#0055A Cold Sassy Tree - Olive Ann Burns

This is me branching out again. I think I have mentioned before that I do not like "Southern" books because it takes me a long time to figure out the accents. Is it kind of ironic because I have this southern accent? Although, I do know people who have this bad of a southern draw, but why is it so hard to read?

Anyway, if I look past the accents, I enjoyed this book. The book is through the eyes of the 12ish year old boy who lives in the town Cold Sassy. His grandmother dies at the beginning. His grandfather holds a family meeting, three weeks later, that he's getting remarried and it's to a woman that is half his age. The story is just about lots of gossip and hilarious situations that happen to this family. I was laughing out loud a couple of times (and you know that's a good thing when that doesn't happen often when I read). The setting is back in the day where automobiles are very new and women are only good for cooking, cleaning, and having babies. Being a slight feminist, I can look past that because there was a time where that was, but it was quite interesting how much a hold women had on their men in this book, so I'm not offended at all. 4.5 stars I wouldn't recommend this book to everyone, but I liked it enough to where I feel I could give it such a high score.
Anyway, I'm truckin' along with my goal now, and my goal within a goal of reading 52 books this year. So, this thing should be added to weekly, but we'll see. I get behind sometimes.

#0054A Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons - Bill Watterson

I have to admit that I have never read any of Calvin and Hobbes comics. I have no idea why, but that is not true anymore. OMG So so so so cute. I loved every bit of this collection. Watterson does an amazing job at knowing how a little boy really thinks. Their imaginations are so convincing that it's real to them and girls are extra yucky. I love how Hobbes is just a regular stuffed animal to everyone except for young Calvin. He's a huge tiger that can rip you apart, but also he's Calvin's best friend and he's just so darn funny. And I swear I'm reading "real" books too. I was literally reading 3 books at once and I need a break from such seriousness and this really pulled me through. I think I only give 5 stars when I would recommend the book to almost anyone. This is one of those. 5 stars

#0053A Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

This was the first the first book that was purchased on my Kindle :3

I originally wanted to read this one just so I could compare it to the book 1984 (which I have read many years ago. I can't even remember when). They both have similarities when it comes to the future. Brave New World is more so a kind of "utopia" while 1984 seemed more of a dark future. Pain vs Pleasure is the biggest difference, but they are on the same lines.

It's disturbing in a way and even though everyone is more or less "happy" in the book, it's not real happiness. I think they are more feeling content than anything. I feel more sorry for Bernard, who is apart of this "utopia" and can feel that something that is not right than John "Savage" who is outside of this community and kind of tries to join? I think that is what he was trying to do. John already knew what real happiness was and even though his life was not the best in the world he still had that freedom that no one else did.

I could not live how they did. First of all, awful. Growing people and making some of them smarter than others just to do certain jobs, but brainwashing them into thinking that they are glad that they are apart of this particular part of the community. No one second guesses, they just do what they are told and think what they are told to think. Of course, they don't know any better which is extremely sad. 4 stars though

#0051- 52A Scott Pilgrim - Bryan Lee O'Malley

I'm reading the series, and I don't feel like going through and discussing each book at the moment because I go through them so fast. But reading graphic novels will not be a regular thing so I feel like I can count them. So far, I'm loving the series. O'Malley is doing a great job with adding little things throughout the novels that you wouldn't normally look at and it's just plain funny and not to mention nerdy. So far, so good.

#0050A Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

I got a Kindle for Christmas and I downloaded a few "free" books from Amazon just so I could get the feel for this new shiny toy. I've seen both movies and have heard of the tale, but never actually read the real thing.

I had no clue what was in store. I fell in love with Carroll's writing. I love the way he twists things in conversations and at times it is confusing, but it was quite humorous. There were, of course, more characters that were left out of movies and I had a great time reading this book. I am sad that I had to watch the movies first (well I think I saw one before I was able to read? It came out in 1951 haha) All I could see what Johnny Depp's character as the Mad Hatter. That's not necessarily bad, but I like making up what I think the characters look like. Although this is not the fault of Lewis Carroll. 4.5 stars

#0049 Island of the Blue Dolphin - Scott O'Dell

I ventured back into my middle school days and picked up this book again. Ever since I read this book, I knew I had picked out a name that I would have named a little boy (if I ever had a kid). BUT after rereading it, my memory did not serve me well. For some reason I thought it went into detail about the dolphins and how she had a relationship with them. This was NOT the case. There are no relationships with dolphins in this book and I am completely confused where I got that false memory.

Anyway, here's to another child's novel. Easy enough for a middle schooler to read and there is a few action sequences, but it's mostly a book on survival. The way that the girl was brought up had no problem finding food, building shelter, and defeating the wild dogs that came and killed her brother. The book just kind of ends with her sort of being rescued? You don't really find out what happens to her or if those people that take her away are really "good" people. You have to let you imagination run with what you think happens. 4 stars Mostly a recommendation for kids. It's not the best survival book I've read, but it's nice that a little girl is the main character when it comes to survival. So, yay for girl power!