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.”
My house is clean and decorated for Christmas, but it is definitely cluttered. In my Advanced Writing class this past semester, one task we attempted was to eliminate clutter in our writing (Zinsser’s On Writing Well, our text pointed out, ” CLUTTER is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular construction, pompous frills and meaningless jargon.” ). Maybe I need to do the same at my house, or maybe I can wait until after the holidays. LOL
Kitchen Clutter:
Join me in a cup of tea
Guest Bedroom Clutter:
Here’s where I keep gifts that are getting ready to go to there forever homes.
Sunroom clutter
Here’s where I work on sorting books and stuffed animals for my Little Free Libraries.
Living Room Clutter
Books stacked everywhere…it’s a good thing Santa is bringing me built in bookshelves for Christmas!Grand Central Wrapping StationNew quilts and a Hallmark reindeer piled on the couch
I think this season, I’ll just embrace the Clutter!
Merry Christmas from my (cluttered) house to yours!
Reviewed earlier on this blogTo be reviewed soonAudiobook read for Classic ClubBorrowed from the libraryRead for Celebration of Color Challenge–PINK Taking my daily devotional from thisAlmost finished Haven’t read a memoir in a whileWatched a lot
Virgin River–several episodes
Girl Boss–two episodes including the Christmas episode which was really good
The New Girl–one episode
Emily in Paris–am really enjoying this–two episodes
In the Dark–one episode
Episodes–two episodes
Finished an entire season of Dash and Lily
Began Sophia Loren in The Life Ahead
A couple of Christmas movies
Suggestions?
I’ve had more time to read now that the semester is over, and I’m staying home because I’m scared of Covid.
My friend Susan made these two quilts, one for My Better Half, one for me.
The Dalai Lama’s Cat and the Power of Meow is the third book in the series by David Michie about Snow Lion, aka HHC (His Holiness’s Cat),aka The Dalai Lama’s cat. All of the books deal with “the inner life of a cat, ” and this one asks the question: ” Are cats capable of mindfulness?” It is HHC’s desire to think less, experience more mindfulness which translates in cat language as, The Power of Meow. Power is a cat’s “…journey to discover her own true nature…and experience joy [in] the here and now.”
An interesting event that happens in this book is that HCC meets with The Pope’s beloved dog over the internet when the Dalia Lama and the Pope leave a video chat, failing to turn off their computers.
The novel is set in the “enchanting and exotic world of the Dalia Lama’s monastery in the Himalayas.” As the reader follows HCC’s internal, spiritual journey, he/she learns to slow down and appreciate mindfulness and find inner peace. We can even identify when HCC tries to meditate and “be in the moment” and is tormented by “mental fleas.” Those of us who have tried meditation and are bombarded by inane thoughts that prevent us from achieving mindfulness are well acquainted with these “mental fleas.”
The overall feeling of reading this fun (and sometimes funny) novel is one of calm, peacefulness, and optimism that we, too, might achieve what the Dalai’s cat seeks.
The last short story collection I read in 2020 was The Last One Out Shut Off the Light by Stephanie Soileau, which was published this year. After reading the first two stories in the collection, I thought it was going to be a stereotyped look at Louisiana and its inhabitants. I remember years ago in Sunday school, Sam Brouillette, our director would tell “Boudreaux jokes,” stating that it was not politically incorrect because he was a Cajun himself. We looked forward to these, similar to dumb blonde or Aggie jokes, each week. However, I was not willing to read eleven stories that would put my Louisiana-born-or-bred friends down. What the book actually turned out to be was “a portrait of the last-chance towns of southwest Louisiana…” which is a “…place continually in flux.” It is a story of this region of the South and its people.
Many of the character studies, which are marvelouslydone, are dark, and many are humorous. The author leads us to understand that this region is “as much a state of mind as it is a place on the map.” I loved the hints at the Cajun language and the fact that we could “hear” the sounds with our “mind’s ear,” but in all cases understand what was being said.
One of my favorite stories was “Poke Salad.” A message, probably a phone call, from a dad to his daughter, goes something like this, “I walked through the flames, baby doll, and I survived.” It describes in humorous fashion a man’s near-death experience after eating poisonous greens.
“Mr. A,” another story is of a darker nature. It describes a pedophile, who leads a choir and acting troupe of 5-18 year-olds on tour throughout the region. “Mr. A, their gallant captain, their pied piper, small and dapper, straight-backed and trim extending an arm left or right to steer his trusty procession…” is an example of the wonderful writing throughout the stories. I enjoyed Soileau’s writing style as I read through the character-driven stories. My only complaint about this collection was that it ended too soon!
