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.”

  • THE ALPHABET SOUP CHALLENGE: PART ONE

    ALPHABET-SOUP-2020-BE-820

    The 2019 Alphabet Soup challenge has come to an end. Actually, I finished a month ago but was so busy with Cybils that I am just now posting my results. Here are the alphabetized book titles I read during 2019 for this challenge:

    All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda.  This mystery/thriller has a very surprising ending and was a most enjoyable who dun it. Although the writer was a well-known one in mystery circles, she was new to me, and I am putting her name on my TBR list. I had a copy that some kind donor left in my Little Free Library. I put it back, and in one day it was gone again.

    B The Beekeeper’s Daughter by Santa Montefione.  There are several books by this title, but I was lucky enough to find this mystery/romance, “darned good read” at my local library.

    Coming Home was a “find” in my church library. Themed around the Prodigal Son parable in the New Testament, it was a challenge to draw closer to God and return home to a Loving Father who is waiting with open arms.

    D The Distant Hours introduced me to author Kate Morton and to one of the most enjoyable novels I’d read in a long time. It had something for everyone: dark, gloomy castles, British humor, memorable characters, and even a bog monster whose appearance unreeled a family mystery.

    Eherald City by Jennifer Egan was a switch to the short story in a collection a friend grave me for Christmas. The stories were set in New York City, thus the title. This was a very readable title by the author of Manhattan Beach, Egan’s novel I interrupted my challenge to read.

    F The Fortelling by Alice Hoffman. This lovely, with just the right touch of the supernatural, YA novel is by one of my favorite authors, and was one of my favorite reads in the entire challenge.

    Give a Boy a Gun by Todd Strasser was a left-turn in my reading, provided by a donation to my LFL. It was a treatise on gun control, written in the form of a novel, a highly effective, very persuasive “what if” from the point of view of a young, mass shooter.

    Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson was a choice I bought from Half Price Books and recommended it to my book club. They felt it was strange and depressing, and a good friend and I got into a spirited discussion about the ending at the meeting. It is a good piece of contemporary literature, and that, in itself, makes the novel worth reading.

    I Thought I Was the Only One (But I Wasn’t) by Brene Brown took me into the genre of non-fiction, something I don’t read enough of, and an introduction to this Houston-based professor and writer. It was an excellent read which led to several Ted Talks by Brown on shaming and other timely topics for self improvement and self-love.

    Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘For I Diiie was a collection of poetry by the wonderful Maya Angelou, one of my favorite poets since undergrad days. She did not disappoint.

    Kiss Her Goodbye by Wendy Cross, whom I’d read before,  was another murder-mystery that appeared in my LFL and provided a sccratch-your-head who dun it that gave me a break in my serious reading. I needed a quick page-turner and found it in this novel.

    L The Last Apprentice Book II of the series, titled “Curse of the Bane” by Joseph Delaney read well as a stand-alone YA novel, thanks to the author giving just enough background from the first novel. There was plenty of witchcraft, white magic and supernatural to keep the book interesting.

  • A Holiday Toast

    A Holiday Toast

  • TUESDAY TEASER

    TUESDAY TEASER, hosted by The Purple Booker asks participants to copy a couple of lines from a current read at random, give the title and author, and post it on their blog (or in the Reply area below if you do not have a blog.) I am always interested in what you are reading, and I often add to my TBR list to be looked into.

    Here is my TT for Tuesday, December 17,2019. It is from Jo Knowles’ Where the Heart Is:

    “Ivy peeks her head through my bedroom door. ‘Did .  you hear that?’ she asks.

    ‘The sound, not the words,’ I say.

    ‘They’re fighting about money again.’

    ‘What else is new?’ I asked .

    ‘I hate it,’she says.

    ‘They’re just stressed–don’t worry. They still love each other.’

    ‘They sure don’t s sound like it,’ she says. They sound like they hate each other.’”

    This conversation could take place in the bedroom of any pair of sisters in the USA, unfortunately enough. How kids cope with quarreling, financially-stressed-out parents is only one of the issues this Cybils book contender presents. So far, ALL of the books I have read which target students in grades 5-8 have dealt with relevant issues of kids today. All of these books have been recommended by school librarians, who wish to recognize good writing and helpful advice on the part of the authors competing. I have felt so honored to be a first level reader and help pick the five to seven finalists for the Cybils awards.Cybils Logo 2018 - Master

  • PARTICIPATING IN SUNDAY SALON

    Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week's Salon get together--at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones--and blog about their reading. And comment on one another's blogs. Bloggers are w.pngTaking a page from Deb Nance at Readerbuzz and participating in The Sunday Salon by answering: What did you read this past week?  What are you currently reading? What bookish things did you do? What else did you do this week?

