  This was thanks to our “grandson” driving us from Alvin, negotiating all the crazy traffic (which had us overwhelmed at the thought of driving in it), and returning us safely home at the end of the day.  That’s a good grandson!  It took me a day to recuperate from our adventure, but that, too was a busy day. It seems like the things you have to do (or maybe choose to do, for some of them are fun or productive things) will expand to fill up the time you have to do them in.  I always used to say this about housework, but it seems today my life seems to behave by this principle as well.

    This past week I finished reading Memoirs of a Geisha (a selection for this quarter’s PWR) and will try to review it by tomorrow.  I also finished The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, thus checking off the selected book for the Third Tuesday Book Club (thanks to my friend Janet who passed on her copy of the ones reserved on a shelf for us by our fine Alvin Public Librarian.  She has really become an asset to our club and to our city.

    I took Printz’s “textbook,” Beyond Human Nature, out into the yard on this beautiful Sunday afternoon, and whether it was the change of scenery or for some other reason, I really “got into it.” I have only about 200 pages left, and although serious, non-fiction is not always my cup ‘o tea, I may be able to finish and can definitely say I’ve read some good evidence and fascinating case studies along the author’s premise. The book could be dry, dry, dry, but the author gives the perfect amount of basic, background review and writes so well that I’m glad I tackled the book. I also am still reading Gary Pegoda’s Who Is Human, but did not get too far this week because it is on my laptop, and I’ve been reading paper books all week. I think I also often slow down to admire the words and the writing.

    After purchasing it Wednesday, last night I started The Hate U Give, which tempts me to put everything aside and read from dawn to dusk.  I have a feeling it will “go” all too fast.

    I have watched practically nothing, but have worked in the yard, and it does look good.  Thanks to My Better Half for digging all the holes and the watering-in he will do for me this evening when it cools down. I have also cooked in an attempt to smother an unwarranted grumpy mood, and I may mention this in Monday Morning’s post.

    A note to PWR members:  Don’t forget we have a get-together at Rae’s on May 28th from 1-4 (or so), and I encourage you to read one of the three books we selected for this quarter: Sea Change (the thinnest), Memoirs of a Geisha (a wonderful book you won’t be able to put down) and Madeline Engle’s Many Waters. I will begin the last mentioned soon, but have copies of both of the others I’m willing to lend.  If anyone would like to volunteer to talk about one of the three books (and spare yourself listening to me!) please contact me by phone or e-mail. I am so hoping some of you can come!

    HAPPY READING!

     

  • Friday Tag–I’m IT

    While reading my daily “fix” of a friend, James J. Cudney’s blog ,This is My Truth Now, (really worth checking out), I came across a “tag” or challenge put out by the blog Always Trust In Books.  In it there were 20 quick questions to answer about your blog.  I do not have the time or inclination to answer all 20 questions, but I thought it might be fun to address a few of them and give followers and readers some insights into Powerful Women Readers.

    What were the last three books you read?

    Memoirs of a Geisha, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, both book club selections, and The Education of Dixie Dupree. The last is a debut novel I’d read a review on, and debut novels fascinate me; I guess it’s because I’ve always heard the saying, “Everyone has one novel inside them.”

    Spoilers or No Spoilers?  Nothing spoils a good book or a good movie for me, even if someone gives away the ending, especially if I am appreciating the good writing as I read, but I would NEVER skip to the end and actually read the ending of a book.  That’s UNTHINKABLE!

    How long have you been blogging? A year and two months

    The last book you read in one sitting  I’m going to cheat and choose a children’s book, Tadpole’s Promise by Jeanne Willis

    Favorite genre   I’ll read anything; I like all genres if the characters are well developed and the writing is good

    DNF (Did Not Finish) The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood, not because it was not good but because I got caught in the rush of the school semester and had to return it to the library 

    Approximate number of books read per month   Depends on the month and the position I’m in in the school semester      I usually read at least two books a week and seldom more than four.  This is hard to estimate because I have three or even four books going at once.

    Music or quiet when reading?  Definitely quiet

    Favorite blogging position    Sitting on the bed, propped up by firm pillows with the laptop braced against my drawn-up knees

    Are you a professional blogger  Absolutely not.  I would not enjoy getting a free book in return for a “fair review.”  I do not blog about (or even enter into my reading log) books I did not like.  Books I review are only ones I think have merit or I have enjoyed and want to “tell” someone about them.

