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.”

  • 2021 NON-FICTION READING CHALLENGE

    One of my goals to start 2020 was to read more non-fiction. As a Literature major in graduate school, I read mostly literary fiction, specifically novels for my own reading pleasure for years. A friend at book club, Deb Nance, of Readerbuzz, stated that she read mostly non-fiction, something at the time that I could not understand. How could anyone enjoy dull, factual, “preachy” books? Over the years we have been in book club together, I have come to learn that non-fiction is not necessarily dull; that facts are fascinating; and an author can write a self-help or an expository book without being “preachy.” My first attempt to read non-fiction included what soon became one of my favorites: Lab Girl; then came numerous memoirs, and historical non-fiction accounts that read like novels, specifically, Erik Larson’s books.

    The challenge has three levels:

    Non-fiction Nipper, where one reads three non-fiction books from any category

    Non-fiction Nibbler, where one reads six non-fiction books from any category

    Non-fiction Know It All (Deb hit this level this past year 2020–when you see the categories, you will realize how difficult this was.), where one reads 12 books, one from each category

    Here are the categories 1. Biography 2. Travel 3. Self Help 4. Essay Collections 5. Diseases 6. Oceanography 7. Hobbies 8. Indigenous Cultures 9. Food 10.Wartime Experiences 11. Inventions 12 Published in 2021

    It is ok to read the books in any order, at any pace, as long as the reader finishes by December 31, 2021.

    I know I have NO interest in some of the categories, so I will take on the Non-fiction Nibbler, attempting to read six non-fiction books by the end of 2021. To make it a true challenge, I am going to limit myself to not repeating books in a single category, thus, reading from six different categories. This ought to be fun! Want to join in? Copy the logo provided and post your commitment on your blog. What? No blog? Join in anyway. List your plans in the comment box below and check in with me at the end of the year. I’ll post your successes.

  • A CHRISTMAS PRESENT TO MYSELF

    I heard about this book the way I hear about so many–on the Today Show on NBC

    Cleo Wade’s 2020 poster/poem/little book, despite its title, speaks to one’s mind as much as to one’s heart. It is full of quotes, poems, memes and posters, all of which seem to speak directly to each reader. It deals with self-image, self-care, self-love and many philosophical issues one deals with daily. As the subtitle indicates, it is “wisdom for a better life.” The neatest part is that the advice is all doable.I kept mu Quotes Notebook close at hand because I was constantly reading something I wanted to remember–forever. It was a slow read, even though there were only a few words on many of the pages because I would gently close the book, close my eyes, and “think about” what Wade had written. I felt a definite “attitude adjustment” and growth as a result of reading this little book.

  • VESPER FLIGHTS by Helen McDonald: A review of the 2020 audiobook

    To continue with my “Celebration of Color Challenge,” I looked for a book/audiobook with a black cover, and I found

    The perfect subject for an audiobook, musings on nature

    This wonderful book, narrated by the author, a renowned naturalist, calls us to “reconsider our relationship to the natural world and the fight to preserve it.” Reading the book becomes a “dizzying experience” not unlike the dizzying flight of the birds of the titular essay. In “Vesper Flights,” McDonald describes birds that fly in the evening hours, the time when evening prayers are offered. The poetic essays are musings similar to prayers themselves. As a critic says, the author’s writing style conveys “a breathless enthusiasm that can’t be faked,” for McDonald is writing not only about something she knows, but about something she loves.

    In the introduction, the essayist states her purpose, “I choose to think that my subject is love, and most specifically love for the glittering world of non-human life around us.” From the vulgarity and excitement of feral hogs to the un-viewable last Orioles in the UK , to the graceful flights of several species of birds, McDonald takes us with her as she wonders at and glories in the magnificence of Nature.

    Listening to this collection of essays was better than reading them, for I could close my eyes and meditate on the author’s words.

  • SUNDAY SUMMARY

    Although I did a lot of reading this week, it was so diversified that I finished very little.
    Reading this as my devotional each day.
    Still reading and digesting slowly…
    Put this aside for awhile…
    Slodging through…

    The farther I get into this, the more I like it!

    What I Watched:

    More than I’d like to admit: several Christmas movies; three or four series, more than one episode; and the total most recent season of The Crown. All of these I enjoyed immensely.

  • SATURDAY MORNINGS FOR KIDS

    Just like Saturday mornings (from 6:30-9:30 a.m.) when TV programming was reserved for kids’ cartoons, Saturday mornings on PWR are reserved for recommendations for kids’ books.

    THANKS to Carla from Carla Loves to Read for the image.

    Today’s read is Rachel Renee Russell’s series “The Misadventures of Max Crumbly.” Russell is the author of the well known “The Dork Diaries,” and is a very popular author with 5th through 8th graders in the U.S. and in other countries. The book I read is book three of the series, but the author kindly gives us in a sparse two sentences what happened in the first two books, so it works as a stand alone.

    Funny! Funny! Funny!