    I finished The Book of Joyshopping.jpeg

    I am currently reading 81lCL0QrdbL._AC_UY436_QL65_ML3_.jpg The Dutch House

    I enjoyed many things bookish, including putting a sign (with rhinestones yet!) on my LFL that read, “GIVE A BOOK FOR CHRISTMAS” in green, SHOP HERE” “The Price is Right” in black, and “FREE” in bright red. I filled the LFL with mint-condition books I’d been saving since last Christmas–baby books, learning-to-read-books, kid’s books, YA books and adult books–all centered around the Christmas season. The sign has been up for three days, and many of the books have disappeared, hopefully to a good home.

    Cybils Logo 2018 - Master  I have spent a great deal of time this week reading Cybils books as a first round reader. Although this has been one of the most time-consuming projects I’ve taken on this year, it has been one of the most fulfilling and definitely the most fun!

    This has been a busy week altogether. Monday brought errands and an AAUW party that evening; Tuesday the Four Friends group ate at Chili’s together; I made a quick trip to the university to get paperwork signed and things set up for the next semester on Wednesday, then hurried home to have a student over for lunch (She brought the lunch–my kind of guest!), and we finished up with Prayer Meeting at church that evening. It was a full, full day. I drove to a neighboring city and met a dear friend for lunch at a fabulous Mexican restaurant on Thursday, then had another student accompany us to a local restaurant for pizza and jazz–yes, in ‘lil ole’ Alvin. A friend was playing trumpet in the ensemble. While we were there, we were invited to a Christmas Cantata at a friend’s church where Danny, our trumpet-playing friend and his son would be featured in one anthem.

    When I finally reached the weekend, Friday, I PUT MY GRADES ON LINE! I’m a free woman until the day after MLK day in January when the spring semester begins. Saturday brought my favorite graduation Starr (Estrella) to my house to take pictures in her cap and gown, and later I had scheduled an early supper with a former student from 2009. Finally, the week wrapped up when we took yet another former student to the Cantata and out to lunch at a Mexican Restaurant he recommended today. Whew! As you can see, we ate well, worked hard and played hard as well. Christmas is sneaking up on me, and although I have fully decorated, I have to think about food and final gifts. Thank goodness Christmas only comes once a year!

     

  • SATURDAY MORNING FOR KIDS

    Reading books for middle schoolers has certainly brought some good books my way. One good read is a book of short stories that all have a central theme: walking home from school. A 2019 publication by author Jason Reynolds, Look Both Ways, locates its stories in a ten block area  where the same kids from the same school pass the same crossing guard every school day. Interestingly enough, a metaphor or motif reoccurs in several children’s stories or conversations: a school bus falling from the sky.  It made me think of the Magic School Bus series covers, for often the Magic School Bus is up in the clouds.

    The problems and issues these middle schoolers face daily are the same any middle schoolers face: self-esteem issues, bullying, divorcing parents, anxiety issues, weight problems, being shamed for receiving free lunches, and the list goes on. Some stories are “wickedly funny,” especially the dialog. Others tug at the heartstrings and even generate misty eyes. All are very readable, and the book is definitely a good fit for middle schoolers, for they can pick up and put down the book, celebrating each story individually, yet take away a sense of community of youngsters just like themselves.

    .Cybils Logo 2018 - Master

  • THE GREAT ALONE by Kristin Hannah: A Review

    I received this book as a gift from a cousin/book buddy after she had read and enjoyed it. I read it some time back, but I’m just getting around to reviewing it since I have been so tied up with Cybils books lately. The Washington Post describes it as an “epic story” and it is one where the place/setting seems to be an important “character in the book.” Alaska–The Great Alone with its broad expanses of treacherous ice and snow and tiny towns hanging on for dear life to the icy crags of the mountains takes place in 1974. The Albright family, Cora, the mother: Ernt;  the father; and Leni, who at the opening is only thirteen and is their only child is “living off the grid.” In my mind’s eye I saw them as hippies, challenging a “place of incomparable beauty ands danger.” Ernt moves his family to a dilapidated house inherited from a relative in Alaska. No one bothers them, no one asks them questions, no one asks anything of them, but the community offers support and help that Ernt has trouble accepting. It is a community of “strong men and even stronger women.” The state and its people can be described by one word, “resilience.”

    This is a story of fast action and dramatic scenes, that are as well-drawn as are the terrific characters. Leni, the responsible one, contrasted to her free spirited parents, never had a childhood. Ernt is an abuser who always promises things will be different, but there is always a “next time” that follows. Cora is weak, entrapped by the fierce, passionate love she and Ernt share.

