April 11, 2010
Cold Sassy Tree
Category: Colds
- ISBN13: 9780618919710
- Condition: USED – VERY GOOD
- Notes:
Product Description
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.
5 Responses to “Cold Sassy Tree”
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April 11th, 2010 at 10:14 pm
Who can fail to love this wonderful novel, full of warmth, humor, and honesty, of life in a small, turn-of-the-century Georgia town. Told by Will Tweedy, a 14yo child whose Grandpa Rucker forms the spine of the novel. The story begins with the death of Grandpa Rucker’s wife, a saintly woman beloved by all, and there’s a lovely scene of Grandpa asking his grandson to cut all the roses from the garden and help him stick them into burlap sacking to make a blanket of roses under which to bury his wife.
After that touching scene, readers – not to mention family members and townsfolk and church people – are shocked to find Grandpa marrying Miss Love, the town’s young and beautiful milliner less than a month later. And it’s suspected that Miss Love has A Past.
A beautiful coming-of-age story unfolds as Will becomes the confidante of Miss Love and his grandfather, and he learns life-changing lessons about love, life, death, and the meaning of true reverence, and the smallness of some minds.
Wonderful, memorable characters, wonderful life lessons, wonderful set pieces. And absolutely top-notch dialogue.
Rating: 5 / 5
April 12th, 2010 at 12:35 am
… I was required to read this book in school. Being biased against the tedious, coming-of-age novels that always seem to find themselves on my reading list for English class, I immediately labeled Cold Sassy Tree under the “dragging, bland, slow-moving” category. My viewpoints have changed since then. Cold Sassy Tree is a fast-paced, interesting novel about the coming-of-age of a fourteen-year-old boy named Will, who grows up in Cold Sassy, Georgia. A major family conflict sets off the cruel, small-town gossipers of Cold Sassy in the beginning of the book. As the books progresses, several smaller plots take place, which support the theme and thus complicate the story. There are some points in the novel where it seems that Will’s family’s reputation has gone to the dogs. In the end, however, everything works out and Will learns lessons about life, love, and dignity. For the romantic, Cold Sassy Tree covers the acceptnace of so-called “odd couples.” For the religious, Cold Sassy Tree questions theological issues. And for teenage boys also coming of age, Cold Sassy Tree views life from the eyes of a fourteen-year-old (as well as comments on the opposite sex).
Rating: 4 / 5
April 12th, 2010 at 1:40 am
I love a good novel and I’m glad our bookclub chose this one. It’s a humorous and touching story about life in the south.
I recommend it as much as I would “To Kill A Mockingbird”.
Rating: 5 / 5
April 12th, 2010 at 4:26 am
Cold Sassy Tree, a novel written by Olive Ann Burns, is a very realistic and easy to read book. The characters are very real and entertaining in their everyday life. I liked this book because you feel like you are right there listing to the author tell you about the life of the main character. Also this story is easy to read and follow. There is never a dull moment and every chapter is filled with excitement and adventure. The story takes place on a farm where a young boy is forced to deal with his grandfather who does not follow the normal way of life that the other people in Cold Sassy do. As he grows older the boy learns that he is more like his grandfather than he thought. This boy now must make the decision to follow in the family business, or like his grandfather, follow a different path of life from those people in Cold Sassy. This book is filled with laughs and good times. The ending has an exciting unexpected twist that will leave the reader wanting to read the sequel, Leaving Cold Sassy.
Rating: 4 / 5
April 12th, 2010 at 6:08 am
For anyone who read books like To Kill a Mockingbird, or The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and enjoyed them, I would suggest reading the national bestseller Cold Sassy Tree. This novel takes place in Cold Sassy, Goergia, in 1906. The town is slow-moving, and prejudice like Maycomb County in To Kill a Mockingbird. The story unfolds as Will Tweedy’s, the main character,beloved grandmother dies. Scandal errupts when, only three weeks later, Will’s granfather elopes with Miss love Simpson. The town cannot believe that he has married a “yankee” just after his wife’s death. The major conflict of the story is between Miss Simpson and Will’s family and town as to whether or not they can accept her taking grandma’s place. But the important, underlying conflict of this book is if granpa can move on with his life, find love again, and find someway to convince the people of the town that Miss Love Simpson isn’t the cold-hearted person they think she is. This book is seen through the eyes of Will Tweedy, a 14 year old boy growing up in a southern town, so, although the words are simple, there is a deeper message about love, death, feelings, and morals. I also learned a lot about southern life through this book. All in all, Cold Sassy Tree was a great book that I would reccommend to anyone. It discussed how much death can change a life forever. Read it! I guarantee you’ll enjoy it.
Rating: 3 / 5