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.”

  • FIRST LINE FRIDAYS

    Hosted by Hoarding Books, First Line Fridays invites you to copy the first line of a book you are reading, or have read, to see if it would catch a reader’s interest. My firstliner today is from Connie Willis’s To Say Nothing of the Dog, which has been compared to John Irving’s The Water Method and A Confederacy of Dunces. 

    “There were five of us–Carruthers and the new recruit and myself, and Mr.Spivens and the Verger. It was late afternoon on November fifteenth, and we were in what was left of Coventry Chapel, looking for the bishop’s bird stump.”

    I’ve only read to page four, so, NO, I have no idea what a bird stump is. A bird bath, perhaps? I intend to read about these men digging through the rubble of a bombed out church and find out.

  • MORE BOOKS ABOUT BOOKS

    What better than a book set in a small library n a small town, whose main character is a librarian? The Library of Lost and Found, a 2019 novel by Phaedra Patrick, her debut novel, is, as critics claim, “Eccentric, charming and wise.” The “local” librarian, Martha Storm has lost her chance at finding true love since she cared for her elderly parents (while working at the town library) until their deaths, and until she is firmly established as everyone’s favorite “old maid”. Everyone agrees she is the person to ask if you need help or a favor, for she has “all the time in the world” and “nothing better to do.” Martha still lives in her parents’ home, which looks like something out of a hoarder’s nightmare because she does not have the time or energy to go through her parents’ things; plus, her living and dining room are cluttered with “projects” she has taken on for other people: pants to hem for her sister’s son since the sister doesn’t have time, a paper mâché dragon’s head to repair for the theater department of the local high school, and on and on.

    Actually, this is not just the story of things that get lost in Martha’s house, but of how she has lost herself and finds herself, as well as a second chance at love. Library has been called “…a hymn to books and how they can bring love even miracles into your life.” And they do just that in Martha’s life. The thing I like best about Martha’s development and reformation is how she “writes her own happy ending.” I highly recommend The Library of Lost and Found.

  • WWW Wednesday

    Several bloggers I follow participate in WWW Wednesdays which answer the questions:

    WHAT are you reading currently?

    WHAT have you just finished?

    WHAT are you looking forward to reading soon?

    city of g.jpg

    This is what I have just started reading and am enjoying immensely. I am not reading it for a specific challenge, nor is it a book club selection, but a novel by the author of Eat, Pray, Love was tempting enough for me to purchase it. So far, I consider it money well spent.

    shopping-1This YA novel is one I recently finished as letter “A” (for the author, Avery) of my Alphabet Soup 2020 Challenge, author edition. I recently reviewed it on PWR.

    A book I am looking forward to reading is Miles Moreland’s A Walk Across France . I don’t know where t came from, but there it sat on my TBR shelf, and one of my goals for 2020 s to clear, or at least make a dent in, my TBR shelves. When I will get to this promising memoir, is anyone’s guess.

    WHAT are you currently reading? What have you recently finished? What are you looking forward to reading? Give us your answers in the reply box below.

  • 2020’s First Book Read

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    This is the first book I read in 2020, beginning it on New Year’s Day.  I chose it because one goal I have for 2020 is to deplete my TBR shelves. Sanchez’s novel has been sitting on a TBR shelf since it was chosen as the “required read” of all freshmen at UHCL, where I teach, a year or so ago. It is both humorous and heart-warming, plus according to students who read it, authentic.

    Julia, the younger sister can not live up to her parents’ expeditions for her to be like Olga, her perfect older sister. When the novel opens, Olga has been killed in a horrible accident, and the family is unraveling in the wake of the tragedy.  Lorena, Julia’s best friend does her best to bring Olga out of her grief and anger at her parents’ demands, but Julia sinks lower and lower into depression and begins to find out mysterious things about Olga’s life. Maybe Olga was not so perfect after all. Maybe Julia will never achieve her dream of gong to college and becoming a writer. The Latino culture and the family’s issues and relationships provide good reading for anyone interested in an engaging story.

  • BOOKS ABOUT BOOKS 2020 Version

    In 2018 and 2019, I read many books about bookstores, libraries, and books in general.  I enjoyed this so much I am going to continue in 2020 to read “books about books.” One of these I have read since New Year’s Day is Goodnight June by Sarah Rio. Yes, it is based on the children’s classic, Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. This novel is based on Jio’s “take” on how the children’s classic may have come to be. The protagonist, June Anderson, librarian, inherits her Great Aunt Ruby’s bookstore which specializes in children’s books. June discovers letters written by her Aunt Ruby to Margaret Wise Brown written in the 40s that are the key to family secrets and will unlock a change in June’s character that will keep the reader cheering for the altruistic librarian. A touch of romance rounds out this author’s engaging tale and provides a “darned good read.”