    This is a novel full of heartbreak and a tugging at the reader’s emotions.  It is a darned good read!

  • TUESDAY TEASER

    Hosted by the Purple Booker, this “game” allows us to tease each other into extending our already l-o-n-g TBR Lists. Give your current read’s title and author and then copy a couple of sentences at random. Do not copy something that would spoil your book for another reader .

    My Tuesday Teaser for this week is from a middle grades book, Lucy Strange’s Our Castle by the Sea:

    “There was a very odd moment of calm. The moon was visible–large and low–and its pale light made the parachute into a ghost. The sounds were slower, the skies were silent, and the parachute floated down through the smoke, the silver sea.”

    This book’s poetic style is worth reading for the words alone. But it is also a “haunting war time tale” concerning the bravery of an 11 year old girl. It is an amazing read so far.

  • SATURDAY MORNING FOR KIDS ON SUNDAY NIGHT

    Cybils Logo 2018 - MasterI have been so busy reading middle school books as a first round reader for the Cybils awards that I have not have time to share them with you. To remedy this, I offer three excellent reads I came across last week:

    Pie in the Shy by Remi Lai — I am a softie for a good immigrant story, but when it is a story about an immigrant kid, I melt into a little puddle. Jinqwen, whose hobby in his homeland is baking, finds that it helps him cope when he comes to America and struggles with English and making friends in general. Pie is a humorous middle school novel that not only amuses, but touches the heartstrings.

    And talk about tugging at heartstrings, Right as Rain by Lindsey Stoddard does just that. Rain, a young track star, who recently lost her brother in a tragic accident, deals with a mother who stays compulsively busy in order to not deal with things and a father who is clinically depressed. Her family is disintegrating, and there’s little she can do–but run, and run, and run. The one year anniversary of her brother’s death brings the big track meet and a ray of hope for a new beginning.

    Song for a Whale by Lynne Kelly is a beautiful story of Iris, a middle school deaf girl whose empathy for a whale whose song is “different” from all others leads her to take daring chances and reach out to help. This enables her to make some hard decisions that will change her life forever.

    I have been so blessed by this “project.” In my twenty-odd years of teaching 5th through 8th graders, I never felt closer  to this unique demographic than I do after reading these books/novels I have read so far. Although I am totally fulfilled by my teaching assignment at the university, these books make me want to “return to my first love”–middle school

     

  • CHANCES ARE by Richard Russo: A Review

    RussoThis 2019 addition to the wonderful collection of Richard Russo’s books could be categorized as a mystery or love story, but neither category would be “traditional.” The mystery is a cold case that three characters who were/are in love with the same woman are trying to solve. Lincoln, a commercial real estate broker from Las Vegas, meets up with Mickey, a has-been musician and a sound engineer from Cape Cod, and Teddy, a small-press publisher from Syracuse. The three men are 66 years old when the story opens, and each reflects back on their days as “hashers” (kitchen help provided by scholarship students) in a girl’s sorority house at tiny Minerva College. At the time, they had been best friends, but they had not been in contact with each other since graduation weekend.

    Flashing back, It is the time of the Vietnam War, and the pivotal experience the three shared was on December 1, 1969, when they watched on an old black and white TV in the sorority house’s kitchen as birthdates were drawn, and they learned what their fates would be.

    A fourth character, Jacey, who was engaged to a “straight-arrow fiancee” but was best friends with the men, is the woman who completed the “All for one, and one for all” group.  None of the men have heard from her or even of her since graduation weekend. Is she still alive? Did she come to a bad end? Was she murdered? Did one of the three do it?

    The book is described on the cover as “an elegy for a generation.” I agree with the reviewer who lauds “Russo’s trademark comedy and humanity” because these four were characters I came to care about and would love to follow into a sequel.

  • TUESDAY TEASER

    Tuesday  is not officially over here for another two hours and eight minutes, so here is my Tuesday Teaser for December 3, 2019:

    “April 21, 1911   Terrell Mott rode to the Alamo in a Buick touring car, creeping along behind a procession of horse-drawn victorias, and tallyhos. Like the carriages, the gasoline car had been covered with flowers, barely leaving space on the door panels for a sign signifying the white-whiskered relic who rode inside…”

    Thus opens Stephen Harrigan’s The Gates of the Alamo, “an imagined novel about the siege and fall of the Alamo in 1836, an event that formed the consciousness of Texas and that resonates through American history.”

    If you would like to share, copy a few lines of a book you’re currently reading in the Reply/Comments box below. Be sure to mention title and author but no spoilers, please. This opportunity was started by The Purple Booker and has the participation of several of my blogging friends.