Wednesday, October 9, 2013

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge Day 13


 
Describe one underappreciated book EVERYONE should read





Title: Cold Sassy Tree
Author: Olive Ann Burns
Summary: The one thing you can depend on in Cold Sassy, Georgia, is that word gets around - fast.

On July 5, 1906, scandal breaks in the small town of Cold Sassy, Georgia, when the proprietor of the general store, E. Rucker Blakeslee, elopes with Miss Love Simpson. He is barely three weeks a widower, and she is only half his age and a Yankee to boot. As their marriage inspires a whirlwind of local gossip, fourteen-year-old Will Tweedy suddenly finds himself eyewitness to a family scandal, and that’s where his adventures begin.

Cold Sassy Tree is the undeniably entertaining and extraordinarily moving account of small-town Southern life in a bygone era. Brimming with characters who are wise and loony, unimpeachably pious and deliciously irreverent, Olive Ann Burns’s classic bestseller is a timeless, funny, and resplendent treasure. goodreads



I went to high school in South Carolina and in the 10th grade, this was required reading for my AP class. I hated the teacher but loved her for bringing this book to me. In the south, we all read (and revered) To Kill a Mockingbird from a very young age. I love that novel and this one has a lot of the same themes. Cold Sassy Tree replaces Scout with Will Tweedy and follows him through life in GA in the early 1900s. Race, social class, and religion are all addressed and sometimes questioned. Love and the discovery of it is also present throughout the book. The characters are funny and if you have ever been to the South, you'll see that they are very similar to characters you could find wondering down main street today. Not many people have read this book but if you enjoyed Harper Lee's southern novel, I definitely recommend this one. If you read it, let me know what you think!

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