It’s about time to read another group of short stories. Any suggestions?
My challenge, begun in August of this year, was to read books with specifically designated colored jackets. Today’s selection and recommendation sports a pink cover.
This book, selected because of its cover, because it fulfilled my desire to read more non-fiction, and because it was already on my Kindle, turned out to be a very good “read.” It deals with “the Past, Present, and Future of Women Working in Films,” and was published in 2018. It shines a “spotlight on women who deserve to be known for their incredible contributions to film and to society as a whole”…this credit is “…something that has been stolen from them.”
The title comes from the famous quote, “After all, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels…” I believe the quote is attributed to Ann Richards, former Governor of Texas.
Malone divides the book into eras of film making: 1890s earliest days/WWII/50s post war/60s and 70s New Hollywood/ 2000s “The Future is Female”
This last section discusses Wonder Woman, the first stand-alone, female super- hero-film released since Ironman began the current trend of comic book movies back in 2008. WW had a female filmmaker, a female protagonist, and was a huge box-office hit in 2017. Because Wonder Woman was my childhood hero, I was especially interested in this section. The stories of early silent-film stars was interesting, but even more interesting were the stories of female film makers, producers, and even directors working with the femme-fatale stars of the silent-film era. Most proved themselves to be shrewd businesswomen, battling it out for equal status (and equal pay, which has yet to be achieved) with the Hollywood “boy’s club” members and moguls.
My grandson read this book for the film class he wrote and taught at UH, so it was he who discovered and selected this book. I am so glad I read it. it was an enlightening, often surprising, well-written book that just happened to have a pink cover.
Thanks to Carla of Carla Loves to Read for use of her meme.A touching story of empathy and its power to transcend all things.
This picture book is not only visually very appealing, it has a timely message for even the youngest readers/read-tos.
Boy meets Bot. Boy takes Bot home. Bot runs down. Boy takes Bot to Bot’s home. Boy is exhausted, run-down. This could have a very sad ending, but a friendly scientist and the boy’s parents save the day, and Boy and Bot play together, happily ever after!
I was so excited about joining the Classic Club, as explained on Deb Nance’s Readerbuzz, that I started early and read (actually listened to) Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim in December, rather than waiting for January, as instructed.
I was very disappointed in my first attempt on whittling down my list of 100 classics (the first twenty of which I posted my first Classic Club post). I received the original list in high school, and it has been an on-going “project” ever since. Deb had spun the spinner, and #14 was the number of choice, Lord Jim on my list.
Most of the book was an audio slog. It was not the fault of the narrator’s calm, unexcited voice; it was the writing of the story. Jim, himself, was just too upright and uptight–too “good” to be true, and he was wracked with guilt over things that were just “human nature,” never cutting himself any slack, until Marlow (the narrator of the novel) and I just wanted to say, “Get over it man, and get on with it!”
It had its moments. How could it not with pirate attacks, shipboard fires, ships sinking, tropical islands complete with beautiful maidens, corrupt rulers, double crossings and backstabbing, an on and on…? Through it all stood the upright Lord Jim–totally blessed and fortunate, and yet totally miserable. Whatever could happen to a man of the sea did happen to Jim. The ending was predictable, for an unhappy man like Jim could not put up with a happy ending.
Barbara Bush is my hero. I want to be just like her, promoting literacy and preaching kindness and love through my actions. This book did not “help” on any 2020 challenges, but I saw the “editor,” Jean Becker, interviewed on Willie Guiest’s Sunday show on NBC, and immediately borrowed the audio version of Pearls from my library’s eBranch.
The Former First Lady gives advice to her family, her friends, her staff, and to us.
Known as a woman who “not only [discussed] what needed fixing; she tried to fix it.” Having faced tragedy (the loss of a daughter to childhood leukemia) her words are filled with a wisdom born of learning to “carry on” and “get on with things.” According to the book’s editor, Bush “…made sure we all knew that your children must come first.” Her motto when times were tough was, “Look for the good. There’s always good…
Thanks to this creative blogger for letting me borrow her meme for this post.
My first lines comes today from a book I plan to start this weekend, When We Were Young and Brave by Hazel Gaynor. I was lucky enough to order it in large print from the library.
“Oxford 1975”
“We didn’t talk about it afterward. Not to loved ones, or to neighbors who stared at us from across the street, or to the newspapermen who were curious to know more about these lost children, returned from the war in the East like ghosts come back into the lives we’d once known.”
Set in WWII, one of my favorite times to read about, this novel promises to be an enjoyable read. Won’t you join in and read it with me?
powerfulwomenreaders 