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.”
SATTURDAY MORNINGS TV programming was dedicated to kids. From 6:30-9:30, cartoons reigned. Parents were able to sleep in while kids parked in front of the TV with their cereal, slurping and laughing alternately.
Today’s PWR recommendation for kids is a book that will make them laugh aloud.
This may be my favorite of the Amelia Bedevil series. When her charges, her employer’s young sons, say “Let’s pitch the tent,” Amelia picks it up and heaves it as far as she can. Other clever malapropos and idioms are explored as Amelia Bedevil takes literally figurative language. Some of the books can be read by first and second graders, the others will be enjoyed by parents and grandparents as well when a read-aloud session is initiated.
Some of Amelia Bedelia’s funniest mistakes are collected in the treasury above and will lead to happy times of reading as a family. I highly recommend these two books, and give them a ten our of ten “giggle rating.”
Recently a book was donated to Rae’s Reads (my bookstore) that I could hardly wait to take it home and begin reading it.
And, it did not disappoint. This book was published in 2018. I had never heard of Rachel Hollis, but she is evidently a very smart woman. Her book explores the lies women are told and the lies they tell themselves. Described as a “challenging and inspiring book,” it turned out to be just that. Hollis covers 20 lies and misconceptions that hold women back from living “joyfully and productively”– something I wish very much to do. She also offers “specific and practical strategies” that help women past these lies. The end result is you give yourself grace without giving up. Some of the chapters cover these lies…I’ll start tomorrow. I should be further along by now. I am defined by my weight…and others worth looking into because not only have we women believed these lies; we have told them or at least repeated them to ourselves
A very helpful book written by a very helpful author, this is a book and an author I want seconds on. It was a darned good read.
We have had several authors present at RAE’S READS. We’ve had an author of children’s historical novels, Alda B. Dobbs, who wrote The Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna and The Other Side of the River; Catherine Vance, who wrote the adult novel, The Mountains Under Her Feet; an autobiography/memoir by “Al” Perry, The View from the Top of the Chicken Coop ;and a non-fiction book on leadership principals based on the life of his father, a mechanic in WWII, by Don Jefferies,The Mechanics of Leadership.
Now we have A COOKBOOK author coming.
This signing event will take place September 17th from 2-4 p.m. at RAE’S READS.
Tambra Nicole Kendall “knew when she was twelve…she wanted to be a writer and artist.” Her love of the library and reading well-prepared her for the writing she has done: novels, a special children’s book on ADHD, as well as non-fiction for local and national magazines and newspapers. And, NOW–she has written a cookbook. What a cookbook! It is as elegant as high tea, and the text is a good as the delicious recipes.
Come meet Tambra at Rae’s Reads and obtain your copy of this lovely cookbook.
*Tambra also teaches Creative Writing Workshops. Come talk to her about offering one at Rae’s Reads if you are interested.
Although some people celebrate this “Start a New Book” plan in December, the beginning of a new school year/semester is the perfect time to read a new book.
Here are some suggestions from what I read this summer.
This half a dozen should be a good starting place for starting a new book!
I wish, I wish, I wish…it felt like FALL. Today was a suffocating 114 degrees here on the Texas Gulf Coast. And, the humidity–well, I won’t even go there. Today I opened my “seasons book, ” Everyday Celebrations by Donata Maggipinto to remind myself that Fall was coming, as I read about serving pumpkin and squash soups and other fallish things to trigger “hospitality”, my word for 2023. It didn’t help, but what did was a light grilled chicken salad from a local restaurant.
As I ate, I finished the ultimate book on hospitality, Open Heart, Open Home: The Hospitable Way to Make Others Feel Welcome and Wanted.
This guide to hospitality was first published in 1976, then revised in 1997. Its tenants are still applicable today. The author reminded me that “There are seasons in a lifetime of hospitality,” and this year has been a season for hospitality both at my home and at my bookstore. Mains, a pastor’s wife kept her door open at times when the occasion was planned and food was in plenty and also when the cupboard was scant, but their large family was willing to share what simple fare they had with others.
A “definition” of hospitality in this book consists of phrases like the following:
“An open door. A table spread with food. The murmur of people engaged in conversation…a smile. An embrace at meeting…Acceptance into the group. Coffee brewing in the kitchen.Time for a long talk…to give away the above gifts of hospitality as long as I have breath…”
Not only is the book beautifully written, but it is heartfelt and instructive. Many anecdotes of the author’s family and congregations are offered as an example that opening your home and heart to others CAN work, and the results of doing so are very rewarding. This was the perfect book for my study.
In the 50s and 60s Saturday Morning TV programming was reserved for kids, showing cartoons so mom and dad could sleep in. Many older kids prepared cereal for themselves and younger kids and had permission to turn on the TV in the living room. Powerful Women Readers reserves Saturday Mornings for Kids as well, reviewing and recommending kids’ books.
Although today’s featured book was designed for young readers, it was recommended to me by an adult, and just as she loved it, so did I.
It didn’t hurt that this book is a true story, “an incredible true story of a friendship so strong that it crosses the globe.” Overcoming incredible odds, Dion keeps his promise to his canine running mate, Gobi (named after the Gobi desert in China)to take him home to Edinburg, Scotland, with him, but what entails in this little dog’s amazing journey through bureaucracy and red tape, attaining worldwide celebrity along the way, makes for a heart warming, suspenseful read.
I recommend this book for children and adults alike!
TODAY is Sunday, August 20th, and although the temperature outside is still in the triple digits some afternoons, I am declaring that fall is here. Kids in Alvin, Texas have returned to school, and it won’t be long until the 1820 Coffee Shop will be serving pumpkin lattes. With a new season, I begin a new post–The Sunday Review.
To begin, I am offering one of my favorite novels of 2023, by one of my favorite authors: The Spectacular by Fiona Davis. For a year or so, Fiona’s mom was a member of our Tuesday Readers Book Club at the library, and we even had a conference call session with Ms Davis after selecting one of her books as our “read.” I had hoped to meet her in NYC and have her take me to an authentic NY cafe one afternoon, but Covid nixed the girlfriends’ trip to NY. Her latest novel, Spectacular is one of her best.
As all of her novels, Spectacular features a famous NY building, Radio City Music Hall. It has been described as dealing with, “love, sacrifice, and the pursuit of dreams.”
It begins in 1992 on Radio City Music Hall’s 60th anniversary. The protagonist, Marion Brooks, a former Rockette is preparing to enter assisted living, and is reluctant to attend the anniversary celebration. Handling a box of objects brought down from her attic, she flashes back to events in her life which have been recently published in a book and have brought her unwanted attention, causing her to re-experience tragic times in her past.
At the age of 19, back in 1956, Marion auditions (against her father’s will) for the Radio City Rockettes, and to her surprise, makes the cut. The discipline and sacrifices a woman must make to be a Rockette are fascinating to read. Cleverly, Davis entangles Marion in a series of bombings, executed by the “Big Apple Bomber,” who had, at that time, terrorized NYC for 16 years. With assistance from Peter Griggs, a young doctor at a mental hospital, who is developing “psychological profiling,” something unheard of then, she aims to solve the case for personal reasons. They offer their unwanted help to the NYC police, but end up taking things into their own hands.
Adventure and action enter the novel at this point in a way that is so suspenseful, it keeps the reader turning the pages well past bedtime. The ending is worth staying up for, and it is one of my best “reads” for this year. I highly recommend Spectacular.
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