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.”

  • One W Wednesday

    Triple W Wednesdays is a meme where one tells WHAT you have finished, WHAT you are currently reading, and WHAT you will read next. I prefer to keep it simple, dealing only with one of the W’s, WHAT I have just finished.

    I finished the following book I had checked out of my local library this past week.
    An exciting YA read that builds suspense all the way to its excellent climax.

    This 2021 publication was picked as a Pure Belpre Honor Book, and definitely earned that honor. Petra Pena, the twelve-year-old protagonist, only wanted one thing to become a Cuentista, a storyteller like her abuelita, her grandmother. As the narrative opens, Halley’s Comet is going to collide with earth. Petra, her mother, father and little brother, Javier, blast off on a spaceship headed for a new planet. The trip will take hundreds of years, so the family is put in a sleep-state, frozen until their arrival. The family keeps Petra’s bad eyesight a secret, and they are cleared to start the survival mission.

    When “they,” an evil Corporation that has taken over the ship and trip, awaken Petra, her parents’ and brother’s sleeping pods are empty. The Corporation had intended to erase every sleeping person’s memories of earth from their minds, but with Petra, for some reason, it didn’t work. Petra fakes being brainwashed until she can solve the mystery of what became of her parents and brother. Secretly, she recounts stories of earth to her brainwashed roommates, and slowly their memories come back. They escape in a small spacepod/ship and land on the target planet. Higuera’s fast-paced, sci fi story has a very satisfying ending. It is a story of friendships, family loyalty, mystery , and adventure.I definitely would describe it as a darned good read.

    Thanks, Evin.

  • JOY AND HOPE

    Not too long ago, My Better Half and I read Abrams’ The The Book of Joy as the selection for a book club he had joined. To me, it was ok, but only ok. For some reason, I had my own ideas about joy already.

    Fast-forward to 2022. I read in a magazine a short ad for Jane Goodall’s The Book of Hope, written by the same author. In it, as in his book with The Dali Lama and Tutu, the author used the interview as his main tool.

    Although it was written in 2021, I finally got around to reading it in this month, as part of my attempt to read 22 non-fiction books in 2022. Goodall’s subtitle, “A Survival Guide for Trying Times,” couldn’t be more revenant than today. I only knew Jane Goodall as the “Chimp Lady” who studied chimpanzees to learn more about human behavior. This exceptional woman, as important to ecology as Rachel Carson and her Silent Spring, offers HOPE to her readers, as well as sounding the alarm, as did Carson. Her forward to this outstanding book moved me, as did the photos of those who developed hope in extraordinary times of stress, calamity, and unrest. She has been the first of her sex to do so many thins such as go into the jungles of the Congo accompanied only by a photographer to study its wildlife in their natural habitat.

    Goodall is officially the UN Messenger of Peace, and in forming her educational groups called “Roots and Shoots” of young people around the world, she has brought Hope to many third-world nations. She has taken positive action to cause hope for peace to come.

    The most important takeaways from the book are Jane’s Four Reasons for Having Hope: The amazing human intellect, The reliance of nature, The power of young people, and The indomitable Human Spirit. Abrams uses these four reasons as the organization of the book. The personality and integrity of Goodall, herself, shines through like a beacon of hope for the book’s readers.

  • Saturday Morning For Kids: The Garden We Share, A Park Connects Us, Climb On! & Go Out and Play #BookReview #PictureBooks

    Sharing the Saturday Spotlight with a favorite blogging friend, Carla

    Carla's avatarCarla Loves To Read

    This meme was started by Rae Longest at Powerful Women Readers. As I am a grandmother, who loves to read to her grandchildren, a mother who loved to read to and with her children, and a retired teacher librarian, this meme really attracted me.

    My theme for this week’s Saturday Morning For Kids, is GET OUTSIDE! With spring just around the cornerin the Northern Hemisphere, all of the books I am featuring today encourage the reader or listener, to go out and do something, whether it is gardening, visiting a park, going for a walk/hike or just playing or doing activities with family and friends.Time to get outside! All of these books were provided by the publisher upon request. The ratings and opinions shared are my own.

    View original post 830 more words

  • GRATITUDE STUDY: PROGRESS REPORT

    This is an update on a year-long study of Gratitude.

    My “word” for 2022 is GRATITUDE. I adopted a goal of making a year-long-study of this concept. Many writers credit gratitude with providing happiness in our lives. One thing I had hoped to do was read books about gratitude. Here’s the third book I’ve read on the subject this year (Oliver Sacks, Gratitude was the first; Wake Up Grateful was the second; and this week I finished the third, Living Life as a Thank You).

    This book’s subtitle says it all.

