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.”

  • SATURDAY MORNINGS FOR KIDS

    Saturdays on PWR are like TV Programing in the 50s and 60s from about 6:30 a.m. until the 9:00 morning news–RESERVED FOR KIDS.

    This Saturday have I got a book for thoughtful eight to twelve year olds! It is a two-time Newbery Medalist, Katherine Patterson’s novel who is a children’s author on the caliber of Madeline L’Engle. I remember the reactions of my sixth graders as they discovered her Bridge to Tarabithia when I was teaching kids in what seems like another lifetime.

    A new girl in a new school, facing a new life, Birdie desperately wants to make friends.

    This 2021 novel finds Elizabeth, aka Birdie, making a deal with God that she will “stop acting like a jerk” over her dad’s deployment to Iraq if He will protect and look out for her family, and above all not let her dad come to any harm. She goes to great lengths to keep her end of the bargain, even wearing a “I heart Jesus” T-shirt under her clothing at all times. Her prayers, her attempts to act like Jesus are stymied when she meets an aggressive girl in her new school class, Alicia Marie Suggs, whose insistence of using this name instead of the name the teachers and students referred to her by, and who immediately announces to Birdie that they are going to be best friends. Alicia constantly reminds Birdie of promises that Birdie knows she never made, and puts words in her mouth and ideas in Birdie’s head. Unsupervised and mysteriously alone most of the time, Alicia tells what obviously is not the truth, but Birdie makes excuses for her because she longs for a friend, any friend. Inside Birdie knows something is wrong at Alicia’s house, but she sluffs off any misgivings and suspicions.

    All of us have been through a crisis of faith, but usually not at Birdie’s age. Fortunately, she has her wise grandmother, with whom she, her mother, and her baby brother have moved in with, to guide and support her.

    This is a thought-provoking tale for modern times which is unusual in that it deals with spiritual beliefs and matters in a down-to-earth way.

    RAE

    Saturday July 9, 2022.

  • MEMOIR FOCUS

    I am focusing for a moment today on memoirs. I have read over seventy memoirs since 2019, at one time requiring my Advanced Writing students to read one and to write a short one. I am about to ask my fall class (which is already full and hopefully, champing at the bit to begin writing) to read a memoir and write a good review of it. If things work out, especially if some turn them in early, I will share some with my readers.

    One that appeared as a donation to my Little Free Library is Shasta Martin’s 2015 memoir, Life from Scratch: A Memoir of Food, Family, and Forgiveness. I didn’t know what to expect, except probably recipes, of which I was not disappointed, but the narrative itself was very moving and memorable–that’s where the “forgiveness” came in.

    This was an honest memoir which presented the bad along with the good.

    To say Martin had a “rough childhood” is putting it mildly. She lived in more than one foster home and was rejected from one which was supposed to become her forever home, a crushing blow. The book narrates a “journey of self-acceptance and discovery,” as Martin finds that cooking helps create her own happiness . At times, the author refused to trust her good luck in life, not accustomed to having good luck in her childhood. At times this memoir is heartbreaking, but at times it is redeeming as well.

    We follow Martin’s “culinary journey” as she sets out to cook (and eat) food from every country in the world. This results in a “Global Table” event which is amazing and fulfilling to both the author and the reader. 195 recipes, 195 countries, 195 weeks made up her culinary endeavor, and as a reader, I was rooting for her along the whole way… You will too.

    This turned out to be a darned good read!

    There’s a lot to be learned about life as well as about cooking in this fascinating memoir.

  • HALLELUJAH ANYWAY by Anne Lamott: A Review

    Anne Lamott writes honest, often humorous, always witty essays. She is one author I intend to read more of.

    This 2017 publication, subtitled “Rediscovering Mercy” is one of Lamott’s bests. She defines mercy as “the promise to receive relief and forgiveness,” something we all need after the years of pandemic and shutdown. She also defines it as ” the medicine, the light that shines in dark places” and “lets us soften ever so slightly.” The purpose in this book is to help us understand each other, but in so doing, we come to understand ourselves.

    Overall, it is a joyful book, and it is also (as Lamott always is) an honest one. I think it is a good tool to help us navigate scary, unsettled times that we find ourselves in currently. It “reveals through truths a path home.” And, that is where we all desire to go. Her words of wisdom are tempered in humor, and Lamott makes us want to find the joy she has found and shout, ‘Hallelujah Anyway!’ “

    Borrowed image from another blogging friend who also spreads joy.

  • READING UPDATE: July 4th, 2022

    This was finished yesterday.

    A wonderful gift book whether you have a business or not. The principles work in business and in life.

    From the author of The Lilac Girls, Martha all Kelly, Lost Roses.

    STAND BY SOON FOR A REVIEW HERE ON PWR.

    Reading this daily.

    This author is always a favorite and never fails to deliver.

    Still reading the daily selections and still enjoying them. I have learned so much from this book.

    I have started two other books, but will not feature them at this time. One is non-fiction, the other memoir.