  • SATURDAY MORNING FOR KIDS ON SATURDAY EVENING

    Once again I am late posting this traditional Saturday morning post. My day was filled with rain which led to reading (nothing better than coffee and a good book on a rainy day) and a lunch visit with a student from last semester to check over her personal essay for a psychology graduate  program application.  Fortunately, she is a good writer, and it was a simple job of proofreading.  Our visit was fun, and this is definitely a young woman I will make an effort to keep in touch with.

    Today’s recommendation is for several middle school level fiction choices that I read for the Cybil’s judging that deserve at least a mention of excellent reads for this age group.

    The first, How High the Moon by Karyn Parsons is a heart-tugging story of a young girl in the Jm Crow South who pays a visit to  New York to meet family she has never known. The difference between the two environments and the people who live in them is highlighted, and the girl learns answers to family secrets which cause her to learn about herself.

    Tina Athaide’s Orange for the Sunsets also deals with family secrets for an Indian girl and an African boy who are best friends. So many books nominated for this award dealt with diversity, the theme for this year, and so many portrayed over-protective parents who do their kids a disservice by assuming they are not mature enough to handle “the truth-”  things in their own pasts which become big “secrets” that change the kids’ lives in massive ways when the truth is finally revealed. Most of the kid-protagonists feel by the ends of the books that, “Honesty is the best policy.”

    To Night Owl from Dogfsh by Holly Goldberg is an epistolary tale, one told in the form of letters, or in this case emails. It is cleverly formatted as such, and the opening email is from one boy who contacts another, stating that the two boys fathers are lovers. The boy on the receiving end of this message has no idea his father is gay, much less contemplating moving in with his partner, the boy who initiated the conversation’s father. It is witty, touching and problematic in family relationships, all in one great read.

    Paula Chase’s Dough Boys is about boys who like to bake well enough and do so well enough that they decide to open a business. Also funny and warm, the overarching theme is “Friendship Over All.”

    These were just a few books  read as a Cybils First Round Reader that deserve at least a mention on Saturday Morning for Kids, middle grades edition.

  • THE CROSSROADS OF SHOULD AND MUST by Elle Luna: A Review

    I am hoping to read at least one non-ficton book a month, and I have  just finished January’s offering. It is a colorful book full of quotes, memes, text and sound advice.

    The book’s premise is that there are two paths in life: Should and Must. Every day we arrive at the crossroads of these two and can choose which one we take–the things others expect of us, the should; and the must, as we find and follow our passion. Luna offers her own experiences and offers help in traveling life’s journey.

    I copied many of the quotes in my quotes notebook and throughly enjoyed Luna’s message as I rethought and reflected on my own path I have chosen.

  • MY LFE WITH BOB by Pamela Paul: A Review

    This 2017 publication represents my favorite genre, Books about Books. Bob is not tall, dark and handsome; in fact, Bob is not even a man. BOB stands for Book of Books, a “bound record of everything [the author] has read or didn’t quite finish since the summer of 1988, my junior year of high school.” Each chapter revolves around the title of a book that coordinates with a period n the author’s life.  I once read a book that revolved around fashions, which declared that women might forget names and dates of certain events n their lives, but they will always remember what they were wearing. This author catalogs periods and events in her life by what she was reading at the time.

    The introduction states, “Bob offers immediate access to where I’ve been psychologically and geographically at any given moment in my life… Each entry conjures a memory that might otherwise have gotten lost or blurred with time.” The first book remembered is  Brave New World, read in high school, and continues from there. Books place the author in Paris, Thailand, and many places around the world, and the reader is given a glimpse of the author’s life through her reactions to the books she reads.

    For me, this was a fun read that satisfied my inner book-nerd and allowed me to enjoy a memoir at its most creative form.  I give this one five stars our of five stars.

  • THE CHRISTIAN ATHEST by Craig Groeschel: A Revew

    Yes, the title sounds like an oxymoron, but it is really more of an exercise in finishing sentences. The subtitle is, “Believing in God But Living as if He Doesn’t Exist.” This “life- changing read” includes chapter  titles like:

    When You Believe in God, but…

    …don’t think He’s fair.

    …still worry all the time.

    …pursue happiness at any cost.

    …trust more in money.

    …don’t share your faith.

    …not in His church.

    This is a convicting read from a self-proclaimed recovering Christian atheist. The book attempts to help the reader move “toward an authentic God-honoring life.” Its relevance to current times and society makes it a very useful read to those hoping to grow their Christian walk.

  • SOME BOOKS I HOPE TO READ IN 2020

    Rae Longest's avatarLiteracy and Me

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