    Nina Lesowitz’s and Mary Beth Sammons’ small book explores the positive power of gratitude. It guides the reader in an attempt to change “fear into courage, anger into forgiveness, and isolation into belonging.” Dealing with the benefits to gratitude, Living Life is something we need NOW. The chapter titled, “Ways to Stay Thankful in Difficult Times,” is particularly relevant during times of Covid, political division, and worldwide problems. Any one of these creates stress in the individual. Anecdotes about “individuals whose lives have been transformed by thankfulness” fill every chapter, inspiring and uplifting the reader. In a day of separateness, this little book teaches us how to stay connected with others by being thankful. Inserted throughout its chapters are practical tips on expressing gratitude. Snippits of wisdom head each chapter, causing me to take out my Gratitude journal and copy sage advice often. One quote that resonated with me as a takeaway is, “God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say, ‘Thank You’ ? “

    To make a change in your level of happiness, this book recommends Gratitude.
    Thanks Evin.

  • FRIDAY FIRSTLINERS

    TODAY’S Friday Firstliner is from a book I have just finished, The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles.

    Based on true events, featuring real people, this novel caught my attention when I saw it reviewed on two blogging friends’ reviews. I purchased it from Amazon. One of those bloggers said the parts set during WW II were excellent, but the parts set in 1983 detracted from the novel. I concur, for the story of Odile and the Paris Library made an wonderful stand-alone novel. Here is it’s first line:

    “Odile/ Paris, February 1939/ Numbers floated round my head like stars. 823. The numbers were the key to a new life. 822. Constellations of hope. 841. In my bedroom late at night, in the morning on the way to get croissants, series after series–810, 840, 890–formed in front of my eyes. They represented freedom, the future. Along with the numbers, I’d studied the history of libraries…”

    On this first page, the reader meets the heroine, Odile, preparing for her job interview with the Directress of the Paris Library. She has no idea what she will be asked, but knows she really wants the job.

    I enjoyed this book a great deal, especially marveling at the wonderful job the employees of the Paris Library did to keep the library open and functioning, even in occupied Paris.

  • I had this book for a year before reading it for my Mt. TBR challenge. I first heard of it in a post by a fellow blogger.
    Worth investing my valuable reading time in.
    Continuing to read
    from our local library–part of my study of gratitude.
    It sure changed my life!
    SOMETHING FOR THE CLASSICS CLUB…Suggestions?
    Thanks, Evin.

  • WONDERFUL POSTER by Emma Fick

    The article that explained the making of the poster was very interesting. It explained how the author decided on what to include, what colors to use, and how she came to make the border from book covers of presenting authors this 2022 Festival.

    I spent a pleasant half an hour this afternoon “exploring” the New Orleans Book Festival. Friday I learned that Hoda and Jenna from the Today Show on NBC will be broadcasting live from the festival next week. Jenna (Jenna Bush Hager) will even interview John Grisham one evening during the weekend. I follow Jenna’s Book Club on NBC and usually enjoy her “picks.” With her mom a librarian (former First Lady, Laura Bush), Jenna has inherited her family love of books, libraries, and literacy spreaders. Her grandmother, Barbara Bush is one of my heroes, whose literacy legacy is the Barbara Bush Foundation for Literacy. Last year, I was able to raise $100 from “birthday donations.”

    I am unable to visit New Orleans for the festival, but I sure did enjoy visiting its Facebook page and reviewing the schedule, which listed authors, panels, and topics for the event. I guess exploring virtually is almost as good as going there.

  • In Times 🐥| #KindnessFriday

    A little kindness can make a BIG difference.

    The Starry Night Elf's avatarStarry Night Elf

    Image Source:
    Wonder Doodles | Facebook

    View original post

  • From somewhere in your current read, copy a line or a few that would tease someone into reading the same book.

    A big thank you to the Purple Booker for creating this fun meme. Here is my Tuesday Teaser for March 1, 2022:

    This is how chapter 34 begins, “Bitsi didn’t bother with bonjour. She barged into my bedroom, she Announced, ‘Boris was playing cards!’

    ‘Cards?’

    ‘And then he was shot!”

    ‘Shot?’ My hand flew to my heart. ‘Is he alive?’ “

    These are characters in The Paris Library, a novel about the German occupation of Paris during WWII. The two women talking are Odile, one of the protagonists, and Bits, her sister-in-law. Both work at the Paris Library, which has managed to stay open during the occupation, much to the frustration of some German “higher-ups.” How these valiant women kept the library functioning and tended to its patrons, some outcast jews and others informants to the Germans is a novel of immense excitement and action.

    A novel I hope to finish by tomorrow

    This has been a busy Tuesday which included a lesson with my little five-year-old student, a long trip to Houston to the pain management doctor, a stuffed barbecue baked potato from “Flying’ D’s” for a late lunch, and planning my lesson for my Advanced Writing class tomorrow. One of the students, Zachary, arranged to make spinach dip and encouraged classmates to bring chips, so I guess while we review comma usage, we’ll munch away. I am looking forward to getting Zachary’s recipe. I am grateful for students like him.

    Sketch by blogging friends Tetiana Aleksina of Ukraine and Tony Single of Australia posted on their blog. They are directly involved and “speak” from the heart. Pray for the Ukraine people.

  • #MondayMeme #MondayBlogs #AmWriting #Humor

    Marcia Meara's avatarThe Write Stuff

    Let’s get this week started with a few memes about writing and reading and the like. Hope you find a few you enjoy!
    😀

    And there you have it my friends … but …

    View original post