    The illustrations in this book are only superseded by the text on the humor scale. It is a fast, zany read with a plot that makes the reader laugh out loud and chuckle like a crazy person. Whenever Max thinks “MY LIFE IS OVER,” which he thinks frequently during the novel, something comes along and makes everything all right.

    Max’s message to his readers is simple. “…just remember, if Erin and I can become superheroes and make the world a better place…

    SO CAN YOU!

    Just hang in there! and KEEP YOUR HEAD ABOVE WATER!

    YOU GOT THIS!

    FOR REAL!”

  • Caturday funnies

  • Merry Christmas Baby

    Merry Christmas Baby

    Annette Rochelle Aben's avatarAnnette Rochelle Aben

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  • Jingle all the way

    bluebird of bitterness's avatarbluebird of bitterness

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  • MY PERSONAL READ-A-THON

    7:00 a.m. Showered, shampooed, and ready to don my official T-shirt for this perfect Read-A-Thon weather:

    A friend at Jack n’ Jill in Alvin made this T-shirt for me.

    As for snacks, there’s pumpkin pie left from Thanksgiving.

    First three hours:

    “Devotional” from

    Listened to audiobook Lord Jim

    Although the narrator is very good, the subject is so dry that by the second hour, I changed to a book.

    This book just gets better as it goes along.

    At the end of the third hour, I took a break and read the Sunday edition of The Houston Chronicle. Reading it from cover to cover on Sunday afternoons is a personal tradition.

    I fixed a huge chef salad for lunch with fresh pineapple slices for dessert.

    Back to Lord Jim, and glad I didn’t eat a heavy lunch, for the story went on and on. Sure Jim had a moral dilemma on his hands, but the author agonizes over it as much as Jim does. Finally put this aside for the day.

    Around 1:00 or 1:30 I read and thought about Cleo Wade’s Heart Talk, short memes, quotes, and short prose pieces about “Poetic Wisdom for a Better Life.” I found myself writing down several quotes and copying them in my quote notebook.

    I decided to try the audiobooks on the Cloud Library while I began to clear away Thanksgiving decorations and replace them with Christmas ones. I didn’t get a lot accomplished, but I did enjoy the book I had selected, purely on the basis of color–pink! Pink is the next color in my Celebration of Color Challenge, so I chose:

    I had discovered I really liked memoirs last spring when I required a Memoir Project of my Advanced Writing Students. I read several they had recommended as well as several reviewed by blogging friends.

    After nearly an hour had passed getting into this book, I took out my Kindle and read on the third book of the series about the Dali Lama’s Cat. I made a dent in what I had left to read. I find that I can read several books simultaneously if they are as diverse as the ones I encountered today.

    By then it was time to fix turkey sandwiches for supper, and I got caught up in

    season 2 of Virgin River, watching one and a half episodes before I got back to reading.

    I read two chapters of Cowgirl Smarts

    I made an astounding discovery. The copy of the paperback I have is signed by the author to someone named Roxanne.

    Next I reviewed my notes on Vesper Flights and wrote a draft of a review I will post soon on this blog

    To end the Read-A-Thon, a twelve hour, not twenty-four-hour Read-A-Thon, I went back to Heart Talk to end the evening on an inspirational note.

    Well, I didn’t make 24 hours, but 12 hours helped me make a dent in my TBR, logged in a black-covered book and started a pink-covered book for my Celebration of Color Challenge, and started the first book in The Classic Club challenge sponsored by Readerbuzz.

    I’d call that a successful, most enjoyable day of reading.

  • SATURDAY MORNINGS FOR KIDS

    Thanks to Carla of Carla Loves to Read for the super illustration above. Check out her blog; it’s a winner!

    This morning’s recommendations are aimed at girls, specifically twelve-and- thirteen-year-olds.

    K.L. Going wrote a moving novel, Pieces of Why, in 2015, but it is timely today with its universal narrative and message. Tia’s dad is in prison; she has been told why, but during the story, she finds out her mother has lied to her. Many family mysteries come clear as she digs to find answers, knowing she won’t like what she finds. Only her singing talent saves her from bearing an unbearable burden and eventually heals the rift between her mother and her. It is a moving, empathetic story of a young girl’s difficult life.

    The Summer Before Boys by Nora Raleigh Baskin is the story of two best friends and how, as so often is the case, a boy comes between them. Julia and Eliza are related in a convoluted way, so they tell people they are cousins. More importantly, they are best friends. While Julia’s mother is deployed to Afghanistan, Julia is sent to live with Eliza and her family at Mohawk, a summer hotel and retreat. This is the perfect situation for the girls until a note from Michael, the groomsman at the stable’s son sends Julia a note asking her to meet him at the Lily Pond one evening after dinner. Julia’s preoccupation with Michael is something she attempts to keep hidden from Eliza, but doing this ends in estrangement and a near tragedy. This one will have you holding your breath with fear and anticipation as you read.

    These books are ones I read for my younger blogging friends whom I follow with interest and provide me with entertaining and engaging reading from their blogs as well as teach me about technology by thinking “If they can do it, so can I!” This post is dedicated to them.