    There are several books I WANT to start, just not enough time.

    One I intend to look into soon is this one, written by an author I always admire,

    HAS ANYONE READ THIS BOOK? HOW IS IT?

    DON’T FORGET TO CHECK OUT PARIS IN JULY AT READERBUZZ!

    Deb Nance at Readerbuzz is doing Paris in July. Enjoy!



    THAT’S A WRAP…

  • JULY IS COMING…

    AND SO IS…

    PARIS IN JULY

    Always a fun month to check in with Readerbuzz

    My blogging friend and “sister,” Deb Nance toasts Paris with recipes, reviews, and raves during the month of July. I intend to follow her posts closely all month and suggest you do the same. The rewards will be pleasant and inspiring. Check out Readerbuzz during the month of July. What I am looking forward to most is more pictures of her recent trip to Paris this past April.

    All you have to do is google Readerbuzz and you’ll find Deb Nance.

  • NEVER HAVE I EVER by Joshilyn Jackson: A Review

    Rarely do I read books described as “thrillers.” Either they don’t deliver or the thrill part is so good that it makes me anxious. Never Have I Ever falls into the latter category. This 2019 novel kept me on the edge of my chair and turning pages late into the night.

    An excellent, suspenseful read

    The story begins with a book club meeting (definitely a plus), and a strange woman who comes to the door wanting to join the group. This new-to-the-neighborhood woman, Roux, is as exotic as her name, especially to the mundane every-day housewives and mothers gathered at Amy’s house for book club. Time magazine calls this a novel with “dramatic reveals about [each] woman’s complex histories.” As the story progresses we meet up with blackmail. family secrets, relationships, second marriages, and step parenting issues.

    It is a story of two women, both complex, compelling characters. Amy, the protagonist, the “good guy,” or is she? and Roux, the antagonist, the “bad guy, is she ever! plot against each other as they play out a dangerous game started that fateful night at the book club meeting.

    Who knew what lurked in Roux’s past? Who knew the dark secret Amy was hiding? The women of the book club, although secondary characters are well-developed and integral to the progression of the twists and turns of the plot. And the ending–oh the ending –is both exciting and satisfactory.

    This is a thriller I highly recommend. It was a “darned good read.”

  • Sunday musical offering

    bluebird of bitterness's avatarbluebird of bitterness

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  • SATURDAY MORNINGS FOR KIDS

    Just as Saturday morning TV programming was reserved for kids during the 50s and 60s, PWR reserves Saturday Mornings for kids’ books.

    Today’s selection is a book I ordered for my niece’s husband (and his daughter age 4) to read together. They are both huge Star Wars fans.

    I have seen Jeffrey Brown’s cartoons before, but this one is priceless!

    Imagine Darth Vader, in full regalia, seated at an outer space bar with a four-year-old Luke Skywalker in his Jedi clothes, admonishing Luke, “Don’t make bubbles”, as little Luke blows instead of sips his beverage. Throughout the book, Darth Vader protects and corrects his son in a fatherly way until by the end of the book, when Little Luke hugs Darth’s leg and says, “I love you, Dad,” we are inclined to feel that perhaps good ole Darth “ain’t so bad after all.” At the end, Vader’s Little Princess is mentioned as another Brown book, one which is a MUST for my father-daughter duo.

    I know, I know I promised myself I’d order no books until I whittled down my TBR shelves, but this one was TOO GOOD TO PASS UP!
  • Mondays are good days for me. I don’t dread another week; I look forward to a new beginning.

    I have already been reading books about writing (in all of its forms) in preparation for the fall semester. One which I particularly enjoyed was by one of my favorite novelists and essayists, Anna Quindlen . In 2022 she published this book about writing, advising her readers to “pick up a pen and find yourself.”

    A collection of essays about writing, NOT a writing handbook.

    Quindlen presents this book as one which demonstrates “how anyone can write and why everyone should (italics mine)” write. This book is aimed specifically at those of us who don’t consider ourselves writers. She explores connections made through writing and addresses recording our daily lives for a great many reasons. Quindlen, like Flannery O’Conner feels, “I have to write to discover what I am doing.” (O’Conner). The author offers personal freedom through writing. The book is not a handbook, but an argument as to why we should write.

    I highly recommend this book for writers and students alike.

  • LITERACY IS…

    Rae Longest's avatarLiteracy and Me

    Borrowed image

    Literacy has been my passion since I taught 4-year-olds in my neighborhood what I learned each day in first grade as we played school after I came home from my lessons for the day. Some of the mothers made their kids come down to my house to a makeshift “school” in my garage because they came home knowing their letters and numbers. In those days, we had no free kindergarten; only the “rich” kids went to kindergarten, which was often a private affair at a retired teacher’s home. Because I was a “late birthday,” November 21st, I ended up being seven two months after first grade started. I was the smallest in the class with the loudest voice and the bossiest manner. Because it was wartime (Korean War), our elementary school was crowded with Navy “brats” in our town which housed both a Navy Base and an Amphibious…

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