    Best piece of advice for starting-out bloggers  Have fun!

  • Tuesday Teaser

    “Tuesday Teaser is a bookish meme, hosted by The Purple Booker” which I read every Tuesday.  Bloggers from all over (and those who read blogs) grab their books, choose two or so random sentences, and copy them down in the effort to perhaps interest someone else in the book they are reading. How about participating here? Be careful not to include spoilers, but list your Tuesday Teaser in the comments below.  Here’s mine for today:

    “I touched his shoulder again, and Rowdy flinched.

    Yes I touched him again.

    What kind of idiot was I?

    The kind that got punched hard in the face by his best friend.”

    This is from The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, a YA novel I tried once upon a time, gave up on, but am trying again because it is the monthly selection of my Third Tuesday Book Club at the local library.  Once I got over the language in the first chapter, I have to admit, I’m enjoying it. (Or perhaps the language has become more common, and thus more acceptable over time.) What’s your Tuesday Teaser?

  • Sunday (Evening) Post

    My Sunday (Evening) Post, loosely based on Caffeinated Blogger’s Sunday Post, has turned into an Every-Other-Sunday (Evening) Post. For the past two times, busyness and life “got in the way,” and I missed a week; thus, it’s now been two weeks since I attempted to catch friends up with what I’ve been reading, viewing, and doing.

    During the past two weeks since Easter Sunday, I have…

    Finished: Big Magic, a definition and exploration of creativity, recently reviewed on this site.

    Because I’ve had little time for reading as I attempted to close out the semester at the university, I’ve continued but made scant progress on Prinz’s Beyond Human Nature: How Culture and Experience Shape the Human Mind.  This is an easy book to set aside, not because it is not interesting or well written, but because it is a challenge as well as out of my usual genre, but I hope to discipline myself enough to spend some time with it in the coming week.  I am still enjoying the excellent writing of friend, Gary Pegoda’s Who Is Human, a sci fi novel and am really “into” Memories of a Geisha, which has been my “escape read” throughout a mountain of paper grading.

    I started Phillip Yancey’s Vanishing Grace, recommended by my church’s librarian, and at the opposite end of the spectrum, began this month’s selection for my Third Tuesday Book Club, a YA novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian.

    On TV I found time for a taped episode of “Scorpion”, always suspenseful and always entertaining and have four more episodes awaiting me.  I have watched three episodes of “Rick Steves’ Europe” , a great PBS travel show which is the perfect thirty-minute entertainment while eating a meal. Several mornings of NBC’s” Today Show,” and am up to date on “Superior Doughnuts” and “The Big Bang Theory.” I managed to reward myself for grading with two movies, Jackie and a French film, The Class when I reached certain goals in my grading progress.

    I am pleased to report that the Grading Marathon is over, grades are averaged (Everyone did well.  I had an amazing group of writers this semester, one filled with serious students who took ownership of and pride in their writing and assignments. What a blessing!) and all that remains is posting the grades on line.

    It will seem strange not going to class Wednesday, but I plan on an outing with a friend to  Central Market in Houston for shopping and lunch in place of class, so I am one happy camper! I hope your coming week is as promising and that you will find some time in it to read something really wonderful.

  • Review: Each Little Bird That Sings

    Deborah Wiles’ 200+ page children’s book that also speaks to adults was a National Book Award finalist when it came out in 2005.  Scholastic published it, and as the author tells us in the Acknowledgements, it was written at a time when the author “experienced many deaths in the family” and was “suffocating in grief.”  Her successful catharsis provides the reader with the same and demonstrates “the power of story.” She describes her warm, sometimes humorous, always uplifting novel as a “hymn to family; to kin well-known and kin yet to come.”

    And what a family stars in this delightful tale.  Comfort, the protagonist, with her mom and dad, older brother, and baby sister are all engaged in running a family-owned and operated funeral home in the deep South whose motto is, “We live to serve.” Every family member is expected to “serve” and to put the town’s families’ needs ahead of their own needs, especially in times of grief. Comfort’s process of growing up, experiencing first-time feelings of intense anger, compassion, love of family and loss is thoroughly covered. Her relationships with her best friend, Declaration, her “weird” cousin, Peach, and her faithful dog, Dismay, are explored as the story unfolds.  It is a sweet story, full of Southern Grace and family love, a story the reader might find comfort in as well.

  • Review: Cutting for Stone

    A blogging friend wrote this good review of a wonderful book.

  • BIG MAGIC: A Review

    This 2015 self-help book by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, is proof the author has still “got it.” As a matter fact, I liked this non-fiction exploration of “Creative Living Beyond Fear” much more than her earlier bestselling hit. In Big Magic, Gilbert discusses her own creative processes and her life as she expresses the wonder and joy of Creativity. She has written many “pieces” for magazines, novels, and non-fiction books, so she is definitely the one to consult concerning “Creativity.” She insists everyone has the ability to “make something”–create.

    In her last section, “In Conclusion” she writes:

    “Creativity is sacred and it is not sacred./ What we make matters enormously, and it doesn’t matter at all./We toil alone, and we are accompanied by spirits./ We are terrified, and we are brave./Art is a crushing chore and a wonderful privilege./Only when we are at our most playful can divinity finally get serious with us./Make space for all these paradoxes to be equally true inside your soul, and I promise–you can make anything.”

  • SUNDAY (EVENING) POST

    The Sunday Post was originally started at Caffeinated Blogger, a fine blog I follow. Many participants post a catch-up on their week’s activities, focusing on what they read during the past week.  I thought it would be an excellent way for PWR to catch up with each other and stay abreast of what we were all reading.  There were so many participants, however, that I altered the meme, inserting (Evening) in honor of the old magazine, Saturday Evening Post. This is a call for readers to post their own comments, catching PWR members and others up to date with their reading (and other) activities.  That said, here is my Sunday (Evening) Post:

    What I finished this past week: Who Said I Was Up for Adoption by blogging friend, Colin Chappell, a fine blogger and a fine author. I reviewed it this Saturday here. Also I enjoyed Cat and Dog, a children’s book written by David Lloyd and illustrated by Clive Scruton.

    What I am continuing to read: Big Magic, a non-fiction book about creativity; Beyond Human Nature: How Culture and Experience Shape the Human Mind, both in an effort to stretch and challenge my thinking processes.

    What I started this week: Last night I read the first three chapters of a close friend, Gary Pegoda’s book, Who Is Human?  It is a sci-fi novel that reads like poetry but carries the reader along in page-turning prose. Also, I began a book I have heard about and wanted to read for a long time (I made it a quarterly selection for PWR, so I’d be sure to get to it soon.), Memories of a Geisha.

    What I watched this past week: Three movies–Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Killer; Lion; and The Dressmaker. All were creative, all were well done, but my favorite was The Dressmaker.

    Generally, it was not an exciting week, except for Easter Sunday, for “He is risen! He is risen indeed!” as the New Testament greeting goes.  It was a quiet, yet busy week as we begin the big count-down to the end of the semester. I hope to MAKE time for more reading this coming week, but we shall see…

  • WHO SAID I WAS UP FOR ADOPTION? A REVIEW

    Colin Chappell, a blogging-world friend, has written a fine book which is “a story about one calculating dog…and one unsuspecting human.”  Published in 2016 and available in hardback, paperback, and on Kindle, it serves as a training manual for pet adoption as Chappell, who admittedly “has a soft spot for the underdog,” adopts a messed-up, confused dog of unknown background, and with the dog’s love and cooperation, turns Ray, the dog, into a loving, expressive, happy companion. What is amazing is how Ray altered Colin’s and Carols’ lives.

    The book is written with a chapter narrated by Colin, then the same experiences, adventures narrated by Ray, to give the canine point of view. This is done so well that one wonders who is reading who’s mind, and who is “training” who.   The anecdotes are so many and so good, I couldn’t choose a favorite to recount, but early into the adoption when Ray receives a diagnosis of advanced heart-worms, it brought out the “Oh-no response” in me as I read. Because Colin had had the bad experience of having a beloved Siamese cat put down (a poem at the end of the book explores this) following the recommendation to euthanize his first dog, Ray, was not an option.

    With love, medical treatment, and much financial cost, Ray is now a healthy member of the family.  You can read about Colin and Ray’s on-going, recent adventures at http://www.meandray.com   As Colin muses in the very beginning of the book, “Who would have thought living with Ray would force me to reflect on my own life?”  I highly recommend the blog and also the book.  It is a must read for anyone who loves animals and wants a story with a happy continuance, rather than a sad ending.